When is a site a business success?

Is being known enough?

[brendan3eb]

I start attending boarding school this fall, and I was looking through the school's notable alumni list on the web of those who attended the Sesquicentennial reunion. On the alumni list there were several people who are involved with very successful web businesses. Including the co-founder of excite.com. I was just wondering if anyone knows how the site has done as a business success (it seems apparent that the site is a success though, most people know of it).

[briggidere]

a lot of people know of lastminute and look what happened it recently. maybe being known is not enough to be a successful business.

briggidere

[trillianjedi]

I guess "success" is a relative term. For a mom & pop site that might be represented by a turnover of £50k a year.

Excite do have a brand with some recognition (not as powerful as it once was perhaps).

The real measure of success is how that brand is monetised.

I'm not sure of Excite's financial status, but that can probably be found with a little searching...

TJ

[etechsupport]

"Success is a journey not a destination, we never arrive".

[meg8]

I would say either it is making a profit, or is operating within an anticipated loss.

You might start a company knowing that it will not make a profit for the first year, or the first ten years, and so if you have other funds you can go for it anyway. But your losses must always be what the business plan has dictated to you, otherwise you run the risk of spiralling out of control. Unforeseen circumstances and the extent to which an entrpreneur decides to go with it depends on their expeirence and their willingness to take a risk.

All business success, in the long run, is defined by money. That is what a business is. Having a well known brand name might help you to recover quickly from a bad time, but it can also be a liablity. If you create the illusion that you are a success then you might do well attracting investment to build while you grow, but its no substitue for getting money from your customers.

The amount of money that defines success is unique for each business.

There's no point where a business 'is a success' the closest we get is 'doing ok at the moment'. I think that businesses that feel they are a success suddenly fail faster than their owners thought possible.

I guess you need to find out if excite makes money.

[brendan3eb]

thats kind of what I meant by the question, do their CEO's make a few million a year is the question I had in mind, but I didn't want to sound like an ambitious jerk.

thank you for all the responses

[meg8]

You've raised another very interesting point. Lots of failing businesses have CEO's that make millions a year, but the businesses are failing underneath them.

[etechsupport]

"Always remember that your fantasies have to die before your dreams can come true."

[txbakers]

How did I know my web-business was a success?

When I quit my day job, my wife quit her day job, we pay for our own insurance, and have a comfortable bank balance.

The actual numbers are relative.

Not to say that we have more free time - sure our income is up, but I still work practically 18 hours a day just to keep up with the demand. Never worked harder, never been happier.

I'm a success.

[etechsupport]

The secret of success in life, and subsequently of making money, is to enjoy your work. Success is not the key to happiness, the happiness is key to success.

[brendan3eb]

My aspiration is not to make 40 million a year, I was just interested. I would enjoy to live on the northshore of Chicago though.

"I hate those people who love to tell you/Money is the root of all that kills/They have never been poor/They have never had the joy of a welfare Christmas." - Art, Everclear

all this talk about money and enjoying work reminds me of Office Space, hehe.