Being a successful business owner means more than knowing one's industry and understanding the basic concepts of leadership, management, or motivation. It means being able to master many areas of business, and knowing how each of these areas relate to and build on each other. It also means understanding how those areas change as a business goes through its inevitable life cycle, and how the owner must be prepared to change with them. The Facts of Business Life is the first book designed to provide readers with the means of achieving the kind of long-term understanding that is the key to true and lasting success. Toward that end, the book covers the seven Facts of Business Life that every successful business owner knows, including: "If You Don't Lead, No One Will Follow," "If You Don't Control It, You Don't Own It," "Protecting Your Company's Assets Should be Your First Priority," "Planning Is About Preparing for the Future, Not Predicting It," "If You Don't Market Your Business, You Won't Have One," "The Marketplace Is a War Zone," and "You Don't Just Have to Know the Business You're In, You Have to Know Business." Devoting one chapter to each Fact, the book explains what it is, what it means, and, most important, how it can help entrepreneurs achieve success and stay away from potentially harmful mistakes. Equally important, each chapter enables readers to not only understand the Facts on their own, but also in terms of how they impact on a business as it passes through each of the five levels of every successful company's existence: "Ownership and Opportunity," "Creating Your Company's DNA," "From Survival to Success," "Maintaining Success," and "Moving On When It's Time to Go." Written by a successful businessman with four decades of ownership experience, and packed with valuable advice, The Facts of Business Life presents every business owner--whether he or she is starting, building, maintaining, or exiting a business--with the key facts that, applied together, can ensure a strong and lasting enterprise.