by Margaret Heffernan - Thursday, 6th September 2007 -

The mythology of fast-growth companies is that you start with a brilliant idea, execute according to plan and turn up on the Hot 100.

The reality is utterly different. Building a company is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

I think Woody Allen was almost right that 80 per cent of success is just turning up. But for those who do show up – for the entrepreneurs – 95 per cent of success is just keeping going.

“Staying power is the only way we’ve made it,” says Karla Diehl. “Sure, we make mistakes, but we keep going. There’s nothing else to do. And with each mistake, you know more – so you keep going because now you know more.”

When Karla and Matt Diehl launched Edison Automation, it sold equipment to construction and design companies.

As they grew the business, they kept improvising, figuring out where they added value, how they could distinguish themselves. Edison Automation didn’t come into the world fully fledged; its owners had to discover what it would be when – if – it grew up.

“We grew over time,” recalls Karla. “It took us eight to ten years to get momentum, build a reputation and learn how to deliver without losing money.

"Then, in 2001, we entered the utilities market. This is a huge market, but it didn’t have many automation experts. And by then, this is what we were.” It’s what they still are today.

“What has made us successful is understanding the value we add and how to execute,” Karla says. “It’s not revolutionary, it’s not changing the world. Anyone can do it if you have the persistence.”

Edison Automation now have five offices and 60 employees, and are struggling to manage explosive growth.

Less hi–tech but just as determined is Farrington’s Farm Shop. Like all farms, it’s had to diversify to stay in business – so first the Jefferies opened a bed and breakfast. Then they started a vegetable stand. Then they closed the B&B, closed the vegetable stand and opened a proper farm shop – the month that foot and mouth struck.

“Our timing could not have been worse!” laughs Andy Jefferies. “No-one was going anywhere – least of all to a farm. But you have to keep believing. If you believed yesterday, then you have to believe today. Not that you have all the answers – but that you will find the answers. Eventually!”

Even when a business starts to become highly successful – as both Edison and Farrington’s have – life doesn’t get any easier.

“You get over a hump – and then there are new challenges,” says Karla Diehl. “Management team struggles. Processes that were less important when you were smaller

"People who can’t grow, who just can’t make the transition to the bigger company you’ve become. It’s like mountains beyond mountains. I keep thinking it will settle down!”

But of course dynamic businesses don’t settle down. Success means that the business actually gets harder. There are more people to manage, more products to keep track of, more customers to remember.

Success doesn’t bring with it any guarantees. You may know more as you grow but mistakes still happen.

“There’s that moment you put the key in the door and you think ‘maybe this isn’t going to work out after all,’” recalls Eileen Fisher.

Today, her eponymous company’s clothes are hanging in Harrods, but her business hasn’t always looked so assured. Every business passes through near-death experiences and Eileen has had her fair share of them.

“We were having trouble with the fabric that was our mainstay. We got a shipment that was inconsistent – better yarn, but it performed differently so all the clothes came out too long.

"People were complaining, they were cancelling orders. And at the time there was a mini crash in the stock market – so it felt like the whole world was crashing down around us.”

That was in 1988. Fisher phoned buyers and told them to send back anything they weren’t happy with. She pleaded with them not to cancel their orders for the next season. She did what all great entrepreneurs do: she just kept moving.

Near-death experiences like this require stamina and moral courage. It is only with hindsight that they appear survivable.

Staying power doesn’t sound exotic or erudite but I’m convinced it lies at the heart of all great business success.

Every business makes mistakes – that’s called learning. It’s how you respond to those mistakes that shows you where, and who, you are. You can never be certain that staying power will be enough to survive – but you always know what will happen without it.