This study attempted to investigate what factors affect small business success, while using the financial performance as the criterion. With a 5 year long participant observation on a small company in Taiwan, the re searcher discovered two influential factors:1. the managers' personal traits:-management style-communication skills-profession al experience2. the management strategy of sales including: developing new product, new business, and new planning.As these results were confirmed with findings in different countries, it might provide some comparative considerations for building a worldwide theory on small business success. This study also explored how the policy conflict interferes in small business success.