Seeing the current economic situation in the Republic of Croatia and the importance of the development of the economy, but also its slow and poor development in the Republic of Croatia, the author decided to research success and failure factors that lead to successful or unsuccessful business ventures. The purpose of the paper and research was to examine and analyze different success factors of business ventures. The data were collected through the analysis of 26 interviews with 10 award-winning domestic entrepreneurs, but also through the analysis of web-content and manuals that provide advice and recommendations for new entrepreneurs. The aim of the research was to analyze the reasons for their success or failure based on those data, and to give recommendations for starting new business ventures to beginner entrepreneurs based on those useful findings. The results of the research show that the factors of success emphasised by the successful entrepreneurs, which were based on their experience as well as the analysis of the available web content, coincide with the findings provided in the specialized and scientific literature available. Based on those results, the author created a checklist for reviewing the success factors of a business venture (1) and a checklist of the things the beginner entrepreneur has to consider in order to avoid mistakes and become successful (2), but also provided recommendations for entering business for beginner entrepreneurs (3). The results of this research can help new entrepreneurs in reviewing their baselines for starting a business venture, and providing them with recommendations for taking their business potential to the next level, so they would eventually get additional positive incentives for turning their ideas into business ventures. Moreover, the author gave recommendations for further research based on some additional topics that came up during the writing of this paper.