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The following article was first featured in my regular Forbes column:

As the head of a communications company in Salt Lake City, we’ve seen hundreds of growth companies and thousands of startups. In fact, thanks to the Grow America Springboard™ $1M competition in Utah right now, we’ve seen and reviewed nearly a thousand startups already this year.

Many articles talk about the signs a startup firm will go under. So with props to Martin Zwilling for his recent piece 5 Sure Signs That a Good Startup is Going Bad, I’d like to dedicate my first Forbes column to the signs a budding startup firm will succeed.

Here goes:

1. Has Validated Customers. This is one of the core rules of consummate entrepreneur and fellow Forbes Contributor Alan Hall. Do you know in advance that you have customers who are willing to pay the price you are asking for the product or service you have? Too many good startups fail to sufficiently validate their customer assumptions—or, in the case of internet firms, scale too quickly before validating the initial marketplace and streamlining their costs. A successful startup scales its growth on the basis of proven, steady and paying customers (especially where residual/subscription income is involved). Steady acquisition is also a very good sign, as opposed to high and low fits and starts.

2. Shows a Strategic Perspective. This is the direct opposite of a company that is operating in panic mode, or exhibiting survival thinking. A startup actively planning and moving towards national and global expansion; that has a solid one- and five-year agenda and is making steady and measurable strides to meet the critical milestones is poised to succeed…

To read the remainders of this article please visit my Forbes column.