A business, no matter how big or how small, has many tenets that it must adhere to if it wishes to succeed, ie. remain in business. In my mind, I've boiled them down to three fundamental "strikes". Just like in baseball, it's okay to get behind in the count and take a strike or two, but three strikes and you're out.
Strike 1 - Demand
"the ability and desire to purchase goods and services"
Your product, whether it's a physical widget or an ethereal service, needs to be something that people are willing to pay for. It's called demand. Econ 101 (I was paying attention believe it or not) taught us that without demand, you are doomed. Demand is what you've created to get someone to ask you your price. Of course, you can generate demand. That's called an infomercial. Seriously, those products are a perfect example of this principle. Nobody would "naturally" want hundred dollar electric knife, but when you show me at 2AM that it can cut a piece of bread in half, sign me up. Some organizations are lucky enough (or perseptive enough) to offer products that have a natural demand. And some things are a tougher sell. And some organizations are gifted at creating demand. Many goods and services "win" the first strike, but it's the next one where we'll see.
Strike 2 - Value
"the amount (of money or goods or services) that is considered to be a fair equivalent for something else"
If demand is before someone asks you the price, then this second strike occurs right after. I call it the Value strike. You can generate all the demand in the world and miss at the Value strike. Value is flat out simple: the product is perceived to be worth more than the cost. Perception is the key. Humans have created the "perception" that gold is valuable, so a pound of gold for $10 is a great value. A pound of used kitty litter for $10? No thanks. But they are fundamentally the same: a pound of something. But gold is "worth" more than litter...and therefore a value. That same pound of gold for a million bucks? Not a chance. It's not a value. Truly successful products are the ones that have demand AND have value. And I firmly believe that good value can actually create demand. But then we move on to the last strike...and that's the one that truly separates the haves from the have nots.
Strike 3 - Profit
"the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time"
Having Demand and Value doesn't guarantee success. Ultimately, the true measure of business success is profit. The road is littered with lifeless, smoldering, burned-out hulks of organizations that neglected this simple principal: it's hard to stay in business if you don't make a profit. Selling a product for 85 cents that costs you a dollar is usually a bad business to be in. I know, I know...there are tons of examples to contradict this. The old razors & razor blades theory. Hewlett Packard thrives on the fact that they sell their LaserJet and InkJet printers at or below cost...but they make a ton of Profit on the toner/ink cartridges. But if you go high enough up the chain, somebody at HP is looking at overall expense vs. overall income...and I'm guessing that their boss expects there to be a profit. And any business that doesn't accurately know their overall expense, well they're just plain dumb.