Starting a business journey for most companies is a step they fail. The survival rate of companies in the first five years of operation in the European Union averages about 20%, and in Croatia even less, about 18%2. Crisis periods that occur later in the work further endanger the survival of the company and often cause the company to shut down. The objectives of this paper are to question the key factors that can increase the resilience of companies in regular, especially in times of crisis and find ways to avoid unwanted outcomes of stagnation or closure of business and affect greater business performance. The paper consists of five key parts, an introduction to the topic for easier understanding of the basic concepts of entrepreneurship. The central part discusses the reasons for entering entrepreneurship and the reasons for the decline of the company and highlights the key resources, as fundamental factors of business, which affect the success of the company. The following is a section on the impact of crisis periods on the company's operations, and the specifics of the current crisis caused by the Covid pandemic19 and its impact on the operations of Croatian companies are discussed. This is followed by the results of the field research and finally the discussion and conclusion. The paper reveals that the key ingredients for the survival and resilience of a company are hidden in meaningful management, possession of specific expertise and education of leaders and their employees, but also readiness for further education, acceptance of change and continuous change management. 2 Musulin M., Gregov Z. (2019) “Second Entrepreneurial Chance: Surviving Failure and Starting a Business on Selected Examples”, Entrepreneurship Education, vol9 Nr 1