This study supports the concept that the legal form of small businesses may be a valuable addition to the commonly used measures of age and size as estimators of a firm's stage in its life cycle (the measure of maturity of a small business). A survey of 400 small business owners drawn from a mid-sized Texas city measured owners' perceptions of critical success factors relevant to them. Suggestions for future research are provided for additional confirmation of the incorporation step milestone in a life cycle as a determinant of a firm's perceptions of critical success factors.