EN
The purpose of the article was to identify success factors of small family businesses and to answer the question whether the functioning of a family business differs significantly from the functioning of a non-family one. Theoretical deliberations on the sources of success of small entities were confronted with the results of the survey conducted among 103 small enterprises from the Podlaskie Province. The conclusions from the analysis of the collected research material highlight the characteristics of family business against non family ones of similar size and business profile.