Small rural farm-support agribusinesses (SRFSAs) support farmers by completing on-farm tasks. These tasks have been outsourced to SRFSAs as they are more efficient at completing the task than the farmer. This efficiency is a key leverage factor that the SRFSA owner-manager can use to ensure their business’s survival. The land use in the area surrounding the SRFSA is also a major contributor to business efficiency, structure, service offering and success. SRFSAs face a range of challenges that originate from limitations in labour, markets, infrastructure and business support. Rivalry from within the industry coupled with the need to manage relationships across the community creates further challenges. To survive and thrive SRFSAs need to manage these challenges and develop resilience. Resilience strategies include the management of labour through training and novel approaches to staff acquisition, relationship building with both farmers and the community, marketing initiatives, pricing strategies, technology adoption, and diversification. The most important factor in the survival and success of SRFSAs is the owner-manager and their skillset. The exploration of the literature via a systematic review has allowed the development of a theoretical framework to model the external (the community) and internal (the business) forces that shape the structure and performance of SRFSAs. The external forces are further grouped into the characteristics of the community, and the characteristics of the market. The internal forces are grouped into the characteristics of the business, and the characteristics of the owner.