The growing decline in the survival rate of most small-scale enterprises (SSEs) has remained a source of concern for stakeholders and the absence of an integrative model that explains the process through which resilience drives business survival has made for an unclear relationship. Hence, this article addresses the mediating effect of self-compassion on entrepreneurial resilience and business survival. A dataset of 260 entrepreneurs was analysed with the aid of SmartPLSv3.9. The study found that entrepreneurial resilience and self-compassion significantly affect business survival and self-compassion mediates the link between entrepreneurial resilience and business survival. The article provides an integrated model that accounts for the process through which entrepreneurial resilience influences business survival. Further, the article advances new knowledge on self-compassion by exploring its role in business survival. The study validates the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale and Raes et al.’s (2011) higher-order factor scale of self-compassion.