- Privileged access to cheap mining hardware
- Free electricity
Without one of these you'll lose money. Guaranteed.
It's not just about that, there are many other factors involved, the two points you mentioned are indeed very important factors that would help make the mining operation profitable but even with the two combined you are not guaranteed to make a profit, the opposite is also true, someone might buy expensive gear and doesn't have free electricity and still outperforms someone else who does, mining is very, very complicated and that's all I can say about it.