According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 99.7% of all businesses in the United States are small businesses, defined as those businesses with less than 100 employees.

These are the founder led companies that make up the backbone of our American economy, employing 56.8MM employees and generating approximately half of total U.S. non-farm Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in any given year.  They are the individuals, families, and entrepreneurs who sought to bring goods, services, or innovations to market in a way that capitalized on their specific expertise and provided value for America, across the consumer and enterprise markets. They are confident in their expertise on which they founded their business and they have borne the risk of starting their own company.

However, these business owners, while highly skilled in their respective market niche, very often lack capabilities in the key functional areas critical to managing and growing their business.

What we have seen over the years are business owners overly optimistic about the prospects for their business and their own capabilities in growing it, while most often the reality is that there comes a point at which the capabilities, focus, and even interest level of the owner/founder hit a ceiling and business performance plateaus or very often declines; without key business area expertise, small businesses will not continue on the same trajectory to the next level of growth.

Sections within this Trends Report include:

• Is False Optimism Masking Business Challenges?
• Reasons for Failure
• Active Management Across Functional Business Areas
• Partners in Value Creation
• Foundation Period and Growth Years

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