Have you ever wondered why with over 28 million small businesses in operation in the United States many do not survive past the first five years? As a fellow small business owner (and professor of business administration) trying to compete in the global economy, I became interested in understanding the causes why many small businesses failed.

The main reason was to avoid the same mistakes made by others before me. This question consumed me to the point that I decided to go back to school and earn a doctorate degree in business to hopefully understand the answer. Through my studies, I began to suspect that the main cause of failure for small businesses was the lack of understanding between the roles of management and leadership. I soon became very frustrated when I could not find research studies that showed the direct link between the necessary skills needed for small business survival.

With little information or resources to rely on, I knew that if I wanted the answers I would have to conduct my own research study to gain the necessary insight into this ongoing problem that has plagued over 50 percent of today's small business workforce. For two years, I personally studied small businesses in the global economy. After completing a comprehensive study, I was able to finally document actual information that proved that management and leadership skills had a direct effect of small business survival. Once I understood the effects that management and leadership skills had on small businesses, I wanted to apply my research to helping small business owners improve their business.

I thought about the struggles and how I could not find any books or resources that provided a “one-stop shop” with detailed information on how to succeed in small business management and leadership. All I had available was a lot of business books and models that were created for large corporations; I had to modify bits and pieces from several resources to hopefully fit my needs. This process was very time-consuming and did not give me a good sense of how everything fit together to help me succeed. In fact, everything I found I experienced through starting my own small business, and I wanted to create a guide that provided a quick resource for all small businesses.