Introduction and User's Guide

PagesXIII-XV

INTRODUCTION

Amidst the triumphs, turmoils, mergers, acquisitions, and lately the dramatic scandals and collapses of Big Business in America during the early years of the 21st century, small business just keeps on going and going. Thus, the third edition of Encyclopedia of Small Business has been prepared for and is dedicated to the largely silent majority of companies that, together, weave the extremely varied multi-colored fabric of American commercial life. Of the nation's roughly 5.8 million firms with employees, well over 95 percent are classified as small, whether using the official measures published by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) or a simpler metric under which all firms employing fewer than 100 people qualify. To these small companies with employees must be added America's "micros," nearly 19 million businesses that do not have hired help and represent countless individuals and couples in business for themselves—a rapidly growing segment of the business population. Small business is small, but it is everywhere. It is innovative, adaptive, quick on its feet—and, according to the SBA—it creates three out of every four new jobs. Given the vast extent, productivity, ubiquitous presence, and deep integration of this element of commerce in American life, it is appropriate to adapt a phrase from Hollywood and say: "There is no business like small business."

Encyclopedia of Small Business is itself a relative newcomer, no longer a start-up, to be sure, but still energetically changing and growing. The third edition, like the second, features new entries and reflects the rapidly changing environment by intensive updating of its contents. Since the second edition the U.S. has experienced the traumatic events of 9/11, descended into a brief recession in the wake of the terrorist attacks, has seen budget surpluses turn into budget deficits, has seen gas prices spike, has witnessed the bursting of the dot-com boom but has also seen the resilient recovery of electronic commerce—has, indeed, seen many changes in public perception, government policy, securities legislation, economic structures, and in technology. EOSB-3 reflects all these changes. Virtually every entry has had to be revised, many rather extensively, to mirror accurately a dynamically changing economic environment.

EOSB-3, like earlier editions, is intended as a resource for the small business owner, for the would-be entrepreneur, and for students of business...

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