Management and Leadership Skills that Affect Small Business Survival

Jamey M. Long

Description

A look at why many small businesses in the United States do not survive beyond five years

Have you ever wondered why many of the over 28 million small businesses in operation in the United States 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 actual reasons that cause many small businesses to fail. 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% of today’s workforce.

For two years, I studied small businesses in the global economy. After completing a comprehensive study, I was able to finally document actual information that proved the management and leadership skills that affect small business survival. Once I understood the effects of 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 and 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 a how everything fit together to help me succeed.

In fact, everything I found I went through starting my own small business and wanted to create a resource guide that provided a quick resource for all small businesses.

Since there are many different types of small businesses in many different markets, it is easy to understand why there were no specific resources. A resource that looked at the primary basic functions and demonstrated the causal links between management and leadership skills had to be created that could apply to small businesses in the trade sector of the market needed to be created. ‘Management and Leadership Skills That Affect Small Business Survival’ was the outcome.

Acknowledgements; List of Tables; List of Figures; Chapter 1. Introduction to the Study; Chapter 2. Literature Review; Chapter 3. Methodology; Chapter 4. Results; Chapter 5. Discussion; References; Index.

Sujets

• General officer
• General
• Leadership

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 30 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783089512
• Langue: English

Extrait

Management and Leadership Skills That Affect Small Business Survival
Management and Leadership Skills That Affect Small Business Survival
A Resource Guide for Small Businesses Everywhere
Jamey M. Long
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2019
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
© Jamey M. Long 2019
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Long, Jamey M., author.
Title: Management and leadership skills that affect small business survival : a resource guide for small businesses everywhere / Jamey M. Long.
Description: New York, NY: Anthem Press, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019012571 | ISBN 9781783089499 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Small business – Management. | Leadership. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Management. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Leadership. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / General.
Classification: LCC HD62.7.L656 2019 | DDC 658.02/2–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019012571
ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-949-9 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-949-0 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
Contents
List of Tables
Preface
Part 1 Research study: Management and Leadership Skills that Affect Small Business Survival
1 Introduction to the Study
2 Literature Review
3 Methodology
4 Results
5 Discussion
Part 2 The CMLRG: The complete management and leadership resource guide for the small business owner
6 The Small Business Marketplace
7 The Complete Management and Leadership Resource Guide (CMLRG)
References
Index
Tables
4.1 Demographics of participants
4.2 Themes: Relationship between management and leadership skills
4.3 Themes: Management problems in small businesses
4.4 Themes: Leadership problems that lead to failure
4.5 Themes: Need for management and leadership skills
Preface
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.
Since there are many different types of small businesses in diverse markets, it is easy to understand why there were no specific resources. A resource that looked at the primary basic functions and demonstrated the causal links between management and leadership skills had to be created for the trade sector market of small businesses. With the research now complete, I was able to create The Complete Management and Leadership Resource Guide for the Small Business Owner . This guide comprises 12 modules with resources that will help small businesses understand the management and leadership skills necessary for succeeding in all of the business functions that include Business Law, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Accounting and Finance, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Small Business Planning and Organization and Statistics for Small Business Owners.
To help the small business owner with many challenges and time constraints, this book is divided into two parts. Part 1 provides the history of the effects of management and leadership skills in small business with the research study “Management and Leadership Skills That Affect Small Business Survival.” Part 2 is “The Complete Management and Leadership Resource Guide for the Small Business Owner.” The purpose of this section is to give an easy understanding of the integration of management and leadership skills required in each area of business that are required for a small business to surpass the traditional five-year failure period. This resource has provided me valuable insights into operating my own business and it is my belief that it will bring the reader the same results.
Part 1
Research Study
Management and Leadership Skills that Affect Small Business Survival
Introduction
Barriers to market entry for small businesses include capital requirements, competitive advantage of incumbent firms, the business environment and the educational background of the owners. Once small businesses have entered the market, a number of factors might increase the risk of failure : active reorganization actions, division of operating cash flow by current liabilities, cash flow coverage of interest, operating cash flow margin, operating cash flow return on total assets and earning quality. The purpose of this qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was to identify what areas of leadership and management had the most influence on small business failure.

The theoretical foundation included the Purpose (the organization’s mission, vision, goals and objectives), Principles (guiding philosophies, assumptions or attitudes about the organization), Processes (organizational structures, systems and procedures), People (individual employees and team) and Performance (the metrics, measurements and expected results that indicate the status of the organization, which were used as criteria for decision making).
Although researchers have found that effective management and leadership were essential for small business success, research terms have only defined these in general terms. This study’s findings contribute to the literature in this field by providing a greater level of detail regarding the meanings of effective versus ineffective leadership and management in small businesses. Findings indicated that essential management and leadership skills included communication, interpersonal skills and goal setting. The findings were consistent with the 5Ps strategic direction and management model. Small business leaders and managers may use this study’s findings to understand effective versus ineffective practices in beginning a new business.
1
Introduction to the Study
An estimated 28,443,856 small businesses in the United States employ about 56.1 million of the nation’s private workforce (Office of Advocacy, 2015 ). The combined total revenue of small businesses accounts for more than 50 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States (Nickels, McHugh, & McHugh, 2015 ). The three industries with the highest small business employment include health care and social assistance, accommodation and food services, and retail trade. The three most common industries for small employer firms across the United States include professional, scientific and technical services; other services (except public administration); and retail trade (Office of Advocacy, 2015 ).
While small businesses are responsible for producing the majority of the GDP, many small businesses do not survive past the first years of operation. For example, 40 percent of new business ventures fail in their first year, 60 percent in their second year and 90 percent in their first 1