Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define entrepreneurship and small business.

• Investigate the importance of small business in the U.S. economy and why certain fields attract small business.

• Specify the advantages of small-business ownership.

• Summarize the disadvantages of small-business ownership and analyze why many small businesses fail.

• Describe how you go about starting a small business and what resources are needed.

• Evaluate the demographic, technological, and economic trends that are impacting the future of small business.

• Explain why many large businesses are trying to "think small."

• Assess two entrepreneurs' plans for starting a small business.