"In general, if a company has fewer than 500 employees, it is considered a small business, no matter what its annual sales volume is. Using this definition for its survey research, the SBA says that the small business market consists of about 22.4 million businesses. This definition includes the 11 million full-time self-employed people in the U.S. whose businesses do not have employees. For technical purposes, such as government contracting, the SBA uses a combination of sales volume and number of employees."

There are many reasons a small business might fail. But the two key reasons with startups are lack of vision and dearth of funds. Before setting up a new business, it is important for businessmen to come up with a winning business plan. This business plan is to be used as a map which guides the business in the right direction. It is actually a representation of a person's vision and can help him secure loans. A business plan is a blueprint of your business and its sales and profit projections. Many small business owners start a business without having any idea of what they hope to achieve from this venture or how they plan to run it. This leads to problems both managerial and financial and in many cases results in collapse of the venture. A business plan helps the firm owners know where they want to take the newly established firm and how it plans to get there. It needs to contain all the information about the business, marketing and pricing strategies, sales forecast, previous sales statement, financial situations, available funds and sources of funding currently available. A business plan is therefore defined as 'a set of goals and objectives that are quantified, are course to a specific time frame, and has within it the necessary strategies to accomplish or satisfy the plan' (McKenzie and Schoumacher, 1992).

We mentioned above, that self-employment doesn't automatically translate into more time with family. With one person running into many directions, owner may not get a chance to spend as much time with family as he wants to.

This is an interesting advantage of having your own business. Since you will obviously be working twice as hard and will be doing more than you were in your previous employment, you need to be certain that all profits would directly benefit you and not someone else. This is what usually keeps a businessman going when odds are against him. If there is one reason why most small business owners are willing to put in extra hours and do the job of five people at the same time, it is the excitement of keeping on the profits and not having to share them with others.

The traditional sources include: Banks and credit unions. They will be willing to provide a loan if you approach them with a solid business plan and some proof of good performance in the past. As much as you would want to believe otherwise, the truth is that bankers will make you run from pillar to post before they agree to lend you anything. Traditional sources have proved to be highly unreliable since financing through these means is a very demanding and time-consuming process.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2020
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)