II.i
The first task of this research is to define what a small business is, which can be difficult. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what a small business is, there are many definitions (2). The first thing to note is the fact that the definition of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) varies across countries, industries, organizations, agencies and the academic community (1). A relatively standard definition is a company with a workforce of 1 to 100 employees. Some change the upper limit to 250 employees—which can then be broken down into small scale with 5-100 and medium-sized enterprises from 100-250. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2004, small businesses employ half of all private-sector workers and 39% of workers in high-tech jobs. Small businesses provide 60% to 80% of the net new jobs annually, pay 44.3% of total U.S. private payroll, and represent 99.7% of all employers (4). The International Data Corporation (IDC) breaks down the percentage of small businesses down by size as following in 2005: small businesses with less than 5 employees make up 69%; 5-9 employees, 14.3%; 10-19 employees, 8.6%, 20-49 employees, 5.5%; 50-99 employees, 2.0% (3). From March 2008 to March 2009, there were 680,716 small business deaths and 518,500 small business births, and in 2010 there were 27.9 small businesses with fewer than 500 employees (6).

II.ii.1

II.ii.2
This study will be looking at businesses in the Kent, Ohio area—which has seen an increase of development in the past few years.

II.ii.3
For the sake of this study, the definition of small businesses will be any firm with under 100 employees.