Research and surveys continue to show that small businesses struggle to thrive, and even survive, for a number of reasons. High among these are lack of access to capital, extensive and expensive government regulations, and taxes.

Of equal or possibly even greater concern is that new research is starting to show that the first two challenges (lack of access to capital and government regulations) are not only making it difficult for existing small businesses to survive and grow, but also actually leading to a reduction in the number of businesses being launched.

The survival of existing businesses and the opening of new businesses, of course, are vitally important to the U.S. as a whole, since businesses are the "engines" of employment and the sources of government tax bases. For example, businesses pay many types of taxes directly, many of them contribute sales taxes (which are paid by individuals with disposable income, who tend to be individuals who are employed), and employees of the businesses pay income taxes on their employment earnings.