The Profit's Marcus Lemonis: Here's why small businesses fail

Thu, May 15, 2014, 10:09 AM

It's National Small Business Week. Small businesses (defined as those with less than 500 employees) represent 99.7% of U.S. employer firms and 50% of private sector jobs, according to the Small Business Administration. They are without a doubt crucial to the economy.

We checked in with entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis about the state of small businesses in the video above. On the CNBC reality show The Profit, Lemonis invests his cash in a struggling business and steps in to try to turn things around.

By his measure, the "state of small business isn't bad, but it's not great."

The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, which measures the optimism of small firms, is now at highest level since 2008. But it remains below 2003 to 2007 levels.

Businesses were more positive about their ability to obtain credit in the year ahead, an issue which Lemonis says is a key gauge of measuring the strength of this sector.

One issue he sees though, is that, "too often I'm finding these small business owners don't have the right accounting or marketing background." They have a decent business plan but "then they can't execute it."

He also sees a lot of people struggling to find relevant products and services to offer.

"I haven't met any eight-track cassette player salesmen, but I'm still meeting people who want to get into businesses that quite frankly have turned a corner," he tells us, using cupcakes as an example.

Is now a good time to start a business? Watch the video to find out what Lemonis says!

And check out Lemonis’ Yahoo Finance/CNBC co-produced program “The Biz Fix” here.

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