With multibillion-dollar corporate mergers dominating the business news throughout the 1990s, it is counterintuitive to think of small companies flourishing and prospering. Most did not; approximately three out of five (60 percent) small businesses begun in the decade failed. Those that did thrive were often the targets of corporate takeovers or buyouts. Yet, by the end of the decade, small businesses accounted for 99 percent of the 23.3 million non farm businesses in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Sole proprietorships made up 16.7 million of these small businesses, while 1.6 million were partnerships and 5 million were corporations. The SBA noted that these figures were based on tax returns, so the number of sole proprietorships may be inflated by artists, freelance writers, and other self-employed persons who were not technically businesses. As of 1996, the last year for which complete statistics...