This is a book that is long overdue and it is a welcome addition to the literature on entrepreneurship. Most books on the subject of entrepreneurship concentrate on how to start your own business or how to manage a small business. It is not often that one finds a totally integrated and balanced approach to this subject. The author of this book follows a totally different approach. Making use of his sound academic background and insights gained in rendering extensive consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses, he gives a sobering account of the woes that can strike owner-operators of such businesses - the prelude to problems and the accompanying symptoms - symptoms that are indicative of systemic problems (that often manifest in financial hardship for the particular business). All of this might leave the entrenched owner-operator in a state of bewilderment, but then follows the true contribution of this book - practical advice on how to stem the tide and to arrest the further financial decline of the business. This advice is given in a practical manner and the absence of confusing jargon is a welcome characteristic of this book. This book should be high on the „must read“ list of both owneroperators of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as to professionals who have the interest of these type of businesses at heard - such as academics, bankers and consultants. As soon as this book is commercially available, I will certainly include it as part of the prescribed readings for my courses on Entrepreneurship.