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The purpose of this study was to determine the types of problems encountered by small business owners that receive counseling from Small Business Centers in the eastern region of North Carolina and the relationship between these problems and selected business characteristics. The three independent variables were industry sector (retail or service), business development status (startup or operating), and owner's gender (male or female). The type of problems encountered by small business owners was the dependent variable. Based on prior research by Ansoff (1965) and Chrisman and Leslie (1989), the classification system used to categorize business problems included administrative, operating, and strategic problems. The study was based on a survey research design and Pearson's chi-square and lambda tests were used to indicate significance between variables and strength of association. The data were taken from the administrative records of eight Small Business Centers in eastern North Carolina and featured a random sample of 300 small businesses.The findings of the study indicated that the majority of small business owners in the retail and service sectors in eastern North Carolina rely on counseling from Small Business Centers to help them resolve issues that are core to the development of a successful enterprise. The most common type of problems facing these business owners was strategic in nature (54%). The second most common type of problems experienced by these business owners was administrative (33.3%), followed by operating problems (12.7%). The only exception was with firms classified as operating. Administrative problems were more common in operating firms, regardless of industry sector or gender. In all other combinations of independent variables (retail, service, startup, female-owned, and male-owned), strategic problems were more prevalent.