Small businesses provide economic infrastructure in which communities develop and thrive and, in the United States alone, currently represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms. However, many small businesses fail to thrive past the first two years of establishment. Of the reasons small businesses fail, limited or non-existent employee training programs remains among the chief causes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of HRD within small businesses. Specifically on-the-job training was examined through the framework of Brethower's five performance principles in order to enhance the effectiveness of the on-the-job training approach.