A Willoughby resident has written a new book that he hopes will inspire people who want to create, own and operate small businesses. Kip Marlow’s new book is titled “Rebels with a Cause: Small Business Stories from the Trenches.” The book consists of real-life success stories that Marlow wrote about entrepreneurs who overcame a variety of challenges to become small-business owners, and achieved financial success through these enterprises. “They’re just great stories,” said Marlow, who has spent many years coaching and advising small-business owners, as well as people desiring to become entrepreneurs. Marlow said he wrote the book to teach entrepreneurship lessons, and encourage people to take risks and start their own businesses. “Rebels With a Cause” became available for sale in late October. Shoppers can purchase the 166-page book in hardback, paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon.com. An audio version of the book also will be offered in the near future, Marlow said. In addition, Marlow has launched a website, rebelsbook.com, to promote the book. The book features stories of 29 owners of small businesses, many of which are located in Northeast Ohio. Most of the people featured are individual owners, although the book also includes a pair of brothers and a husband and wife who own businesses. Each story is three to six pages long and offers some biographical information on each owner or ownership duo, and a description of their businesses. The stories also highlight different obstacles that the owners had to overcome when they launched businesses or began operations. Those challenges ranged from having no personal funds to start a business or possessing no previous experience at managing employees. Marlow wraps up many of the stories by noting lessons that aspiring entrepeneurs can learn from the business owner featured in that chapter. Or, he offers chapter summaries that reiterate key points about how each business owner persevered and succeeded. Some of the business owners that Marlow featured in his new book included John Vanas, owner and CEO of Euclid Heat Treating; Tom Lix, founder of Cleveland Whiskey; Kevin Moore, founder of Essentialware; and Tom Shearer, co-founder of Shearer’s Foods. Marlow said he used the word “Rebels” in the book title because it characterized the business owners in all of the stories. “They’re very independent people, they will take a risk and all of them have taken risks, not only for themselves personally, by writing a check to start a company, and that’s not easy to do,” he said. For Marlow, “Rebels With a Cause” is the second book he’s written. Marlow authored “The Entrepreneurs: Success and Sacrifice” in 2013. That book’s subject matter and format were similar to “Rebels with a Cause.” In “The Entrepreneurs,” Marlow wrote a compilation of 22 success stories about small-business owners who were primarily from Northeast Ohio. Marlow said the idea to author a second and similar book was suggested to him by a few different people. “A friend of mine said, ‘Why don’t you write another book?’ And my wife said, ‘Would you get out of my hair? Would you at least write a book or something?’ ” Marlow is someone who possesses first-hand experience on what it takes to start and grow a small business. Marlow founded Marlow Surgical Technologies in 1975. The company produced instruments for gynecological and general surgery that were sold to customers around the world. In 1997, Marlow decided to sell the business to Cooper Companies, a California-based manufacturer of medical devices with an international customer base. Marlow then worked for 18 months as vice president of sales for Cooper before deciding to retire. “And retirement was boring,” he said. Eventually, Marlow decided to create a new professional opportunity for himself by becoming an adviser and coach to fledgling entrepreneurs and small-business owners who needed guidance on how to become more successful. Marlow said he believes that encouraging, promoting and teaching entrepreneurship is an important endeavor. “My feeling is that small business is the backbone of the American economy,” he said. As far as future opportunities to write about entrepreneurship, Marlow said he already has started working on a third book that is patterned after “Rebels with Cause” and “The Entrepreneurs.” “I’ve already written three chapters (of a new book),” he said. “If I take as long as I did with the last two, I’ll be 88 when I publish it. I’m not sure if it’s going to work out, but I’m going to give it a try.”