The purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of managerial failure in small apparel retailers by using the qualitative research method. The study was performed by interviews from thirteen owners/managers who experienced failure as small apparel retailers from November 2003 to February 2004. The causes of failure in the small apparel businesses were human related problems, marketing strategy problems, marketing mix, weak managerial ability, and business environment related problems. Of special interest was causes such as incomplete legal documents with franchisers, unexpected tax investigation from the office of National Tax Administration(NTA), sexual discrimination for women owners, and incapable risk management. It is interesting to note that tax investigation by NTA and sexual discrimination in the business custom were shown as the main causes of business failure in Korea.