Caught
at the Crossroads

We
love our small businesses around here. So does the
Small Business Administration:
Top
10 Reasons To Love Small Business: The Heart Of The
American Economy
WASHINGTON,
D.C. - The Office of Advocacy of the SBA offers the
top 10 reasons to love small business, the heart of
the American economy.
Top 10 Reasons To Love Small Business
10. Small businesses make up more than 99.7% of all
employers.
9. Small businesses create more than 50 percent of
the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
8. Small patenting firms produce 13 to 14 times more
patents per employee than large patenting firms.
7. The 22.9 million small businesses in the United
States are located in virtually every neighborhood.
6. Small businesses employ about 50 percent of all
private sector workers.
5. Home-based businesses account for 53 percent of
all small businesses.
4. Small businesses make up 97 percent of exporters
and produce 29 percent of all export value.
3. Small businesses with employees start-up at a rate
of over 500,000 per year.
2. Four years after start-up, half of all small businesses
with employees remain open.
1. The latest figures show that small businesses create
75 percent of the net new jobs in our economy.
The Office of Advocacy, the "small business watchdog"
of the government, examines the role and status of
small business in the economy and independently represents
the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress,
and the President. It is the source for small business
statistics presented in user-friendly formats and
it funds research into small business issues.
For more information, visit the Office of Advocacy
website at www.sba.gov/advo.