FourEyesSquad

It’s rather late but did you know that this week is National Business Week?

From the nationalsmallbusinessweek.com:

The U.S. Small Business Administration is pleased to announce Small Business Week April 21-25, 2008. Since 1963, every President has declared National Small Business Week to formally recognize the important role of America’s small business community.

What is SBA?

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. We recognize that small business is critical to our economic recovery and strength, to building America’s future, and to helping the United States compete in today’s global marketplace. Although SBA has grown and evolved in the years since it was established in 1953, the bottom line mission remains the same. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

Small Businesses’ Role in the US Economy

SBA announced before the top 10 reasons why small businesses are vital to the economic growth of the US, (note: emphasis mine).

1. The latest figures show that small businesses create 75 percent of the net new jobs in our economy.

   Just because big companies employ hundreds and thousands of employees every year, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the lifeblood of the economy and the only capable institution to give jobs to people. Small and startup businesses may only employ a handful of people but keep in mind that there’s a lot of small businesses in this country.

2. Four years after start-up, half of all small businesses with employees remain open.

   Always, always, always remember that all big companies started from small. The first four years of a company’s life is the most crucial because that is when it will be able to prove whether their business strategy will be able to sustain them for years to come. Once a company has come up of slump alive, it can either hit it big or be able to sustain itself for more years to come.

3. Small businesses with employees start-up at a rate of over 500,000 per year.

   People these days have set their minds on being their own bosses thus they usually start a venture usually either by themselves or with a partner or two.

4. Small businesses make up 97 percent of exporters and produce 29 percent of all export value.

   It’s called cottage industry:

   A cottage industry (also called the Domestic system) is an industry – primarily manufacturing – which includes many producers, working from their homes, typically part time. […] Cottage industries were very common in the time when a large proportion of the population was engaged in agriculture, because the farmers (and their families) often had both the time and the desire to earn additional income during the part of the year (Winter) when there was little farming work to do. […] The use of the term has expanded, and is used to refer to any event which allows a large number of people to work part time. For example, eBay is said to have spawned a cottage industry of people who buy surplus merchandise, and sell it on their auction system.

   Wikipedia

5. Home-based businesses account for 53 percent of all small businesses.

   With the aid of technology, people are now able to conduct their businesses at home and some of them are doing it very efficiently. Technology allowed us to be able to work with other people without having to rent out a physical office.

   Aside from that, people usually start their businesses with the help of their family members and conducts it within their homes to eliminate more costs in sustaining their businesses.

6. Small businesses employ about 50 percent of all private sector workers.

   I think this is just a reworded version of number 1, don’t you think?

7. The 22.9 million small businesses in the United States are located in virtually every neighborhood.

8. Small patenting firms produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.

   The thing about startups is that it has a very relaxed environment (of course, we can’t speak for everybody) where you can usually let your creativity flow. Having your bosses and colleagues be able to meet up with you everyday and help you expound on your idea’s a big plus.

9. Small businesses create more than 50 percent of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).

10. Small businesses make up more than 99.7% of all employers.

Let’s celebrate small businesses and it’s contribution to this nation’s economy and growth! Here’s to small business owners and entrepreneurs!

Tags: national small business week, Small Business, small business administration

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.