Policy Matters
Counting ROI
Let’s face it: fiscal responsibility rhetoric aside, the SBA’s funding is a drop in the bucket of the overall federal budget.
Which means, among other things, that no matter how much waste, fraud, abuse and duplication Congressional overseers are likely to ferret out, the savings involved are likely to represent a drop in the bucket of the federal government’s multi-trillion dollar red ink.
So it’s difficult to take inquiries into a drop-in-a-drop-in-the-bucket seriously when balanced against other federal expenditures — like the amount of money the federal government doles out to large corporations.
Microbusiness Fact Sheet
Definitions
"Microbusiness" is a term generally used to refer to firms with fewer than five paid employees. Some (such as the National Association for the Self-Employed) use the term to refer to firms with fewer than ten employees.
Because microbusinesses are better defined not by their size but by how their size effects their operations, The MicroEnterprise Journal uses a more accurate qualitative definition: a microbusiness is any firm that is so small that there is no one working in the business that does only one job or task for the business.
Numbers
> Of a total 27.2 million U.S. firms, approximately 25 million, or 92.4%, are microbusinesses (2008; U.S. SBA, Office of Advocacy)
> Approximately 95.4% of U.S. firms have fewer than ten employees (2008)
> Nonemployer businesses — defined as firms with no paid employees outside the business owner(s) — comprise the lion's share of the microbusiness population. There are approximately 21.4 million nonemployer firms in the U.S. (2008; U.S. Census Bureau)
> Nonemployer businesses make up 78.2% of all U.S. firms (2008)
> During the period from 1997 through 2008, the percentage of microbusinesses among U.S. firms increased from 87% to 92.4%, while the percentage of non-micro small businesses decreased from 13% to 8.4%. Firms with more than 500 employees have remained fairly constant at less than one percent of U.S. businesses.
> Each new nonemployer firm represents one new self-created job. In 2007, new nonemployer firms created an average of 78,289 new jobs per month. Job creation through nonemployer firm births are not included in monthly employment data released by the U.S. Department of Labor
> Nonemployer firms generated $953 billion in receipts in 2008. This represents 7% of gross domestic product for 2008. Average annual receipts for nonemployer firms in 2008 was approximately $45,000 per firm.
"In the real world, the smallest atom in the universe is the hydrogen atom. And yet, hydrogen is the fuel that powers suns. There's a lesson in that -- or, at least, there should be." -- Dawn Rivers
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