In celebration of Small Business Week, which was last week in the US, I wanted to share some statistics on small businesses. There are 28.8 million small businesses or about 99.7% of US businesses, according to a 2016 report from the Small Business Administration. Those small business employ roughly 56.8 million — about 48% — of US employees within the private workforce.1
A 2015 report from Pew Research stated that women own about 36.2%2 of small businesses in the US, which translates to about 9.9 million businesses3. About 1 million of those businesses have paid employees. From a revenue perspective, about 11.3% goes to women-owned businesses2.
Some of you who work for larger companies might wonder why I’m writing about small business. Here’s food for thought…Of the women-owned businesses out there, it’s estimated that 1 in 3 are owned by moms4. That number is pretty amazing as it translates to more than 3 million businesses. Yay mompreneurs!!!
While doing this research, I was surprised how hard it was to find updated numbers (e.g., not 2016) and information on mompreneurs. With such a large part of small businesses owned by moms, you would think that would be a statistic they start paying more attention to and reporting on.
We’re all thankful for large corporations for the many things they do, produce, provide, etc. What a lot of people forget is the power of small business. Considering small businesses represent more than 99% of business in the US and employ almost half of all private employees, their role in our economy and our lives is incredibly important. And, in relation to Mompowerment, many of the moms I’ve interviewed either own or work for a small business.
Do you have an interesting story to share about being a small business or a small business you work with? Are there specific statistics you’d like to know more about? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
1https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/March_April_2016_FINAL_508_compliant.pdf
3https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/SBO_Facts_WOB.pdf
4http://www.workingmother.com/content/small-business-week-remember-mompreneurs
