Why Small Business is Important for Moms Interested in Professional Part-time Roles
It’s National Small Business Week in the U.S. Why am I even mentioning this on a blog dedicated to professional part-time working moms? I’m a mompreneur, which puts me in the realm of small business, and about thirty eight percent of moms I interviewed have their own business. Essentially, if you’re interested in being a professional part-time working mom, you also might become an entrepreneur, or “mompreneur” as we’re often called, as well. And since it can be hard to find all this information in one place, I decided to combine information on women owned and mompreneur statistics in one place.
Small Business Statistics
In addition to small business being near and dear to my heart and research, small businesses are important to the U.S. workforce and economy. There are 28.8 million small businesses or about 99.7 percent of U.S. businesses, according to a 2016 report from the Small Business Administration. Those small business employ roughly 56.8 million — about 48 percent — of U.S. employees within the private workforce.1 We’re talking almost half of employees.
Women-Owned Business Statistics
A 2015 report from Pew Research stated that women own about 36.2 percent2 of small businesses in the U.S., which translates to about 9.9 million businesses3. About 1 million of those businesses have paid employees. From a revenue perspective, about 11.3 percent goes to women-owned businesses2.
Mompreneur (Mom-Owned Business) Numbers
If you’re a mom and you’re wondering about mompreneurs or mom-owned businesses, 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.
Small Business as an Economic Engine
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 percent of business in the U.S. and employ almost half of all private employees, their role in our economy and our lives is incredibly important.
Do you have an interesting story to share about being a small business or a small business you work with? Do you have thoughts on the impact of small business in your hometown or the economy in general? 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
