The SBA Office of Advocacy offers up lots of statistics, many of which I use frequently at this site and in my classes. They have a great summary of these statistics from 2001-2005 in their new report appropriately if not creatively titled, Frequently Asked Questions.
Commit it to memory so that the next time one of your “corporate type” friends scoffs at your “cute little business” you can let her know that businesses like yours have generated 60-80% of new jobs annually in th US over the last decade. You can even point out that, who knows, she may be coming to you looking for a job sooner than she could ever imagine.
Dr Jeff Cornwall
Co-founder of The Entrepreneurial Mind, serial entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship.
Where are 60-80% of job “loses” coming from?
Which has the higher turnover, big or small business?
Which is more likely to provide a pension upon retirement?
Inquiring minds, etc.
Jeff, if people don’t want to download a PDF, we have an HTML version of this FAQ at Smallbusiness.com: http://www.smallbusiness.com/wiki/Small_business_FAQ . It is an abbreviated version and has a link to the SBA PDF, as well. Thanks.
So I have to charge $3.68 per hour that applies to my fixed costs just to cover federal regulations. Doesn’t take much to figure why it cost so much to operate a small business……….
Kevin,
Some interesting questions. I do not have all of the statistics on my desk, but I do know that the Fortune 500 have lost a net 5 million jobs over the past decade or so, and that they have gone from employing one in five Americans to about one in twenty. At the same time we have record levels of employment. I know….I know. Next you are going to say, but they pay really low wages. Here’s another fact: they are catching up to larger businesses in pay, and are currently up to about 90% of average corporate pay. Take out a few of those multi-million dollar CEO salaries and that percent even gets closer.
I also know that large corporations are stiffing folks left and right on their pensions. Small business rarely have traditional pensions as we know them in big corporations. What they do have are retirement plans that allow the workers to control their own futures. Many will add money to these based on profits those workers help create.
Power to the people!! Right, Kevin?