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| Celebrating Entrepreneurs
National Small Business Week (April 10-15) Lauds the Contribution and Hard Work of Nations Small Bu
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April 6, 2006
Washington, D.C. - Next week, April 10-15, has been declared National Small Business Week, and a leading advocacy organization for entrepreneurs has highlighted some key facts about why small business and entrepreneurial activity matter to the U.S. economy.
‘Whether it's job creation, innovation, or global trade the story is largely about small business,' said Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) President & CEO Karen Kerrigan. The SBE Council is a nonprofit advocacy organization that works to protect small business and promote entrepreneurship.
‘The U.S. very much is a nation of entrepreneurs, and their hard work and risks have proven to the lifeblood of our economy. It is fitting that we have a week to recognize the accomplishments of small businesses, and the entrepreneurs who start up, guide, build and grow those small businesses,' Kerrigan adds.
The following facts highlight just a few of the important contributions small businesses make to the U.S. economy (Sources: U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy and U.S. Census Bureau):
- Businesses with fewer than 500 employees account accounts for 99.7 percent of all employer firms, employ half of all private sector employees, and pay 45 percent of U.S. private payroll.
- These firms produce more than 50 percent of nonfarm private GDP.
- Over the past ten years, small businesses created between 60 percent and 80 percent of net new jobs in the economy.
- Small employer firms play a big part in the international market as 97 percent of U.S. exporters are small firms, and account for 26 percent of export value (FY2002).
- Small businesses generate 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than larger patenting firms.
- Small firms also produce twice as many product innovations per employee than large businesses.
- Receipts for nonemployer businesses (those without paid employees) registered $830 billion in 2003, up from $586 billion in 1997. Nonemployers firms accounted for more than 70 percent of all businesses. There were 18.6 million nonemployer firms in 2003, which was up by about 1 million versus 2002 - a 5.7 percent increase.
SBE Council chief economist Raymond J. Keating added: ‘Of course, most politicians warmly embrace entrepreneurs and small businesses, but their voting record often does not match their rhetoric. One way to celebrate and show true appreciation for our small business sector is to get down to the hard work of providing real tax and regulatory relief so they can continue to compete in the global economy.'
SBE Council can be contacted at 202-785-0238. For more than a decade the SBE Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit small business advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C., has been working to protect small business and promote entrepreneurship. Please visit: http://www.sbecouncil.org/.
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