A week before National Small Business Week, a new study examines some surprising things that millions of small businesses across the United States have in common.
A Pew Research Center survey released Monday delved into Census Bureau data associated with 33 million small businesses in the United States. The study defined “small business” as a company with fewer than 500 employees, with at least one location.
In the report, small businesses overwhelmingly share one important point in common: they rarely have employees. In fact, 27 million, or about 82%, had no employees, and about 3 million businesses with employees had only one to four people on the payroll.
However, small businesses employed 56.4 million people in 2021 and brought in more than $16.2 trillion in revenue. Larger companies with more than 100 employees got a bigger slice of the revenue pie, although they made up less than 1% of the overall picture.
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Additionally, most small businesses are not mom-and-pop shops, according to the survey. In the United States, one in 10 businesses was owned and operated equally by spouses, and only 27% were family-owned overall.
Furthermore, these are usually not franchises. The majority of small businesses (95%) reported that they are not fully or partially franchised.
Most of the companies interviewed, almost three out of five, have been active for at least six years and 15% have been operational for over a quarter of a century.
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Small businesses also share a positive public perception. A majority of Americans (86%) indicated that small businesses have a positive impact on the country in a separate Pew Research survey conducted in January. In contrast, only 53% have a positive opinion of tech companies and universities.
A Constant Contact survey released Monday presents a global picture, showing that more than 80% of 1,300 small businesses surveyed in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada expressed concern about how the economic climate will affect their businesses this year.
Pew Research reports that the number of corporate applications in the United States is on the rise, with nearly 1.8 million applications filed last year.