Small Business Facts
Most people claim they would like to own their own business. However, many of those same people have no idea what it takes to run a small business. You can’t call in sick and get paid for it. There’s no one to call if you’re running late and there’s no one to there to take up the slack if you’re having a bad day.

However, small business owners can and do have flexible schedules. They enjoy a quality of life that is very attractive and intoxicating. And, many small business owners do very well financially. It what we like to call “getting rich long term”.

Here are some small business facts:

1. Small businesses represent 99.7% of all employer firms, and they employ 50% of all private sector employees, including 39% of high tech workers such as scientists, engineers, and computer workers.
2. Small businesses create 60-80% of net new jobs each year.
3. Small businesses generate more over half of non-farm, private GDP.
4. There is a major correlation between national economic growth and the level of entrepreneurial activity in prior years, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).
5. Two-thirds of all present-day college students intend to become entrepreneurs at some point in their careers.
6. Small businesses produce 13 - 14 times more patents per employee than large companies, and these patents are twice as likely as those by the large companies to be among the top one percent most cited.
7. People with higher education levels are more likely to become entrepreneurs, and they are also more likely to start a business employing even more people.
8. More Americans are becoming self-employed as entrepreneurs, freelancers, contractors, or owners of microbusinesses.
9. Small businesses are environmentally friendly. They are typically an active part of their local community and they also provide innovation. Economic research suggests that small businesses innovate at twice the rate of large businesses, which usually results in environmentally friendly products and technologies.
   Source: Advocacy
10. Small businesses tend to be clean businesses. Over one-half of the 22.9 million small businesses in the United States are home-based sales and service-oriented business, which means they have little potential for harming the environment.