Facts 

Small Firm Facts | Important Links

Supplier Diversity: An Important Energy Issue?

Consider these facts regarding small businesses:

The Office of Advocacy defines a small business for research purposes as an independent business having fewer than 500 employees. Firms wishing to be designated small businesses for government programs such as contracting must meet size standards specified by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Size Standards.

• View Small Business Standards by Industry
• View Additional Data Broken Down by Industry

Small Firms

• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ half of all private sector employees.
• Pay more than 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade.
• Create more than 50 percent of nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
• Supplied more than 23 percent of the total value of federal prime contracts in FY 2005.
• Produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms. These patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.
• Are employers of 41 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer workers).
• Are 53 percent home-based and 3 percent franchises.
• Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced 28.6 percent of the known export value in FY 2004.
• In 2005, there were approximately 25.8 million businesses in the United States, according to Office of Advocacy estimates. Census data show that there were 5.8 million firms with employees and 18.6 million without employees in 2003, the most recent year with available data. Applying the sole proprietorship growth rates to the nonemployer figures and similar Department of Labor growth rates to the employer figures produces the 25.8-million figure.  Small firms with fewer than 500 employees represent 99.9 percent of the 25.8 million businesses (including both employers and nonemployers), as the most recent data show there are nearly 17,000 large businesses. 
• Very small firms with fewer than 20 employees spend 45 percent more per employee than larger firms to comply with federal regulations. These very small firms spend 4½ times as much per employee to comply with environmental regulations and 67 percent more per employee on tax compliance than their larger counterparts.

Important Links

U.S. General Services Administration

• http://www.gsa.gov/energy
• jerard.butler@gsa.gov
  (For GSA Information Requests)

U.S. Small Business Administration

• http://www.sba.gov/ 

Government Contracting

• http://www.sba.gov/GC
  

Small Disadvantaged Business

• http://www.sba.gov/sdb

Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUB Zone) 

• http://www.sba.gov/hubzone

Women-Owned Businesses

• http://www.womenbiz.gov/
• http://www.women-21.gov/

Veterans

• http://www.sba.gov/VETS/

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census; Advocacy-funded research by Joel Popkin and Company (Research Summary #211); Federal Procurement Data System; Advocacy-funded research by CHI Research, Inc. (Research Summary #225); Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey; U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration.