Top Features SMBs Should Look for in Collaboration Tools
To provide an accurate picture of small business activities in each state, the Office of Advocacy for the U.S. Small Business Association has released its “Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories, 2014.” The entire PDF is also available online for a quick way to click and search by individual state.
The report includes a nation-wide view of the U.S. featuring economic, employment, income, business owner, industry and trade information among other topics. It also incorporates state profile top 10 tables with various data broken out by top states. Following that are sections on each state and territory, broken out with similar information.
According to the overall U.S. listing, 28,443,856 small businesses are currently operating in the United States, and those businesses employ a total of 56,062,893 workers total. However, only 5,707,941 small businesses actually have employees; the remaining 22,735,915 are single-owner ventures without additional workers. The largest segment of small businesses includes firms with less than 100 employees—which includes the single-ownership group. These businesses make up a huge percentage of the employment options in the U.S.—nearly 99 percent nationally.
With those numbers, it’s no wonder that small businesses have been called the “backbone” of the U.S. economy. Inc. backs up this thought with its report that 49.2 percent of the U.S. employees in the private sector work for small businesses.
In fact, small businesses have recently been touted as having a huge part in ending the U.S. recession. In the one-year period that ended in October 2014, the private sector increased available jobs by 2.3 percent versus the 1.7 percent rate for the previous year.
For any small business that wants or needs to compare state-wide data, this guide is the key. But for a simple, at-a-glance look at more small business stats, this infographic from MiladyPro includes data on marketing, mobility and ad spending.
The graphic lists the fastest growth sector for small businesses as “freelance businesses,” which includes “auto repair shops, beauty salons and dry cleaners.” The chart also reports that 58 percent of business owners “expect growth” this year, which is an exciting indicator for the still stabilizing economy.
One other area that small business owners should take into consideration is that according to the graphic, 82 percent of new clients for small businesses come from referrals, which indicates that word of mouth is still the best form of marketing. Which does little to explain why the chart also indicates that 38 percent of small businesses say they will expand their marketing efforts in 2015.
Kim Mays has been editing and writing about IT since 1999. She currently tackles the topics of small to midsize business technology and introducing new tools for IT. Follow Kim on Google+ or Twitter.
