Small business is under attack.
Whether you attribute it to the proliferation of a global economy, repressive federal and state regulation, unrelenting taxation, the federal reserves devaluation of the US dollar or the increased safety and ease of Internet shopping…
…it’s not easy being a small business in 2014. There are 28 million small businesses in America today, including 22 million self employed businesses.
America was built on small business. The fastest growing sectors (auto repair shops, beauty salons and dry cleaners) are the essentials to everyday life in America. We need our cars fixed, our hair cut, and our clothes cleaned.
Small businesses allow the world to function.
We certainly need large corporations like Boeing to make our airplanes and General Electric to make the jet engines we put on those airplanes. However, it’s small businesses that perform the daily functions which directly impact the quality of our life.
As James Altucher points out in his new book Choose Yourself, the idea of large corporate “jobs” is a relatively new one. Through most of human history, small business was all that existed. From shop owners, to barbers, to butchers and blacksmiths, specialized expertise was delivered one person at a time.
Today we look up to the Dow Jones 30 for permission to believe in our economy when truly it should be the mega-corporations looking down to small business for their cues.
A World Without Small Business by the Numbers
Small businesses:
- have created 65% of net new jobs since 1995. ~ source
- make up 99 percent of all New York businesses. ~ source
- provide 46 percent of the private non-farm GDP in 2008. ~ source
- produce 16.5 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms. ~ source
- hire 43% of high tech workers. ~ source
Small business is our great economic hope. People serving people, whether it’s online or on main street. What would our economy be if small business hadn’t created 65% of the new jobs over the last 15 plus years?
This isn’t meant to be a knock on large businesses. The world needs large businesses to scale and connect. Starting a retail shoe store or corner coffee shop may not be as sexy as an office in the headquarters of American Express, but each plays a vital role in our economy.
Where would innovation be without small business?
“Understanding your customers is required for successful innovation. Small-business owners, with their intimate knowledge of their customers, actually are incredibly well-positioned to innovate.” ~ Innovation Lessons from Small Business, Forbes
Small businesses provide intimacy and emotional connections that most large corporations cannot. It’s the emotional aspect of the business transaction that keeps us coming back to small businesses and the reason the world would end without small business.
Forget the jobs. Forget the innovation. Forget the revenue generated.
It all starts with loyalty.
[Tweet “Loyalty is the currency of small business.”]It’s this loyalty upon which successful small businesses generate revenue, create jobs and make innovation possible.
Without small business, the world would end – at least the world as we know it.
Thank goodness there are so many hardworking small business owners and professionals doing what they do, making sure the world’s end never happens.
Thank you and Good luck,
Ryan Hanley
P.S. you can connect with me on Google+ here.