Small Businesses Play an Important Role in the US Economy
                     Small Businesses Play an Important Role in the US 
Economy
Jenny Knight
Writes for smb-corner.com 
Small and Medium Business Corner & 
SMB Corner
The title says it all and it’s true… For many, small businesses are just local 
businesses and it is the big industrial giants that are contributing to the 
economy of the US. We need to correct them and change their wrong 
perception.
Studies show that small businesses employ over half of US workforce. 
According to SBA, small businesses employ half of all private sector 
employees. Wondering if small businesses were not there, then where 
would half of the country work? No clue…
It is not only the workforce (creating more number of jobs) where small 
businesses are big players; they have also majorly contributed towards 
innovation, supporting the big businesses, generating revenue, exporting 
and customer service.
Small businesses are the engines of job creation
According to the SBA report, since 1970, small businesses are adding 8 
million new jobs, whereas big businesses are eliminating 4 million jobs. 
Small businesses have contributed 55% of all private sector employment to 
their nation. These numbers clearly show that without small businesses 
half of the US population would have been jobless and the impact on the 
US economy would have been devastating.
Another amazing fact about small businesses is that they pay 44% of total 
US private payroll. This again supports the country’s economy.
Small businesses are proven innovators
Small businesses are well positioned to introduce and develop new ideas. 
They are innovators and drivers of the US economy. Small businesses have 
created 17 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms. 
They have created 43% of high-tech jobs (engineers, computer 
programmers, scientists). Innovation is the driving force behind the strong 
and growing economy of US.
Presence of small businesses is essential for large businesses
Large businesses depend on small businesses on outsourcing their various 
business affairs like bookkeeping, customer support, search engine 
marketing, payroll, etc. If small businesses did not exist then large 
businesses would have struggled a lot in improving, marketing, managing 
and growing their businesses.
Small businesses are customer oriented
Small businesses do everything that can satisfy their customer needs and 
are available for their customers at all times. To help you understand, below 
is a survey by CreditDonkey:
 71% of participants have said that small businesses anticipate their 
needs, whereas 42% of them have said big businesses anticipates their 
needs.
 64% of participants have said that small businesses anticipate their 
problems, whereas only 34% of them have said that big businesses 
anticipate their problems.
 97% of participants have said that small businesses are consistently 
saying “Thank you”, whereas only 30% of participants have said that 
big businesses are saying consistently “Thank you”.
 94.3% of participants have said that small businesses exceeded their 
expectation in providing customer services, whereas 64% of 
participants said that big businesses exceeded their expectation in 
customer service.
Small businesses have a major role in exporting
According to USTR (United States Trade Representative) small businesses 
account 98% of US exporters whereas big businesses account only 0.2%. 
Small businesses produce 34% of export value through their goods in 
exporting to other nations. Exporting plays a major role in strengthening 
the country’s economy. According to US Department of Commerce, nearly 
12% of GDP comes from the export of goods and services. Without the 
impact of small businesses, American exports would have significantly 
damaged the US economy.
From the above statistics it is very clear that small businesses play a very 
major role in economic success of US. They provide the country with 
employment, wealth, innovation and development.
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Thank you for spending your time in reading this article!