The SBA really pumps out a lot of great information about small businesses and their footprint on America.  Here is a quick run down:

Right now, there are over 23 million small businesses accounting for 54% of all U.S. sales! These small businesses provide 55% of all jobs and 66% of all net new jobs since the 1970s.

When it comes to franchised small businesses, over 600,000 in the U.S., account for 40% of all retail sales and provide jobs for approximately 8 million people.

This small business sector in America occupies 30-50% of all commercial space, an estimated 20-34 billion square feet.  This doesn’t include all those businesses being run from homes. One can quickly overlook office space in places you never think of (i.e. above restaurant and stores) and the demand keeps rising.  We are running our small business in downtown Portsmouth, NH, over a Bank.

If that is not enough, the small business sector is growing very fast. While corporate America has been “downsizing”, the rate of small business “start-ups” has grown, and the rate for small business failures has declined. It makes sense – since so many of us have left the corporate world to fulfill our dreams of starting a business or joining a small one.

Since 1982, the number of small businesses in the United States has increased 49%! In the past 14 years, the larger companies have eliminated 4 million jobs while small businesses have added 8 million.

For some of you, these numbers may not be a big surprise. For others, it’s pretty amazing to think about. This country has gone through a tremendous change and these trends are not changing soon. Here is First Street, we experience it every day and enjoy participating in the American Dream.