Thanks to Jim Hopkins at Small Biz for leading me to NFIB, the Voice of Small Business with 411 facts about small businesses.

Looking for information for a presentation, a business plan proposal or financial application? NFIB either has the answer or will lead you to a website that can help.

Why are small business important?

Small business in the United States serves many purposes. Among them:

1. it supplies goods and services that customers demand,

2. it is a major innovator; a laboratory of economic experiment,

3. it generates the lion's share of net new jobs,

4. it stabilizes economic cycles through relatively small employment swings,

5. its owners provide neighborhood and community leadership,

6. it is an avenue of economic opportunity,

7. it enhances pluralism in economic decision-making, and

8. it offers personal utility, i.e., personal satisfaction and happiness to its owners.

(Source: compiled by William J. Dennis, Jr., NFIB Research Foundation.)

Looking for small business facts in your state? NFIB recommends the Office of Advocacy which provides "a review of how small businesses fared in their respective states and how they contributed to the economic condition in their states and that of the United States."

Thanks, Jim for the info! Great stuff.

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Writer