Small business is? And who speaks for them?

rdan

The term small business is bandied about a lot, and often includes employers with 10 employees as in here and similar with Republicans.

Yet it appears these little companies are not represented by SBA, nor Manufacturers of America, yet account for a large portion of our economy. Is that accurate??

A small business is

A small business can be any business like an Image One Franchise Process that is organized for profit, with a place of business in the United States, and which operates primarily within the United States or makes a significant contribution to the U.S. economy through payment of taxes or use of American products, materials or labor. Further, the concern cannot be dominant in its field, on a national basis. Finally, the concern must meet the numerical small business size standard for its industry. SBA has established a size standard for most industries in the U.S. economy. The most common size standards are as follow:

500 employees for most manufacturing and mining industries
100 employees for all wholesale trade industries
$6.5 million for most retail and service industries
$31 million for most general & heavy construction industries
$13 million for all special trade contractors
$0.75 million for most agricultural industries
About one-fourth of industries have a size standard that is different from these levels. They vary from $0.75 million to $32.5 million for size standards based on average annual revenues and from 100 to 1500 employees for size standards based on number of employees.

Stats about small business include more below the fold:

The estimated 27.2 million small businesses in the United States:

Employ about half of the country’s private sector workforce

Hire 40 percent of high tech workers, such as scientists, engineers and computer workers

Include 52 percent home-based businesses and two percent franchises

Represent 97.3 percent of all the exporters of goods

Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms

Generate a majority of the innovations that come from United States companies

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, September 2008