This year’s Small Business Week is at a time when many small businesses are facing uncertainty and unprecedented financial difficulties due to coronavirus and shelter-in-place orders. But what is a small business, exactly, and how important are they to the US economy?
What is a “small” business? It depends.
Businesses with fewer than 500 employees are generally thought of as small businesses—the CARES Act frequently cites this number when describing the Paycheck Protection Program. In reality, the Small Business Administration (SBA) uses a complex set of size standards to determine small business eligibility. These size standards consider a variety of industry characteristics like degree of competition, average firm size, technological changes, and growth trends.
