By Bill Rubin St. Croix Economic Development Corporation Executive Director National Small Business Week is cele brated annually. In 2022, it’s scheduled for May 1 7 and carries the theme, Building …
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By Bill Rubin
St. Croix Economic Development Corporation Executive Director
National Small Business Week is cele
brated annually. In 2022, it’s scheduled for May 1
7 and carries the theme, Building a Better America Through Entrepreneur ship. Small businesses have faced the brink of late. Think: offshore production, then onshore, workforce shortages, aging demographics, COVID, PPP (Paycheck Protection Program), the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), rising costs, and supply chain woes.
One thing is certain. U.S. small busi
nesses possess several common threads – resiliency, ingenuity, and creativity. Maybe they were down, but they certainly weren’t out. They’ll come back even stronger from whatever brink poses a threat.
The impact of small business is easily overlooked. They enjoy strength in num
bers:
•The U.S. has 32.5 million small busi
nesses;
•Small business employment includes
61.2 million people or 46.8% of U.S. em
ployees;
•99.9% of all firms are considered “small;”
•The definition of “small” varies by industry type, but usually means an independ
ent busi
ness with fewer than
500 em
ployees;
•62% of net new jobs are attributable to small busi
nesses; and
•39.7% of private sector payrolls are generated from small businesses Move over, the “face” of small business is changing:
•9.22% are minority owned;
•11.69% are female owned;
•3.97% are Hispanic owned;
•3.08 are African American owned;
•2.54% are Asian American owned; and
•1.76% are veteran owned In Wisconsin, there are more than
461,500 small businesses, or 99.4% of all businesses. They employ 1.3 million asso
ciates or 49% of all employees. Small businesses in Wisconsin make a global im
pact. An estimated 7,647 businesses,
85.6% of the total, exported $5.6 billion worth of goods and services in 2019.
And the beat goes on. In St. Croix County, the Census QuickFacts indicates there were slightly more than 2,300 “em
ployer establishments” in 2019. They em
ployed almost 33,000 people and reported a total annual payroll of $1.36 billion. Em ployment increased 2.3% from 2018 to
2019. The numbers of women owned and minority
owned firms are up, too.
Pierce County boasts around 790 em
ployer establishments as of 2019, employ ing over 7,220 associates and a total payroll of $254.4 million. Employment ticked
up 0.4 percent from 2018 to 2019. Minority
owned, women owned, and vet
eran
owned firms continue to pop up, too.
In reality, Small is Big. In the classic match
up of small versus big, don’t count out David or Davida against Goliath. Quicker, nimbler, hungrier, and more eager gives the advantage to the seeming underdog called small business.
Here’s to National Small Business Week. Go Small Go!
Bill Rubin