Oct

20

Must Have Resource - State Small Business Profiles

October 20, 2006 | Anita Campbell

U.S. state and territory profiles of small business

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy offers a very helpful series of individual state profiles of small businesses.  You will find profiles for every one of the 50 states, as well as the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa.  There is also a profile for the entire United States.

Each profile is a PDF document, but for 2006 you can also get the text version.  The text version is helpful for copying and pasting statistics into a business plan, for instance.  (You have to do a little adjusting because both right and left columns copy at the same time, but it is still faster than retyping statistics and standard verbiage.)

The profiles give you a good snapshot of the small business market in the United States.  For instance, from the overall United States profile you see that there are 19.5 million single-person businesses, and 5.5 million employer-businesses.  Of the employer-businesses, nearly all have under 100 employees. 

What’s more, you see the breakdown of businesses by industry. The industry breakdown is a starting point for understanding likely demand for specific B-to-B products and services.  Obvious example:  A construction business is going to have very different needs for computers than a consulting business or a health services business.

These profiles save a tremendous amount of time over going to the U.S. Census and slicing and dicing basic data on your own.  But of course, consider them just a starting point for your research.  You will need much more detailed research to really understand your market.

Go here for the U.S. state and territory small business profiles.


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind