The State of Small Businesses in the US

Despite having fewer employees and customers than the average large business, small businesses have a significant presence in our economy, promoting innovation, expanding opportunities and driving job creation. Following pandemic-related large shutdowns, changes in operations, and even entire overhauls of small enterprises, these businesses will confront new problems in the coming years.

Lawnstarter put up a list of  significant facts and trends that small business owners should be aware of in 2023. To extract relevant and helpful recommendations that may be applied to nearly any sort of business, information was gathered from economy specialists, government papers, market research, and financial news.

Shop Small
Small Business Saturday

As consumer spending continues to recover, consumers in local communities turned up in droves for Small Business Saturday on November 27.

Since American Express first launched the movement in 2010, consumer have spent an estimated $163 billion at small businesses on Small Business Saturday. This year, thousands of Americans from all 50 states participated in Small Business Saturday in their local communities.

American Express predicts that $0.67 of every dollar spent at a small company stays in the local community. This has the potential to increase sales during the 2022 holiday season.

What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday is an American shopping holiday falling neatly between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, boasting one of the year’s busiest shopping weeks. Small Business Saturday is mainly an inspirational holiday or a rally for supporting small businesses in local communities over big-box retailers or Amazon.

The day gained popularity, owing primarily to the Shop Small Movement, and was acknowledged by the US Senate in 2011. It has increased since then, with 2020 having record sales increases of more than 500% and revenue growth of 300%.

Being close to end-of-the-year holidays, SBS sales are expected to skyrocket. In 2022, projections expect for holiday retail sales to reach an all-time high ($960.4 billion). Up to $224.31 billion will be targeted for online purchases.

Local Support

Supporters bring their community together with events and activities on Small Business Saturday and throughout the year.

Small Adds Up

The dollars you spend at a local business in your community can add up and go back to the community.

Product Diversity

Small businesses have just as much access to vendors (who also determine pricing, not stores) that big box businesses do.

Making an Impact

For every cup of coffee bought from your neighborhood cafe or gift from a local artist's online store, you are buying small and making a difference.

Small Business Saturday Statistics

$23.3 billion were spent at SBS

American Express 2021 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey reported that spending among U.S. consumers who shopped at independent retailers and restaurants on Small Business Saturday reached an estimated $23.3 billion, an increase of 18 percent from $19.8 billion in 2020. More than 51 million people participated in the SBS.

58% of shoppers shopped online

A major source of revenue for small businesses, was somewhat higher on the day, with 58% of customers making an online purchase, up from 56% in 2020 and 43% in 2019.

SBS is critical for small businesses

More than half (56%) of small businesses believed that this year's Small Business Saturday was more important than ever for their company, and 78% believed that holiday sales will effect their ability to remain open in 2022.

70% of respondents would recommend others to shop small

Small Business Saturday turned out to be inspiring, with 70% of respondents reporting that they would recommend others to buy at small, independently-owned retailers.

General Small Business Statistics

There is never a dearth of small businesses in the US. There are millions of them, and the number fluctuates on a regular basis as thousands close and others open.

There are 33.2 million small businesses

By December 2021 there were a total of 33.2 million small businesses in the U.S., accounting for 99.9% of all private establishments.

Small businesses employ 61.7 million workers

Small businesses have an estimated 61.7 million employees, making up a whopping 38.85% of all employees in the United States. Still, 81% of small businesses have no employees.

42,650 new small businesses opened in 2020

Between March 2019 and March 2020 1 million new small businesses came into existence, while 909,808 closed their doors, enjoying a year over year (YoY) net increase of 42,650 businesses.

There are over 360,000 Landscaping small businesses

The typical landscaping business has 2 employees, while the industry as a whole employs over 1.2 million people.

Small business count by size and industry

The industries listed below have the highest number of small businesses and employees operating in the US.