Small Business Facts in Honor of Small Business

Want to start a small business?

1)  The most in-demand small businesses are e-shopping and mail order, software publishers, computer services, and service specialists for buildings/residences.

2) What are the riskiest small businesses? Restaurants, retail stores and direct sales have the highest failure rates.

3) Several Hollywood actors are also business entrepreneurs – Ashton Kutcher co-founded a venture capital firm, Sandra Bullock owns two restaurants, and Steve Carell bought a general store.

4) Even politicians are into entrepreneurship – Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, founded a financial news company; Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, founded an investment firm; and Donald Trump founded (and folded) a lot of businesses.

Where to go to get funding

5) An appearance on “Shark Tank” might help you raise some money. Over the past three years, Scrub Daddy has brought in a total of $75 million in revenue. The company received $200,000 from investor Lori Greiner and gave her 20 percent equity.

6) There have been several “Shark Tank” pitches that fell absolutely flat. Investors refused to support a coffee shop for homeless cats, energy drinks for single middle-aged women, and an alarm clock that cooked bacon.

7) Venture capitalists invested $59 billion in small businesses in 2015.  Most of these businesses were new and early-stage.

8) Worried you might not get that business loan? You can relax a little: 90 percent of those who applied between 2013 and 2015 got approved.

9) Big bank loan approval rose 1.3 percent between February 2015 and February 2016. Institutional lenders rose a full 2 percent in the same time frame.

10) The Small Business Administration actively encourages its lenders to make microloans (those $50,000 or less) as part of the agency’s 7(a) loan program. Many banks don’t like to make loans less than $1 million  because they’re not profitable.

11) Roughly 7 percent of all small business start-up capital comes from credit cards.

ow to grow your small business

16) A new franchise business opens every eight minutes.

17) Texas was selected as the best state for small businesses in 2015; Rhode Island ranked worst.

18) Businesses close their doors for a number of reasons, but there’s no reason for you to be fearful. The long-term survival rate sits 80 percent higher than it was in 1977, almost 40 years of longer-lasting operations.

18) 2016 marks the fourth consecutive year of improved net profits for businesses with less than $5 million in annual revenue; current trends indicate 2017 may be the fifth.

19) If you need to get stuff done, do it on a Tuesday. According to a survey from Accountemps, Tuesdays are the most productive days of the week. Give up getting much done on Fridays – that’s the least productive day.