Tiny Businesses Becoming More Common

By Doug Caverly - Wed, 08/13/2008 - 11:29am.

Going solo profitable in some cases

This bit of news could be good or bad, and insofar as the businesses it concerns have a nonsensical name, it's also a little odd to present. But the number of nonemployer businesses (small businesses with just an owner or two) is on the rise and hit new highs in 2006.

First off: sorry for the "nonemployer" term. You can blame the U.S Census Bureau for that, and its slowness is also the reason the data looks old. The Bureau's involvement at least ensures some degree of accuracy and impartiality, though.

So, according to the Census Bureau, there were 20.7 million nonemployer businesses in 2006. If these businesses can be treated as a step up from normal conditions - suppose a factory drone started a jet ski shop - the large number is great. If they're more the results of layoffs - suppose a 9-to-5 exec resorted to mowing neighbors' lawns - the climb may be less good.

Perhaps one sign of what's positive and negative can be taken from a financial breakdown. Anita Campbell writes, "These no-employee businesses brought in $970 Billion in revenues in 2006. Almost half of the revenue came from just 3 economic sectors: real estate and rental and leasing ($193 billion); construction ($159 billion); and professional, scientific and technical services ($124 billion). About 7.9 million businesses (38% of the total number) were in these three sectors."

So things are going well enough in some sectors, anyway. These stats can act as pointers to anyone wanting to lower an employee count or start a new business, too.

News Tags: Management, employees, Census Bureau

About the author:
Doug Caverly is a staff writer for SmallBusinessNewz.

Comments

By MaryAnn (SBN reader) - Fri, 08/22/2008 - 1:00am.

One-sy Businesses

And expect that number to skyrocket in 2008 and 2009! People are migrating to small businesses by the millions. Big business missed the boat on a number of counts: providing challenge, providing security, providing equitable income, providing flexible schedules, and simply enjoying the fact that employees are people, not robots. Every time that I mention that I work at home, the response is the same: "Wow! That must be great." (Yes, it is great.) While millions of people are dreaming of the day they can work for themselves, millions more are doing something about it. Lots of those "non employer businesses" are part time businesses, begun by people who want to migrate to a work at home business. And a huge percentage of those businesses are online businesses. These online businesses provide so much that people are looking for: challenge, income, variety, and the opportunity to be available for their families. This is a revolution not seen in the workforce since Ford invented the assembly line. And it is none too soon.

By Jessica Franke (SBN reader) - Sat, 08/23/2008 - 10:56am.

small businesses

I am a "nonemployer" and loving it! I used to have a regular 9-5 job in the tech industry. I was overworked and underpaid. I watched my 2 young male co-workers (who I trained and who constantly needed to ask for my assistance) take 2 hour lunch breaks and come back drunk whenever they pleased, while I often worked through my nonpaid lunch as a favor for my manager. I was constantly praised as being the fastest, the most reliable, and the best - only to see those slackers get promoted before me and even get bigger raises because they went to the same church as the upper management and were old college buddies too. Everyone knew these people came to work drunk, and that they drank on their lunch break, yet nothing was ever done about it because management was drinking with them or playing video games all day). It got very tiring to give 150% every day when the only reward I got was a lot of meaningless praise but no raise and no promotion. Actually, it was sickening. I finally decided to turn my part time web design company of 10 years into a full time business 3 years ago, and I could not be happier. I no longer work gruelling hours and do favors for drunks on my lunch break. I set my own hours - and since I am still a workaholic, that just means that I get to be more productive for myself rather than for someone else. It's a great feeling.

By Business (SBN reader) - Sun, 09/07/2008 - 10:32am.

Small Business

Small business making waves is always great news for the economy. It's easier now, more than ever, for people to start and run a business with the great technology we have at our fingertips.

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