Business Opportunities Weblog

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  Hendry Lee on June 22nd, 2006 7:07 am

  If you google define:”small business” you’ll actually see different definition of the same term.

  When it comes to revenue, some say $25m, another says $5m or less.

  Employee size: fewer than 500, one entry says less than 100. They are not small IMO, but from the definition we can say 10-20 is also a small business.
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  Dane on June 22nd, 2006 7:53 am

  Just shows that depending on who’s doing the defining determines everything!
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  Mike Stamler on June 23rd, 2006 5:46 am

  It goes to show that people who don’t knw what they’re talking about have the ability to define things, as well. In truth, the 500 employees standard has nothing to do with eligibility for small businesses for federal programs. It is a common research definition, nothing more. SBA is required by law to set eligibility definitions by industry, so they differ from industry to industry.The general range of size standards by industry division follows:

  Construction – General building and heavy construction contractors have a size standard of $31 million in average annual receipts. Special trade construction contractors have a size standard of $13 million. The size standard for Land Subdivision is $6.5 million in average annual receipts. The size standard for Dredging is $18.5 million in average annual receipts.

  Manufacturing – For approximately 75 percent of the manufacturing industries, the size standard is 500 employees. A small number have a 1,500 employee size standard and the balance have a size standard of either 750 or 1,000 employees.

  Mining – All mining industries, except mining services, have a size standard of 500 employees.

  Retail Trade – Most retail trade industries have a size standard of $6.5 million in average annual receipts. A few, such as grocery stores, department stores, motor vehicle dealers and electrical appliance dealers, have higher size standards. None are above $26.5 million.

  Services – For the service industries, the most common size standard is $6.5 million in average annual receipts. Computer programming, data processing and systems design have a size standard of $23 million. Engineering and architectural services have different size standards, as do a few other service industries. The highest annual receipts size standard in any service industry is $32.5 million. Research and development and environmental remediation services are the only service industries with size standards stated in number of employees.

  Wholesale Trade – For all wholesale trade industries, a size standard of 100 employees is applicable for loans and other financial programs. When acting as a dealer on Federal contracts set aside for small business or issued under the 8(a) program, the size standard is 500 employees and the firm must deliver the product of a small domestic manufacturer, as set forth in SBA’s nonmanufacturer rule, unless waived by the SBA for a particular class of product. However, for those procurements made under the Simplified Acquisition Procedures of the FAR and where the purchase does not exceed $25,000, the nonmanufacturer may deliver the goods of any domestic manufacturer.

  For more details, see: http://www.sba.gov/size/indexguide.html

• Business Opportunity » The ABC of Business Cards on June 23rd, 2006 11:23 pm

  [...] When Is a Business Officially ?Small?Jim Hopkins:: It’s small when it has fewer than 500 workers, the U.S. Small Business Administration reminds us in its recently updated fact sheet on small companies. Big business must really be big, because even 50 employees seems like way too many to me. [...]

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