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Roger Bauer — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:17:58 +0000

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Survey: Small companies cut hiring plans

Roger Bauer — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:47:00 +0000

The share of small businesses planning to hire in the near future fell in February, the survey by the National Federation of Independent Business says, underlining weakness in overall job growth during the month.

NFIB says 13% of the 725 small companies surveyed last month planned to hire in the next three months, down four points from January. Despite that shift, the trade association says in a note: “Overall, job creation should continue to be reasonably strong, assuming owners can find a few qualified applicants or that higher wage offers convince some individuals to re-enter the labor force.”

The NFIB survey results followed the U.S. Labor Department’s report on Friday showing companies of all sizes created just 97,000 jobs in February, the fewest in two years.

Small Business Facts

Roger — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 23:24:25 +0000

Small Businesses:

Represent 99.9% of the approximate 25.8 million businesses in the US (2005 Census)
Represent 99.7% of all employer firms
Employ half of all private sector employees
Pay > 45% of total U.S. payroll
Have generated 60-80% of nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP)
Produce 13-14 times more patents/employee than large patenting firms
Are 53% home based and 3% franchises
80% fail within 5 years
96% fail within 10 years
85% of leadership teams spend less than one hour/week on business strategy
90% of strategies fail due to execution

*Source: US Bureau of the Census

Small Businesses in Kentucky:

In 2004, there were 317,115 small businesses in KY (increase of 2% over 2003)
179,264 of those were self employed people (increase of 4.4% over 2003)

*Source: US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Statistics

Women Owned Businesses in KY:

In 2002, there were 77,232 WOB’s which was an increase of 17% from 1997.
Generated $9.5 billion in revenues
Represented 31.4% of the self-employed people

*Source: US Dept of Labor, Bureau of Statistics

Common Issues Facing Small Businesses

Cash Flow
Finding & Retaining Talent
New Customer Generation
Customer Service

Small businesses often lack:

Strategic planning staff
Competitive research analysts
Large IT functions
Large HR staff
Systematic approach

Frequent needs of small businesses

Improve upon current success
Focused direction for action (strategy)
Appropriate involvement by Senior Management
Strategic use of technology
Better training of staff
Quality people
Effective use of consultants, VARs, vendors, and CPAs
Clearly defined vision which employees can connect with and are motivated by