“The business of America is business.” —Calvin Coolidge
The U.S. GDP is now close to an awe inspiring $18 billion,1 and “small businesses” (generally defined as 500 or fewer employees) contributed around 46 percent of that total.2 As of 2013, there were 28 million of them (compared to about 20,000 “large” businesses), accounting for 54 percent of all annual sales,3 33.6 percent of known export value ($471 billion out of $930 billion), 48 percent of private sector employees (57 million out of 118 million employees) and 41.2 percent of private payroll.4 And yet, 80 percent (23 million) of these tiny economic engines of growth, are armies of one, with no employees at all.5
