"Ensuring the prosperity and growth of our Nation’s small businesses and creating a climate conducive to entrepreneurship are critical to strengthening the American economy. The spirit of entrepreneurship has been intertwined with the Nation’s history from the early entrepreneurs who laid the foundation for modern American commerce. Entrepreneurs built the industrial companies that helped to transform our Nation into an economic power, and today innovative startup companies proliferate across the country in a wide range of industries. Not only do small businesses now employ approximately half of the private sector workforce, nearly every American business starts small, implying that entrepreneurs play a critical role in economic growth and job creation..."
"...Small businesses, defined by the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy as independent businesses having 500 or fewer employees, account for more than half of nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP). These 27.5 million businesses, many of them family-owned companies, are a key part of the U.S. economy."
