Learn how the SBA defines small businesses by revenue and employees, and what that means for taxes, certifications, and federal contracts. There is no single definition of a “small business” in federal law. The legal definition of "small business" varies by country and by industry.

Understanding the Context

In addition to the number of employees, methods used to classify small companies include annual sales (turnover), the value of assets and net profit (balance sheet), alone or as a combination of factors. What is a small business? It sounds like an easy question, but the answer is far from simple. If you ask officials at the U.S.

Key Insights

Small Business Administration, they’ll say it varies by industry. For ... Small business strategy often gets framed in heroic terms—David vs. Goliath, the underdog facing off against corporate giants. But what if that’s the wrong story?

Final Thoughts

I recently worked with a group of ... The SBA, for most industries, defines a “small business” either in terms of the average number of employees over the past 12 months, or average annual receipts over time. A small business is a firm of limited size, as measured by revenue or number of employees, or both. It can be structured in different ways for tax and legal purposes. You can find out if your business qualifies as small by using the size standards tool, or by referencing SBA's table of small business size standards. Both the tool and the table help you find the small business classification requirements according to individual NAICS codes.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) typically defines small businesses as independent operations with fewer than 500 employees. This threshold changes substantially by industry. What Qualifies as a Small Business? A Practical Guide to SBA Standards ...