Revenue Size

While a small business is defined as one with fewer than 500 employees, a firm’s size may also be measured by its annual revenues. The small business landscape includes a wide spectrum of businesses – from a gig-work business bringing in $20 thousand per year as the owner’s side hustle to a well-established firm with more than $10 million in annual revenues.

The experiences and challenges of small businesses vary significantly by firms’ revenue size. The Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS) collects data on annual revenues and provides perspectives on differences across revenue size categories. For example, the SBCS finds that smaller-revenue firms often have much different credit needs than their larger counterparts. Smaller-revenue firms tend to be relatively young, carry substantially higher credit risk, and are much less likely to be approved for financing than larger firms.