Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to apply for government support and qualify for preferential tax policy. The qualifications vary depending on the country and industry. Small businesses range from fifteen employees under the Australian Fair Work Act 2009, fifty employees according to the definition used by the European Union, and fewer than five hundred employees to qualify for many U.S. Small Business Administration programs. While small businesses can be classified according to other methods, such as annual revenues, shipments, sales, assets, annual gross, net revenue, net profits, the number of employees is one of the most widely used measures. Small businesses in many countries include service or retail operations such as convenience stores or tradespeople. Some professionals operate as small businesses, such as lawyers, accountants, or medical doctors (although these professionals can also work for large organizations or companies). Small businesses vary a great deal in terms of size, revenues, and regulatory authorization, both within a country and from country to country. Some small businesses, such as a home accounting business, may only require a business license. On the other hand, other small businesses, such as day cares, retirement homes, and restaurants serving liquor are more heavily regulated and may require inspection and certification from various government authorities.
Characteristics
Researchers and analysts of small or owner-managed businesses generally behave as if nominal organizational forms (e.g., partnership, sole-trader, or corporation), and the consequent legal and accounting boundaries of owner-managed firms are consistently meaningful. However, owner-managers often do not distinguish between their personal and business interests. Lenders also often skirt organizational (corporate) boundaries by seeking personal guarantees or accepting privately held assets as collateral. Because of this behavior, researchers and analysts may wish to be cautious in assessing the organizational types and implied boundaries relating to owner-managed firms. This includes the analysis of traditional accounting disclosures and studies that treat the firm as defined by a formal organizational structure.
Concepts of small business, self-employment, entrepreneurship, and startup
The concepts of small business, self-employment, entrepreneurship, and startup overlap but carry important distinctions. These four concepts are often conflated. Their key differences can be summarized as:
self-employment: an organization created primarily to provide income to the founders, i.e. sole proprietor operations. entrepreneurship: all new organizations. startup: a new organization created to grow (and have employees). small business: an organization that is small (in employees or revenue) and may or may not have the intention to grow. Many small businesses are sole proprietor operations consisting only of the owner, but many have additional employees. Some small businesses that offer a product, process or service, do not have growth as their primary objective. In contrast, a business that is created to become a big firm is known as a startup. Startups aim for growth and often offer an innovative product, process, or service. The entrepreneurs of startups typically aim to scale up the company by adding employees, seeking international sales, and so on, a process which is often but not always financed by venture capital and angel investments. Well-known examples of startups that grew into large companies include Microsoft, Genentech, and Federal Express. Self-employment provides work primarily for the founders. Entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to grow large or become registered, whereas startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow beyond the founders, have employees, and become large.
Size definitions The legal definition of "small business" varies by country and by industry. 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.
In India, all the manufacturing and service enterprises having investment "Not more than Rs 10 crore" and Annual Turnover "not more than Rs 50 crore" come under this category. In the United States, the Small Business Administration establishes small business size standards on an industry-by-industry basis but generally specifies a small business as having fewer than 500 employees for manufacturing businesses and less than $7.5 million in annual receipts for most non-manufacturing businesses. The definition can vary by circumstance—for example, a small business having fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees with average annual wages below $50,000 qualifies for a tax credit under the health care reform bill Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. By comparison, a medium-sized business or mid-sized business has fewer than 500 employees. The European Union generally defines a small business as one that has fewer than fifty employees and either turnover or balance sheet less than €10 m. but the European Commission is undertaking a review of this definition. By comparison, a medium-sized business has fewer than 250 employees and either turnover less than €50 m. or balance sheet less than €43 m. In Australia, a small business is defined by the Fair Work Act 2009 as one with fewer than 15 employees, although the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses less than 20 employees as its threshold. By comparison, a medium-sized business or mid-sized business has fewer than two hundred employees. In South Africa, the National Small Business Amendment Act (Act 26 of 2003) defines businesses in a variety of ways using five categories previously established by the National Small Business Act (Act 102 of 1996), namely, standard industrial sector and subsector classification, size of class, equivalent of paid employees, turnover and asset value excluding fixed property. Small businesses usually do not dominate their field. The following table serves as a guide to business size nomenclature.
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