Census finds more owner-only firms

Advertiser Staff

Small businesses are growing at a faster pace, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The number of businesses with one or more owners but no paid employees grew nationwide from 17 million in 2001 to more than 17.6 million in 2002, a growth rate of 3.9 percent, said a report issued yesterday by the Census Bureau.

The rate of increase during the 2000 to 2001 period was 2.7 percent.

Nevada led the nation in the growth of small businesses with a 7.4 percent increase between 2001 and 2002.

Hawai'i was 44th in the nation in terms of growth of small businesses with no paid employees. Hawai'i had 76,398 small businesses with $3.06 billion in sales in 2002. The number of businesses was up 1.9 percent from 2001 and sales were up 5.3 percent.

Nationally, these small businesses make up more than 70 percent of all businesses. They may be run by one or more individuals, can range from home-based businesses to corner stores or construction contractors and often are part-time ventures with owners operating more than one business at a time.

Nonemployer businesses having significant growth between 2001 and 2002 include landscaping services (21.5 percent), janitorial services (20.4 percent), nail salons (8.7 percent), real estate agents (7.1 percent), child-care providers (5.9 percent) and beauty salons (5.6 percent).

Four economic sectors accounted for 60 percent of non-employer receipts — real estate and rental and leasing ($161.8 billion or 21.0 percent); construction ($115.3 billion or 15.0 percent); professional, scientific and technical services ($96.4 billion or 12.5 percent); and retail trade ($77.9 billion or 10.1 percent).

Nationwide, receipts totaled $770 billion — up 5.5 percent between 2001 and 2002. The report has data on 15.4 million individual proprietorships and on more than 1.1 million corporations. Nonemployer firms do not cover all self-employed individuals since many self-employed business owners have paid employees.