Small Biz is Booming!

VerticalResponse is HQ'd in South Beach, it's adjacent to South of Market (SOMA) the up-and-coming area of San Francisco. When we moved here back in 2003, it was like the dot.com bomb exploded and the center of it was right here. Expensive office spaces were vacant and retailers were closing up shop. We got a great deal to move, but not too many places to eat.

So now we look around our little slice of SF, retailers are rolling in, restaurants are packed, office space is getting pricey and not much of it is left around here. To top it off, it's getting hard to hire - we have 4 open positions! And these businesses that are moving in are real. They're making real money and not dot.com funded either.

This week was declared Small Business Week in DC in celebration of our entrepreneurial spirit. Top lenders were recognized for their support of small businesses. VC's are investing in things they would never have thought to invest in. In 2001 we were laughed at for trying to service the small business market, "It's like marketing to consumers Janine, you'll never get enough money to do that." I heard this over and over. Well it's time for small businesses to shine!

According to the US Census Bureau small firms:

• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ half of all private sector employees.
• Pay 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade.
• Create more than 50 percent of nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
• Produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms. These patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.
• Are employers of 41 percent of high tech workers
  
• Are 53 percent home-based and 3 percent franchises.

So for all of you small businesses out there, guess what? You're important, keep growing. And happy small business week to you!