Despite tough economic times, Small Business in Georgia remains strong. Below you will find the latest information on rankings and other vital data pertaining to the small business community in our state. To learn more, please contact Mary Ellen McClanahan, Director, Community & External Alliances at 404-962-4820 or memclanahan@georgia.org. (This page was updated on March 15, 2010.)

Small Business Facts

• There are approx. 737,600 incorporated businesses in Georgia (SOS: 3/10)

• 97.5% categorized as small by the Federal Gov’t. (< 500 employees) compared to 99.7% nationally

• 95% employ fewer than 50

• 87% of all of GA businesses employ 5 and under (AEO / US Census)

Georgia Rankings
• GA ranks #1 in US for Entrepreneurship – up from #3 (Kauffman 5/09) 
 

• GA ranks #1in US for best workforce - #3 in cost of living, transportation and infrastructure network – Top 20 in cost of doing business, technology & innovation, business friendliness and access to capital (CNBC 8/09)

• GA ranks #10 in US for states with a majority of women-owned firms (Center for Women’s Business Research 12/09)
 

• GA ranks 8th best state in US to do business, up from #10 (Site Selection 11/09)

• GA ranks #20 in US as having the best state tax systems (Small Business Survival Index 12/09)
 

• GA winner of Silver Shovel award recognizing the state’s business-friendly policies (Area Development 6/09)

• GA ranks 20th in US for Friendliest Policy Environment for Entrepreneurship (SBE Council 12/09)  

• GA ranks 19th in US for best Business Tax Index for Entrepreneurship & Small Business (SBE Council 4/09)

• GA ranks 4th (from 7th in ’08) as best state for jobs and business growth (Chief Executive Jan/Feb ’09)

• GA ranks in top 3 in US for number of franchisors (>100) headquartered in GA – (IFA 1/09)

• Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) are the fastest growing business segment; Women Business Enterprises (WBE) are the second fastest growing segment  (GMBEC 2/10)

• GA ranks #6 as Best State for Business (Forbes Magazine 9/09)

• GA ranks #8 in Top 10 Pro-Business States (6 years running) (Pollina Corporate Real Estate ’09)

• 18 GA companies made Inc. 500 list of nation’s fastest growing private businesses (Inc. 500 9/-09)

• 13 Fortune 500 companies are home to GA (Hoover’s 2/10) 
 

• GA’s Stage 1 business growth rate is 2.8 times national average and 2.4 times national average for Stage 2 growing companies (Lowe Foundation 11/08)

• Six GA women-owned companies made the list of the 50 fastest growing, women-owned companies in the U.S. (Entrepreneur.com 11/08)

Miscellaneous

• The top-performing 1% of firms in any given year generate roughly 40% of all new jobs; gazelle firms (ages 3-5 yrs.) comprise less than 1% of all companies yet generate roughly 10% of all new jobs (Kauffman 3/10)

• From ’05-07: Stage 1 (1-9 empl.) establishments created 73.2% of job growth and Stage 2 (10-99 empl.) created 25.8% of job growth (Lowe Foundation ’09)

• Second stage companies represent 10% of established businesses and 37% of jobs (EG 09)
 

• Between ‘07 and ‘08, GA added the 4th most people and was the 9th fastest growing state in terms of its year-over-year   growth rate.” (US Census)

• Half of the businesses started in ’08 were by minorities (FRBA ’08)
 

• Small businesses comprise over 50% of the workforce (SOS 2/09)

• Small firms with fewer than 20 employees created 80% of net new jobs from ’90-‘03 (SBA 3/08)

• Small businesses in inner cities added nearly 3x the number of new jobs than larger companies in ’95-’02 (SBA 3/08)

• Entrepreneurs responsible for 67% of inventions & 95% of radical innovations since WW II. (Public Forum Institute)

• 14% of Inc. 500’s fastest growing companies in the U.S. started with less than $1000

• The first 90 days of a business start up account for 14% of all hiring (WSJ 09)

                                                                                         Revised 3/15/10