There are currently 26.5 million businesses in the United States, and according to a recent infographic released by The Local Search Association, 2016 may be a big year for small businesses in particular.
The infographic contains a significant amount of information concerning small business and small business marketing, which helps sum up the areas that a small business should be focused on.
The infographic states that 91% of all businesses in the United States have four or fewer employees. While it’s common to hear about large businesses in the media, small businesses make up half of the U.S. workforce and account for 54% of all sales.
However, small businesses in New York City aren’t so optimistic about the future.
The average small business owner in NYC doesn’t believe that things will get better this year. In fact, they believe the opposite.
The entrepreneurs running these businesses are actually less likely to hire new help in 2016 and expect their overall sales to worsen this year compared to 2015.
The Bank of America’s annual look at small business found that 52% of New York entrepreneurs expect their businesses to grow over the next five years, which is down from 64% last year.
Despite the numbers, officials believe that entrepreneurs are still optimistic about the future.
“I would say they’re cautious, but still optimistic,” said Michael Angelone, small-business banking manager at Bank of America.
The most positive note that came from Bank of America’s report was that two-thirds of small business owners believe a higher minimum wage will be good for the economy.
According to the Local Search Association, what these NYC business owners might need is a little bit of marketing help.
LSA’s infographic states that only 34% of small businesses market themselves to get new customers, and only 31% of small businesses do marketing to drive people to their Facebook page or website.
These numbers are important for small business owners to consider, especially those struggling in NYC.
Additionally, the infographic suggests that online marketing efforts and measurements of effectiveness are the key to actually gauging how well a business is doing.
Surprisingly, 71% of small businesses manage their marketing internally, rather than hiring a company to do it for them. However, Business 2 Community suggests that a tool to help automate and track this process would be “very valuable.”
