What are small business size standards?
While the Small Business Act outlines a very broad definition of what constitutes a small business, the SBA publishes its own size standards that define whether a business entity is “small”. The most widely used, and SBA-endorsed, sizing criteria for small businesses is the following – the business must have no more than 500 employees for most manufacturing and mining industries, and no more than $7 million in average annual receipts for most nonmanufacturing industries. To get a more accurate picture and find out if your particular business can be classified as a “small business”, you can refer to this Summary of Size Standards by Industry or, for more specific detail, refer to the SBA’s Table of Small Business Size Standards. The SBA’s sizing standards published in these links are matched to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and are stated in number of employees or average annual receipts. Also, be aware that the SBA always outlines the largest size that a bu
