It wasn’t long ago that we were suspicious of buying products and services from a business without a national brand. We would hesitate to enter our credit card information for an Internet purchase. 

Today, “small business” and “entrepreneur” are household words. We readily search the Internet for products we want and purchase from little-known companies. We celebrate Small Business Saturday and are proud to buy local. Statistics everywhere, while differing in the details, point to small business as an increasingly integral part of our economy.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration – or SBA – small businesses make up 99.7 percent of U.S. employers. While you may object that the SBA’s definition of a “small business” is a company with 500 or fewer employees, more than three-quarters of these businesses are owner-operated with no additional employees, with many others employing just a handful of staff.