How are U.S. small businesses doing in the midst of the trade and recession talk? According to the Kabbage Small Business Revenue Index, they are experiencing double-digit gains.
In fact, revenue for small businesses grew by 19.2% between January 2018 and January 2019. The number from Q2 2018 to Q2 2019 is an impressive 18.5%, and from Q1 2019 to Q2 2019 it is 7.6%. And when it comes to individual states, Vermont was on top with an increase in revenue growth of 118.2% since January 2017.
In addition to a solid economy, the use of technology is allowing small businesses to experience revenue growth. The Kabbage Small Business Revenue Index is using technology to provide businesses with insights about the segment.
According to Kabbage, this is a segment which didn’t enjoy live financial trends data in the past. In the press release, Kabbage Head of Analytics, David Snitkof, says it is one of a kind tool. The interactive index will have an ongoing pulse on the financial health of local American small businesses. This includes restaurants, hair salons, dentists, lawn care providers, boutique shops and more.
Snitkof added, “The Kabbage Small Business Revenue Index is unlike other tools or resources that supply small business growth trends as it analyzes the live data of companies instead of relying on static reports, survey responses or lagging research.”
Historically this information has been unavailable for public consumption and research.
The Index
The Kabbage Small Business Revenue Index draws from more than 200,000 small businesses and 2+ million live data connections. It reports on the ongoing revenue performance of these businesses across the U.S. in real-time as well as year-over-year (YoY).
You can search the index by industry and state to see how small businesses across the country are performing. This includes single industries and states or the data as a whole for all industries and states.
The index has a committee which reviews the analysis to make sure the calculations are sound and address any revolving biases. It also allows third-party experts to analyze and review the overall methodology and outputs of the Kabbage Index.
Small Business Revenue Statistics
Together with the above-mentioned small business revenue statistics, the index also reveals small businesses had the most significant YoY revenue growth in April and May 2019 (19.9 and 23.3 percent, respectively). This is compared to any other YoY observation in the Index.
When it comes to industries, transportation and warehousing generated the largest revenue growth (71.9%) since January 2017. The growth is just slightly higher than the construction industry at 71.8%.
Why is This Index so important?
The best answer comes from, Jackson Mueller, Associate Director at the Center of Financial Markets, Milken Institute.
In the release, Mueller says, “The impact small businesses have on the economy is significant. Too often small businesses can be over-generalized in local and national political debates and the Kabbage Index provides an empirical analysis which can be a foundation to frame policy discussions aimed to support local business across states and industries.”
Even though the impact of small businesses on the U.S. economy is well understood, this data can be used to further support their efforts of business owners.
You can access all of the information from the interactive index here
Image: Depositphotos.com