1) Before Covid, in a recent 10-year period, 48 million net new jobs were created, a solid 31% increase in new jobs.

2) Stage 1 (1-9 employees) and Stage 2 (10-99 employees) companies accounted for 95% of these 48 million jobs.

3) Stage 3 companies (100-499 employees) created 2.6 million jobs or the remaining 5%.

4) The companies of phase 4 (more than 500 employees) lost one million jobs during the same period.

The numbers can present false narratives. The numbers above create a compelling case for jumping on the small business and entrepreneurship bandwagon. We can see that placing all of our eggs in the basket of wooing only large and medium-sized manufacturing companies goes against the grain, the game is stacked firmly against your community to be successful in this quest. With more than 10,000 communities wooing these large companies, the chances of success are slim. Successful communities are generally advanced in the courtship game. In other words, the odds of getting one of these great companies are like the odds of winning the national lottery. Don’t get me wrong, if you are in a good location and lucky enough to be successful, this is great! But don’t make the mistake of resting easily, this is also the best opportunity to improve your efforts to support and grow small businesses. But for the rest of those communities that are unable to attract these big companies, you have little choice but to devote your efforts to a more lucrative playing field for local small businesses.