Startups and small businesses are really important.  I cannot stress this enough.  The majority of my campaign policies revolve around spurring entrepreneurial growth, providing economic assistance and relief to startups and small businesses alike.  When we see a decline in business dynamism, policy must take steps to address such problems.  Unfortunately, because society, the economy, and US law are all heterogeneous in nature, it becomes very difficult to see how things are connected.

So I created an infographic.  This infographic shows the importance of startups and small business, showing not only their effect on job creation and the economy, but also conveying the economic impact of those firms.  There are some surprising numbers-

• 99.7% of US firm are startups or small businesses
• Startups and small business jobs make up about 48.5% of all private sector employment
• 46% of the private sector GDP comes from non-farm startups and small businesses
• Immigrants are twice as likely to start a business as native-born Americans
• Free trade benefits startups and small businesses; 98% of exporters fall into that category
• Those startup and small business exporters accounted for 34% of the total value of good exported in 2014
• They brought in roughly $782 billion in revenue, or 4.6% of the GDP that year.  Without those exporters, we would've had negative GDP growth!
• Woman and minority owned startups and small businesses that export employ more and pay more than non-exporters
• Women entrepreneurship is on the decline, while minority entrepreneurship is rising... except in the black community 🙁

The infographic also includes the results of Thumbtack's latest small business friendliness survey for 2016.  States play a major role in startup and small business growth, so when we see that much blue (ie, bad) rankings for them around the country, that tells us changes are required.

Sources for the data are at the bottom of the infographic in case you wish to check them out!