Celebrate “Independents” this July

July is the month that many countries celebrate their independence. In addition to Canada Day on July 1st, Independece Day in the U.S. on July 4th, and Fete Nationale (Bastille Day) on July 14th in France, more than two dozen countries celebrate national holidays of statehood in July. This makes July the perfect time to celebrate being an independent retailer. Some interesting statistics from the U.S. Small Business Administration show small businesses:

• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ about half of all private sector employees.
• Pay more than 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade.
• Create more than half of non-farm private gross domestic product (GDP).
• Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced 28.6 percent of the known export value in FY 2004.

The number of new small businesses has grown steadily over the past few years. In 2002 there were about 570,000 new small firms. That number grew to almost 650,000 new businesses in 2006.

So this month, as many countries celebrate their independence, independent dealers should also celebrate their independence!

Reprinted from Central Vac Professional, July 2008