Abstract

Small firms Official definitions vary by country and, in some cases, by sector within the same country. Most official definitions use numerical categories relating to number of employees and/or turnover. In the United States, for example, to qualify as a small guesthouse or restaurant, the business would have to have a turnover of less than $7m ($30m for a small hotel). The Australian Bureau of Statistics, by contrast, states that trading organisations with up to 19 employees are small; in Europe, a small firm is usually defined as one that employs between 10 and 49 employees. A key characteristic of a small firm for the purposes of this chapter is that it is managed by the owner of the business.