Small business stays strong

“(In) southwest Missouri, and Springfield specifically, small business just literally carries our economy,” Williams said. “But for small business, this economy wouldn't be clicking the way it clicks.”

Williams said 85 percent of the Chamber's 2,000 members have 20 employees or fewer.

“We have a good atmosphere for growing small businesses,” said Mary Lilly Smith, Springfield's economic development director. “We have a large number of small-business startups here, and they seem to do well.”

So well, in fact, that Springfield's branch office of the U.S. Small Business Administration helped secure a record $98 million in loans during its 2005 fiscal year.

Steve Aduddle, SBA's Springfield branch manager, said the 484 loans guaranteed through the local office in FY 2005 matched the 2004 total, while the $98 million awarded beat the previous record, set in 2004, by $2 million.

The record number of loans guaranteed through the Springfield branch office is 540, set in 1995.

Half of all Missouri workers - 1.1 million - plied their trades at firms with fewer than 500 employees in 2004, according to the SBA. Figures for 2005, Aduddle said, are not yet available.

Small businesses - those with 250 employees or fewer - account for 75 percent of the state's businesses, according to Greg Steinhoff, director of Missouri's Department of Economic Development.

“Springfield has been very effective and very aggressive in doing things to build its business base,” said Steinhoff, who touted science initiatives such as Springfield's Jordan Valley Innovation Center, 524 Boonville Ave., as a future driver of small-business growth.