The average U.S. small business with no employees took in about $57,600 in receipts in 2023, according to Census Bureau data — and that average hides an enormous spread. Wholesale trade averaged roughly $135,800 per business, while educational services averaged about $18,300. Here is the industry breakdown, and why the average makes a poor benchmark.
What is the average revenue for a small business?
There is no single answer, because small business is really two very different populations. The U.S. Census Bureau counted 30,427,808 nonemployer establishments in 2023 — businesses with no paid employees — and those firms took in close to $1.8 trillion in combined receipts, about 6.4 percent of GDP. Divide one into the other and the average nonemployer business earned roughly $57,600 for the year. Nonemployer firms make up 78.4 percent of all U.S. establishments, and the SBA Office of Advocacy puts them at 82.3 percent of the country's 36.2 million small businesses.
The other population is employer firms. Census Business Dynamics Statistics counted 5.58 million employer firms with 1 to 499 employees in 2023, up from 5.53 million the year before, and their revenue runs into the hundreds of thousands or millions. So a headline "average small business revenue" figure tells you almost nothing unless you know which group it describes. It is also worth knowing that the mean is pulled upward by a small number of large firms: about 76 percent of nonemployer businesses bring in less than $50,000 a year, so the typical business earns well below the average.
Which industries earn the most and least per business?
Ranked by average annual receipts per nonemployer business using 2023 Census figures, the spread runs roughly seven to one from top to bottom:
- Wholesale trade — about $135,845
- Real estate, rental and leasing — about $108,586
- Finance and insurance — about $101,136
- Utilities — about $98,441
- Construction — about $84,315
- Retail trade — about $64,084
- Administrative and support services — about $28,729
- Educational services — about $18,322
The pattern is not about who is most successful. Industries that move goods or capital post the highest receipts per business because revenue includes the cost of whatever they buy and resell — a wholesaler booking $135,000 in sales may keep less of it than a consultant booking $60,000. Industries where the owner mainly sells their own time, like tutoring or coaching, land at the bottom because there are only so many billable hours in a week. Receipts measure volume through the business, not what the owner takes home.
Why industry averages make a poor benchmark
Averages in this data include every registered side business and part-time venture, and there are millions of them. That mix is also why a growing sector can show a falling average: when Census tracked 2022 to 2023, nonemployer businesses in accommodation and food services grew 6.4 percent and transportation and warehousing grew 5.3 percent, largely through a wave of very small new entrants. Health and personal care retailers, meanwhile, lost 13.5 percent of their nonemployer establishments. A flood of new small businesses drags the average down even when the sector is healthy.
Three comparisons tell you far more than an industry average: your own trailing twelve months against the twelve before it, your revenue per employee, and your gross margin. Those numbers describe the business you actually run. An industry average describes a statistical population that includes hobby ventures, brand-new startups, and firms ten times your size in the same line.
What revenue matters when you apply for funding
Funders do not compare you against your industry's average. They read your business bank statements — the size, consistency, and direction of your deposits over the last three to six months — along with how long you have been operating. A landscaper with $18,000 a month in steady deposits is often a stronger file than a wholesaler with $40,000 in one month and $4,000 the next, even though the wholesaler looks better against industry averages. If your revenue is seasonal or uneven, see what a minimum revenue for business funding requirement usually looks like in practice.
The Broker Shop is a small business funding broker, not a funder — we match owners with more than 50 competing lenders rather than lending money ourselves. One two-minute application reaches the funders whose guidelines your actual numbers meet, so you can compare the strongest offers side by side across the available funding options. It is free to apply, and checking your options won't affect your credit score. For more context on the numbers behind small business capital, see our 2026 small business funding statistics.
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One 2-minute application is matched to the funders whose guidelines you meet. It's free, and checking your options won't affect your credit score.
See What I Qualify For →The bottom line: The typical small business without employees earns about $57,600 a year, industry averages run from roughly $18,000 to $136,000 per business, and funders care about your own deposit history rather than where your industry average sits.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau — Census Bureau Data Tell the Small Business Story (2023 NES and BDS figures) · U.S. Census Bureau — 2023 Nonemployer Statistics release · U.S. Census Bureau — Nonemployer Business Growth, 2012 to 2023 · altLINE — average nonemployer receipts by industry, computed from Census NES 2023 · SBA Office of Advocacy — Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business 2026
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