SHAKE Signals

Main Street Times, November 2026 Edition

Small businesses.
Extraordinary
economic weight.

Millions of businesses. Unique realities.
Explore the forces reshaping American enterprise.

Explore the report

RESEARCH EDITION 01 • DATA UPDATED OCTOBER 29, 2026 • NUMBERS AUDITED OCTOBER 31, 2026
Newest data: Census business survey through October 4, 2026. This page is a snapshot. Get the live feed

There are 36.0 million small businesses in America, including businesses with no paid employees. They account for about 43.5 percent of U.S. GDP. About 84.5 percent have no paid employees, 13.7 percent have 1 to 19 employees, and 1.8 percent have 20 to 499.

SMALL BUSINESSES IN AMERICA36.0Msmall businesses
43.5%of U.S. GDP
Fewer than 500 employees
++
1 dot is about 36,000 businesses. Hover or tap a color to see who they are.

84.5% of small businesses have no paid employees. One person, no payroll.

Newer: 32.0M solo businesses in 2024, up 5.1% in a year.
THE SOLO ECONOMY32.0M

businesses with no paid employees

2024 · up 5.1% in a year
THE NEW WAVE4.93M

new business applications so far in 2026

January to September 2026 · up 15.3% on 2025
THE OPERATING REALITY42%

of surveyed small employers reported falling revenue

2025 survey · prior 12 months
THE TECHNOLOGY FRONTIER24.6%

of employer businesses reported using SI

Two weeks ending Oct 4, 2026
Different questions.
Different populations.
One economy to understand.
OUR READ

Main Street is getting wider,
not deeper.

More people are filing to start a business. The filings that plan to pay wages are falling, from 9.3% of the total to 6.8%. Small firms hold a smaller slice of private jobs than in 1998. Three official counts, one pattern.

+15.3%new business applications, January to September 2026 against 2025
−15.3%applications that plan to pay wages, same months
−5.4 ptssmall firms' share of private jobs, 1998 to 2023
THE LIVE FEED

This edition is a snapshot. The economy keeps moving.

The SHAKE Signals live feed refreshes as new numbers are released: Census business surveys every two weeks, new business applications every month, and more. Subscribe, or contact us about the live feed and other SHAKE Signals data.

WHY SHAKE SIGNALS IS DIFFERENT

We do not just gather data.
We generate it.

Most economic reports repackage the same public tables. SHAKE Signals starts with those, then adds what only SHAKE can see.

1

Agentic telemetry

Businesses run on SHAKE through agents that read invoices, orders, payments and approvals. That activity is a live signal of how small businesses actually operate, something a survey can only report later.

2

A global picture

SHAKE is building a view of the world beyond the border: news, trade, places and events. Main Street depends on it. U.S. imports of manufactured goods alone run at roughly $3 trillion a year.

3

Tied back to U.S. businesses

We connect that global signal to the businesses it touches: which industries, states and sizes are exposed to a supplier problem abroad, and what an owner could do about it.

Official statistics show where the economy was. SHAKE Signals is built to show where it is moving.

01 THE BIG PICTURE

A thousand dots.
A different perspective.

Change the lens to reveal a different economic reality. Each view has its own population and date. Press play to watch all four.

THE COMPOSITION OF SMALL BUSINESSNo paid employees: 84.5 percent. 1–19 employees: 13.7 percent. 20–499 employees: 1.8 percent. Proportions from U.S. firms with fewer than 500 employees · latest full size breakdown.No paid employees84.5%1–19 employees13.7%20–499 employees1.8%
1 DOT = 0.1 PERCENTAGE POINT PROPORTIONS, NOT TRACKED FIRMS
THE COMPOSITION OF SMALL BUSINESS
84.5%

have no paid employees.

The largest part of the business population sits outside the payroll economy. Newer data show the solo group grew 5.1% in a year. Surveys of employers describe a different slice of Main Street.

No paid employees84.5%
1–19 employees13.7%
20–499 employees1.8%
OFFICIAL COUNTU.S. firms with fewer than 500 employees · latest full size breakdown

The dots show published shares. They do not represent 1,000 sampled businesses, linked records, or movement of businesses between groups. Counts are rounded for display.

02 THE SIZE OF IT

Small in size.
Huge in the economy.

Businesses with fewer than 500 employees are nearly every business in America. See how much of the economy they carry, and which way it is moving.

43.5%Companies under 500 employees
56.5%Companies with 500 or more

The SBA Office of Advocacy’s latest count. Large companies produce the rest.

1 dot = 1 percentage point. Proportions, not individual companies.

If the 2014 share still held, small business would be a $14.4 trillion economy. That is 43.5% of $33.0 trillion. Only the United States and China are larger, by the IMF's October 2026 estimates ($21.5 trillion for China, $5.5 trillion for Germany). The share is a 2014 measure, so read this as scale, not as a 2026 count.

A small business here means a company with fewer than 500 employees, including those with no paid employees. Jobs and business counts are from the Census Bureau. The GDP share is the SBA Office of Advocacy's latest count: no newer one has been published. Each measure keeps its own source year, listed in the evidence room.

03 TRY IT: GROW OR SHRINK

What if small business
grew? Or shrank?

Choose a path for small business, then move the dials for people, cities and schools. Watch the next ten years play out. It is a scenario you control, not a forecast.

Set the path

Zero means small business grows as fast as large companies. Below zero it loses ground each year.

THE WORLD AROUND IT

Per year. Slower growth means fewer customers and workers.

Cities concentrate customers. Small towns concentrate owners.

Education shapes who starts businesses and how they grow.

Your own judgment of daily life: time, pay, health, community.

How each dial moves small business growth +

Each dial nudges small business growth by the amount you set here. These are placeholders, not research findings. Change them to match what you believe.

YOUR SCENARIO · 2036
SMALL BUSINESS SHARE OF U.S. GDP IN 2036
40.9%▼ 2.6 points from today

This path is about the same as today’s drift: 40.9% of GDP in 2036.

38%40%42%44%46%2026203640.9%
Small business GDP$19.3T
Whole economy$47.2T
GDP per person$131,301
Against today's drift+$0.0T

The math runs in your browser.

Show the math, assumptions, and limits +

Start. U.S. GDP is $33.0 trillion (BEA, third quarter 2026, advance estimate, annual rate). Small business starts at 43.5% of it, the SBA Office of Advocacy's latest measured share. That assumes the share has not moved since, which is itself an assumption.

Growth. Companies with 500 or more employees grow 3.6% a year plus population growth, about 4.1% with today's population trend, in every scenario. Dollar figures are nominal, so they include about 2% a year of inflation. For scale, nominal GDP in the third quarter of 2026 was 5.9% above the third quarter of 2025 (BEA via FRED), so 4.1% is a cautious base. Small business grows faster or slower than that by the amount you choose, plus the nudges from the four dials.

Today's drift. From 1998 to 2014 the small business share fell from 48.0% to 43.5%. The SBA Office of Advocacy reports that small business output grew 1.4% a year in real terms over that span and large business output 2.5%. That gap of 1.1 points a year is the drift, and the first path repeats it. Run through this model, it takes 48.0% to 43.6% over 16 years, which matches the SBA series.

Limits. Population, urbanization, education and quality of life affect small business in many ways that this tool does not model. The nudges are yours. The result shows what follows from the assumptions you set, not what will happen.

04 THE GEOGRAPHY OF ENTERPRISE

Same country.
Different economies.

Pick a measure, then pick a state. Business count shows scale. Employment share shows how much a state relies on smaller employers. Two newer measures show where solo businesses and new applications are growing.

Explore U.S. statesGeographic map of the 50 states and Washington, DC. Color shows small employers’ share of private employment. California selected. Alaska and Hawaii are repositioned; Alaska is reduced in scale. Small states and DC have additional selection buttons below.Alabama: 45.8% of private employment at small firmsAlaska: 53.3% of private employment at small firmsArizona: 42.1% of private employment at small firmsArkansas: 46.4% of private employment at small firmsCalifornia: 48.1% of private employment at small firmsColorado: 47.9% of private employment at small firmsConnecticut: 47.9% of private employment at small firmsDelaware: 48.1% of private employment at small firmsDistrict of Columbia: 47.9% of private employment at small firmsFlorida: 42.8% of private employment at small firmsGeorgia: 42.6% of private employment at small firmsHawaii: 48.8% of private employment at small firmsIdaho: 55.5% of private employment at small firmsIllinois: 43.9% of private employment at small firmsIndiana: 43.5% of private employment at small firmsIowa: 45.0% of private employment at small firmsKansas: 49.0% of private employment at small firmsKentucky: 42.9% of private employment at small firmsLouisiana: 53.5% of private employment at small firmsMaine: 54.0% of private employment at small firmsMaryland: 49.2% of private employment at small firmsMassachusetts: 44.4% of private employment at small firmsMichigan: 48.2% of private employment at small firmsMinnesota: 46.2% of private employment at small firmsMississippi: 47.0% of private employment at small firmsMissouri: 43.8% of private employment at small firmsMontana: 66.6% of private employment at small firmsNebraska: 47.3% of private employment at small firmsNevada: 44.0% of private employment at small firmsNew Hampshire: 49.7% of private employment at small firmsNew Jersey: 48.6% of private employment at small firmsNew Mexico: 53.7% of private employment at small firmsNew York: 47.2% of private employment at small firmsNorth Carolina: 44.0% of private employment at small firmsNorth Dakota: 57.0% of private employment at small firmsOhio: 44.0% of private employment at small firmsOklahoma: 50.2% of private employment at small firmsOregon: 53.8% of private employment at small firmsPennsylvania: 45.2% of private employment at small firmsRhode Island: 51.0% of private employment at small firmsSouth Carolina: 45.7% of private employment at small firmsSouth Dakota: 57.7% of private employment at small firmsTennessee: 41.8% of private employment at small firmsTexas: 44.3% of private employment at small firmsUtah: 45.3% of private employment at small firmsVermont: 61.4% of private employment at small firmsVirginia: 45.8% of private employment at small firmsWashington: 49.6% of private employment at small firmsWest Virginia: 47.8% of private employment at small firmsWisconsin: 47.9% of private employment at small firmsWyoming: 65.4% of private employment at small firms
Small states & DC
41.8%66.6%Small employers’ share of private employment

Click a state on the map, or use the menus. Alaska and Hawaii are repositioned; Alaska is reduced in scale.
Boundaries: U.S. Atlas / Census 2017.

LATEST AVAILABLELatest state figures for businesses with employees. Source: Census Business Dynamics Statistics.
HOW TO READ THIS

A high small-business employment share describes how an economy is built. It does not, on its own, mean stronger growth, better conditions, or a more attractive market.

05 INDUSTRIES

Same economy.
Very different industries.

Nineteen industries on three signals: how many solo businesses there are, how fast new businesses are forming, and how many already use SI. Click a row to highlight it, or change the sort.

Sort by:
INDUSTRYEMPLOYER BUSINESSES USING SI (Aug to Oct 2026)SOLO BUSINESSES (2024)NEW APPLICATIONS, JAN TO SEP 2026 VS 2025
Information
47.3%±0.9
425K▲ +39.8%
Professional and technical services
43.4%±0.5
4.23M▲ +29.6%
Finance and insurance
39.5%±0.9
840K▲ +3.2%
Education
34.7%±1.1
925K▲ +20.0%
Management of companies
31.5%±7.3 small sample
n/a▲ +23.6%
Real estate and rental
30.3%±0.7
3.26M▲ +18.4%
Health care and social assistance
25.7%±0.5
2.40M▲ +16.4%
Manufacturing
21.6%±0.6
422K▲ +5.5%
Administrative and support services
21.5%±0.8
3.08M▲ +21.4%
Wholesale trade
20.6%±0.6
472K▲ +1.7%
Arts, entertainment, recreation
20.2%±0.8
1.81M▲ +15.1%
Retail trade
16.8%±0.4
2.18M▲ +10.4%
Construction
16.2%±0.4
3.04M▲ +12.1%
Utilities
15.4%±2.3
19.7K▼ −8.5%
Other services
14.0%±0.4
3.35M▲ +9.0%
Transportation and warehousing
11.2%±0.6
4.48M▲ +15.0%
Mining and oil & gas
10.8%±1.5
65.9K▲ +16.4%
Accommodation and food services
9.8%±0.4
722K▲ +13.9%
Agriculture, forestry, fishing
7.2%±1.8
255K▼ −2.6%

SI use comes from the Census Business Trends and Outlook Survey: the average of the four most recent two-week surveys, all employer sizes, with the margin of error shown as ±. Solo businesses are Census Nonemployer Statistics for 2024. New applications are Census Business Formation Statistics, not-seasonally-adjusted. Industries are not adjusted for business size, so compare with care. This is one cut of many: SHAKE Signals can go deeper by industry, size and place.

06 WHO OWNS MAIN STREET

Behind every dot
is an owner.

Women, veterans and owners of every background run millions of small businesses. Most are solo businesses, and the mix looks different from firms with employees.

WOMEN-OWNED
14.2M

businesses, about 39% of all 36.4 million. They are 42.3% of solo businesses but 22.9% of employer firms.

Census ABS and NES-D · 2023 data
VETERAN-OWNED
1.6M

businesses with $1.0 trillion in receipts. About 4.5% of solo businesses and 4.4% of employer firms.

Census ABS and NES-D · 2023 data
SOLO BUSINESS RECEIPTS
$1.86T

in receipts for businesses with no paid employees in 2024. That is $58,200 per business on average.

Census Nonemployer Statistics · 2024
OWNER AGE
51%

of employer-business owners are 55 or older. Only 5.7% are under 35.

Census ABS · 2023 data

WHO OWNS EMPLOYER BUSINESSES, BY AGE (2023)

Half are 55 or older. About 970,000 owners, nearly one in four, are 65 or over.

5.7%are under 35
Under 250.4%
25 to 345.3%
35 to 4418%
45 to 5425%
55 to 6428.2%
65 or over23.1%

Owners of employer businesses that reported their age (4.2 million). Solo businesses are not in this table. Census Annual Business Survey, 2024 release.

EMPLOYER FIRMS BY OWNER RACE AND ETHNICITY (2023)

White80.6%
Asian11.5%
Hispanic8.4%
Black or African American3.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native0.9%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander0.2%

SOLO BUSINESSES BY OWNER RACE AND ETHNICITY (2023)

White73.6%
Hispanic17.5%
Black or African American14.4%
Asian9.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native1.2%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander0.3%

Owners can report more than one race, and Hispanic owners can be of any race, so shares add to more than 100%. Employer data are from the 2024 Annual Business Survey (2023 reference year). Solo data are from the 2023 Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics.

YOUTH AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPANY DATA, NOT OFFICIAL STATISTICS

Young founders are the part of this story to watch.

More Gen Z than Boomers

For the first time in Gusto's six annual surveys, more Gen Z founders than Baby Boomers started a business in 2025.

Share of new businesses started in 2025. Gusto, survey of 1,051 founders.
71%

of Gen Z founders used SI to launch their business, against 42% of Baby Boomers. Gusto's survey calls it AI.

Gusto, survey of 1,051 founders who started in 2025.
+66%

growth in Gen Z business applications in June 2026 from a year earlier. Gen X remain the largest group of founders.

Bank of America Institute, account data (a proxy), rolling 12-month count.

These figures come from company data and are not government counts. The official Census owner-age table above shows the other side: few owners of employer businesses are young. A SHAKE Signals youth report would bring the two together.

07 ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A new wave
of founders.

New business applications are running well above last year and far above 2019. Look closer: the growth is in applications that do not plan to hire.

NEW APPLICATIONS, JAN TO SEP 2026
4.93M

Up 15.3% on the same months of 2025 (4.27M).

LIKELY TO BECOME EMPLOYERS
1.39M

High-propensity applications, the ones most likely to become employers. Up 4.7%.

PLAN TO PAY WAGES
337K

Applications that plan to pay wages. Down 15.3% from 398K.

SINCE 2019
+62%

Full-year 2025 applications (5.67M) compared with 2019 (3.50M).

WIDER, NOT DEEPER · JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER 2026 AGAINST 2025

About 18,000 applications a day.

All applications
+15.3%
Likely to become employers
+4.7%
Plan to pay wages
−15.3%

Each bar is the change in filings from the same nine months of 2025. The wider the funnel at the top, the narrower the part that plans to hire.

WHO IS STARTING · KAUFFMAN INDICATORS, 2025 DATA
0.36%

of adults start a business in a typical month. That is 360 in every 100,000, above the pre-pandemic rate.

83.3%

of new entrepreneurs were not out of work before starting. Up from 69.8% in 2020, still below 86.9% in 2019.

77.9%

of new businesses survive their first year, slightly lower than a year earlier.

Applications by month, 2025 and 2026

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec0K175K350K525K700K499,440 applications547,443 applications442,701 applications505,240 applications501,015 applications534,850 applications585,822 applications649,160 applications425,999 applications498,776 applications428,838 applications496,832 applications513,667 applications634,735 applications429,362 applications478,274 applications446,242 applications582,530 applications539,537 applications426,732 applications432,481 applications

Light bars: 2025. Dark bars: 2026 (through September). Not seasonally adjusted.

Where applications are growing fastest

Jan to Sep 2026 vs the same months of 2025. Click a state to see it on the map.

What this means. An application is not yet a business, and most never hire. Total applications and likely-employer applications both grew, while applications that plan to pay wages fell. The new wave looks more like solo and side businesses than new employers. Solo businesses tell a similar story: up 5.1% in a year.

Source: Census Business Formation Statistics, not seasonally adjusted, released October 14, 2026. Data cover January to September for each year.

08 INSIDE THE OPERATING PRESSURE

The squeeze is real.
It is not the same for everyone.

Costs, customers, and cash flow overlap. These survey findings describe small employers’ experiences, not a diagnosis for every business.

Where businesses feel pressure

Higher goods, services, or wage costs73%
Paying operating expenses54%
Uneven cash flow50%
Weak sales48%
Tariff-related cost increases42%
Debt payments or interest rates33%
Credit availability29%

Multiple answers allowed, so percentages do not add to 100. Financial challenges over the prior 12 months. 6,500 answered.

SURVEY2025 Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey • employer firms with 1–499 employees • large, non-random sample
RIGHT NOW · THE 2026 INDEXES

The mood on Main Street, this quarter.

NFIB OPTIMISM · SEPT 2026
97.9

Just under the 52-year average of 98.0. Uncertainty is 90, well above its average of 68. Labor quality is owners' top problem at 26%, with inflation next at 20%.

NFIB members · monthly
SMALL BUSINESS INDEX · Q3 2026
70.5

Up from 66.5 last quarter. 71% of owners say their own business is in good health, but only 27% say so of the national economy. 54% name inflation as a top challenge.

Justworks and U.S. Chamber · quarterly
JOBS INDEX · SEPT 2026
99.15

Holding steady: 99.13 in August and 99.15 in September, near its 2026 average of about 99.2. Hourly earnings growth is 2.78%.

Paychex · firms under 50 employees · monthly

Three indexes, three definitions: NFIB members, small-business owners surveyed for the Chamber index, and Paychex clients with under 50 employees. Compare each with its own history, never with each other.

THE BUSINESS QUESTION

Is your biggest limit demand, cash, or capacity?

The same tool can be worth very different amounts depending on which limit it actually relaxes.

09 CASH RUNWAY

If sales stopped tomorrow,
how long could you last?

The typical small business holds less than three weeks of cash. Enter your own numbers to see your runway, and what a sales drop would do to it.

Your numbers STAYS IN YOUR BROWSER

Payroll, rent, supplies, loans, taxes. Everything that leaves your account.

Try 20% to 50% to see how fast your runway shrinks.

IF SALES FALL BY 20%, YOUR CASH LASTS
119 days

You would lose about $6,400 a month, so $25,000 lasts roughly 3.9 months.

Your runway at this sales level (bar shows up to 60 days)Typical small business: 17.6 days
19 daysIf no money came in at all, your cash would cover your bills for this long. That is 1 day more than the typical small business (17.6 days).
$78,947is what it takes to hold 60 days of bills in cash. You are $53,947 short of that today.
THE TYPICAL SMALL BUSINESS
17.6 days

of cash on hand, measured as how long a business could pay its average bills if no money came in. Metro areas range from 12.8 days (Orlando) to 24.1 days (San Francisco).

JPMorganChase Institute · 2.1M Chase business accounts · 2025
UNEVEN CASH FLOW
50%

of small employers named uneven cash flow as a financial challenge. 49% had unmet financing needs.

Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey · 2025
OWNER'S OWN MONEY
58%

of the smallest employers (1 to 4 employees) with a money problem used the owner's personal funds to cope.

Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey · 2025

The cash buffer figure covers businesses with Chase business accounts, so it does not describe every business, and cash held elsewhere is not counted. The calculator is simple arithmetic, not a forecast: it assumes your bills stay flat and your cash is all in one account.

10 QUALITY OF LIFE

Beyond the balance sheet.
How owners are doing.

Owning a business can bring freedom and strain at the same time. This chapter looks at the person behind the business: money worries, time off, health, and happiness.

HAPPINESS
84%

say they are happy as owners

A company survey of U.S. owners. It is a good-news counterweight to the stress numbers.

Vistaprint research · company survey
MONEY WORRIES
64%

say finances are their top stressor

Far ahead of workload (10%), competition (5%) and employee issues (3%).

Nav survey of 1,000+ owners · October 2025
TIME OFF
48%

have not taken a full week off in over 3 years

About 1 in 4 owners say they have never taken a week to fully disconnect.

Nav survey · October 2025
HEALTH
65%

report a physical ailment they link to the business

Stress 53%, anxiety 42%, depression 20%. 36% say they have challenges that warrant support, and 48% of them have not sought it.

Nav survey · October 2025
THE CUSHION
17.6 days

The typical small business could pay its bills for about 2.5 weeks if sales stopped. That is a short fuse for a long worry.

JPMorganChase Institute · 2025 · see Cash runway
THE OWNER'S WALLET
58%

of the smallest employers with a money problem dipped into personal funds. For many owners the business and the household share one budget.

Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey · 2025
WHERE THE REVENUE GOES
42%

of small employers saw falling revenue. Pressure at the business shows up at the kitchen table.

Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey · 2025

Official statistics on owner well-being are limited, so this chapter leans on company surveys of owners who chose to respond. They show direction, not exact national rates. SHAKE Signals can run original owner research, such as hours worked and pay compared with a wage job, to fill the gap.

11 THE SI FRONTIER

Adoption is a beginning.
Value is a different question.

SI is the term U.S. agencies now use for what was called AI. Who uses it, how deeply it changes work, and whether it improves the business are three separate questions.

USING IT NOW24.6%

of employer businesses used SI in the last two weeks.

Census BTOS · two weeks ending Oct 4, 2026
PLANNING TO28.6%

expect to use it within the next six months.

Census BTOS
THE WIDEST GAP6.6×

between Information (47%) and Agriculture, forestry, fishing (7%).

Census BTOS, four-survey average
BY INDUSTRY · AUG TO OCT 2026

Every industry starts from a different line.

In Information, 47% of employer businesses use SI. In Agriculture, forestry, fishing, 7% do. That is about 6.6 times apart, and the national average is 23.9%.

or tap any bar below
24.6%

of all employer businesses

TWO WEEKS ENDING OCT 4, 2026
All employer businesses, every industry together. Pick an industry to compare it with this.

Each dot is 1 percentage point of businesses. Bars are the average of the four most recent two-week surveys. Striped bars have a wide margin of error because few businesses answered. Nonemployers are not included.

THE TREND

Use has moved through 2026.

10%20%30%Dec 28, 2025: 17.7% used SIJan 11, 2026: 18.2% used SIJan 25, 2026: 18.9% used SIFeb 8, 2026: 17.5% used SIFeb 22, 2026: 18.2% used SIMar 8, 2026: 18.9% used SIMar 22, 2026: 19.1% used SIApr 5, 2026: 19.8% used SIApr 19, 2026: 19.8% used SIMay 3, 2026: 19.5% used SIMay 17, 2026: 20.6% used SIMay 31, 2026: 20.6% used SIJun 14, 2026: 20.6% used SIJun 28, 2026: 21.7% used SIJul 12, 2026: 21.5% used SIJul 26, 2026: 21.8% used SIAug 9, 2026: 22.4% used SIAug 23, 2026: 23.2% used SISep 6, 2026: 23.8% used SISep 20, 2026: 23.8% used SIOct 4, 2026: 24.6% used SIEarly 2026Oct 4, 202624.6%28.6% expectSolid: using SI now. Dashed: expect to within six months.
FROM TOOL TO VALUE

Using SI well takes three things.

Having a tool is not the same as getting value from it. Each step has to work before the next one matters.

STEP 1 · ACCESS

Can your team use it?

The right tools, permission to use them, training, and clean data to work from.

STEP 2 · CHANGE

Does the work actually change?

Which tasks it covers, whether people keep using it, and how much checking and fixing it needs.

STEP 3 · PAYOFF

What do you do with the gain?

Faster delivery, better quality, or time you put to new use. Saved time only counts if it goes somewhere.

Try it with your numbers

The SI time-saver turns these three steps into hours you can count.

This three-step view is our way of framing the question. It is not a tested formula.

12 TRY IT: THE SI TIME-SAVER

How much time could SI
save in your business?

Explore how much time you can save. You control every number. The result is a scenario, not a forecast.

Takes about 2 minutes. Answer a few questions about your team and the work you want to speed up, and you will see roughly how many hours a year SI could give back after checking its work and learning the tool. Use it to decide whether SI is worth testing in your business. Your numbers never leave your browser.

Set the assumptions

Think of the tasks you want to speed up, like quotes, emails or reports, as a share of everyone's paid time.

Not everyone will use it every time. Be honest.

20% saved means a 60-minute task takes 48 minutes.

Saved minutes often get lost in the day. Count only the time you would really use.

YOUR ASSUMPTIONS
HOURS PER YEAR YOU COULD FREE UP
472hours

That is about 0.25 of one person's full working year. It is time, not a prediction that jobs go away.

Hours saved before costs672 h
Checking and fixing SI’s work−120 h
Setting up and learning the tool−80 h
Time you would actually put to use354 hours

75% of the hours freed up, out of 19,200 total hours worked. No change in revenue or payroll is assumed.

In plain words: with 10 employees, SI could free up about 472 hours a year after checking its work and learning the tool. You would put about 354 of those hours to use.

The math runs in your browser. Copy a summary or download your numbers.

Show the math, assumptions, and limits +

Total hours = employees × hours per week × weeks per year.

Hours saved before costs = total hours × share SI could help with × share actually done with SI × time saved.

Hours freed up = hours saved before costs − time checking and fixing − time to set up and learn.

Time put to use = hours freed up (if above zero) × share you would put to new use. If the result is negative, it stays visible as added work.

Enter only the extra checking and learning time that SI adds, not review you already do. The example numbers are illustrative and are not based on a study. The math assumes the same time saved on all the work SI touches, no change in demand, and no overlap between tasks. The result is hours of capacity, not jobs, payroll savings, profit, or proof that SI caused a change. Check against real task times and quality before making business decisions.

13 HOW SHAKE HELPS

From economic pressure.
To practical action.

The report shows where the pressure is. SHAKE helps businesses respond using their own records, relevant outside signals, and actions the owner approves. Pick a challenge to see how.

WHAT THE DATA SHOWS57%

reported difficulty reaching customers and growing sales.

2025 Fed survey · small employers, 1–499 employees
6,425 answered this question
HOW SHAKE HELPS

Follow through on promising opportunities.

  1. Find the opening.Connect customer history, open quotes, and relevant market signals to spot missed follow-ups and likely buyers.
  2. Prepare the next move.Explain the fit, draft an introduction or quote follow-up, and check capacity and expected margin.
  3. Act with approval.The owner approves outreach and terms. Track the opportunity through to an order and payment.

How to measure itQualified conversations, conversion, and added gross profit.

Keep in mindA lead is not revenue. Judge results against where you started, not the total value of every order touched.

These challenges overlap, so the percentages cannot be added together. The survey is large but not a random sample, and a more common problem is not always a bigger opportunity. These are ways SHAKE is built to help, not results from customers.

Which kind of business are you?

84.5%

Just you

NO EMPLOYEES ON PAYROLL

Keep it simple. Go from a customer request to a quote, an invoice, and a payment in one place.

13.7%

A small team

1–19 EMPLOYEES

Keep sales, delivery, and billing in sync so nothing falls between people.

1.8%

A growing team

20–499 EMPLOYEES

Connect buying, inventory, sales, and cash, with clear roles and approval rules.

Share of the 36.0 million U.S. small businesses. No paid employees does not mean exactly one worker. Size alone does not show who needs a product or will pay for it.

HOW WE KNOW IT IS WORKING
  • Cash collected is not the same as new revenue.
  • Hours saved only matter when you put them to use.
  • A record that something happened does not prove it caused the result, so we compare against where you started and subtract the cost of getting there.

Descriptions are based on SHAKE's published pages on records and automation, agents and the Value Ledger, and business context and approval. What is available depends on the records, permissions, and workflows in each business. No customer results are claimed here.

14 THE EVIDENCE ROOM

Every number
has a boundary.

A report earns trust by making its evidence easy to inspect. Population, dates, definitions, and limits travel with each view.

A deliberately bounded edition.

“Small business” here means a firm with fewer than 500 employees. The 20–499 band is our grouping, not a federal definition of “medium.” State and industry views keep the population each source uses. Different measures carry different dates on purpose, and we never add numbers from different years to invent a current total.

→ KEEP GOING WITH SHAKE

Understand the economy.
Then run your business better in it.

SHAKE SIGNALS

Subscribe to Main Street Times

Get new editions and the live feed as numbers are released. Ask about custom analysis by sector, industry or demographic.

SHAKE

See SHAKE at work

Records, agents and approvals that help a business act on what it sees in the data.

shakegraph.com
CASE STUDIES

See how businesses use SHAKE

Read how real businesses run on SHAKE, or ask us for the story closest to yours.

GET STARTED

Scan to learn more

Opens shakegraph.com.

THE EVIDENCE ROOM

SHAKE Agent

Ask about small businesses, a state, an industry, or any number in this report.

Hi, I'm the SHAKE Agent. Ask me about the numbers in Main Street Times. Every answer shows its source and date.

Answers come from the data inside this report. Questions stay in this report session and are not sent automatically. For a custom cut by industry, size or demographic, .

Talk to SHAKE

Tell us what your company needs.

Interested in (check all that apply)