Here on the blog, we often talk about the plethora of data available on small firms and why some are useful, and others are not. But the common thread of all of our posts is that small firm data is omnipresent.

We're pleased to announce six upcoming early findings events, where we'll share an inside look into initial findings from the Small Firm Diaries USA study, and invite discussion about implications for policy, practice, and efforts to better support small firms and workers in the United States.

In our last blog post, we explored how employment numbers are recorded among U.S. firms at a single point each year—March 12—and how this approach fails to capture the volatility of employment among small firms with 1–20 workers. In today’s post, we use new data from the SFD USA sample to further illustrate this point.

When trying to better understand small firms, some of the most important questions center on employment and jobs: How many jobs do small firms create? What is the quality of those jobs - particularly in terms of stability and security? Much of what we know about small firms comes from federal data, but like any data source, there are very real constraints that inhibit the insight provided by the available data. 

In the United States, even the smallest businesses are connected to a digital ecosystem. We’ve found that the firms in the Small Firm Diaries USA study typically prepare records for quarterly or annual tax filings on some type of software, and these records are often linked to other digital financial information including bank and credit card accounts, point-of-sale (POS) and payroll services.  This means that for the US arm of the study, the research team can draw on existin

On November 19, 2025, FAI hosted a faiVLive webinar to introduce the Small Firm Diaries USA study. We shared early observations, and talked with expert panelists about how recent policy and program changes are affecting small businesses and organizations that support them.

The landscape for small firm data in the US  Commensurate with their importance in the US economy, there are many data sources at the national, state, and local levels examining small firms. Whether you’re looking for data on jobs, new business creation, or startup survival, there are a number of places you can find information.* While more data is generally a good thing, it can be overwhelming to try to navigate the myriad datasets and statistics and make sense of the differ

Since our launch of SFD USA in May 2025, we’ve recruited more than 80 firms into the study across our six research sites —Oakland, Chicago, St. Louis, New York City, Atlanta, Baltimore—as well as some rural areas. As we shift our focus from recruitment to data collection and analysis, we’re excited to share a snapshot of the small firms that make up our sample.

Small firms with 1-20 workers make up the majority of employer firms in the US. But these businesses, especially those in low-income neighborhoods, are under-examined in existing research like large economic surveys. Here's why, and here's how the Small Firm Diaries proposes to help fill the gap.

The Financial Access Initiative started conducting in-depth, diaries-style analyses on small firms in 2021, with studies in 7 countries....