Support a Small Business on Valentine's Day

Small Business Administration (SBA) sent this bulletin at 02/14/2013 02:55 PM EST
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SBA Seattle District Office
Top 10 reasons why SBA is sweet on small business

10. Small businesses make up 98.1 percent of all Washington employers.
9. Small businesses create more than 53 percent of the American nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
8. Small patenting firms produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.
7. The 532,162 small businesses in Washington are located in every community and neighborhood.
6. Small businesses employ 54.7 percent of Washington’s non-farm private sector workers.
5. Home-based businesses account for 53 percent of all small businesses.
4. Small businesses are 97 percent of America’s exporters and produce 26 percent of all export value.
3. Washington saw an estimated 31,955 new small firms with employees start-up in the last year measured.
2. There are approximately 50,600 minority-owned businesses and 137,475 women-owned businesses in Washington, and almost all of them are small businesses.
1. The latest figures show that small business creates 65 percent or more of America’s net new jobs.

Providing Valentines Treats to the Seattle Area

My Sweet Lil Cakes

My Sweet Lil Cakes opens Feb.14 and is a great example of a small business that will help create a delicious Valentine’s Day for many Seattle-based customers. Started by Sheena Lee Fuson and Jesse Lee Marshall, My Sweet Lil Cakes prepares delicious hot cakes-on-a-stick. A bright tangerine orange 1950’s themed mobile food trailer serves as the storefront, and the various hot cake choices offer customers a healthier, unique alternative to fast food breakfast and lunch. With the capability to move anywhere in the city, the flagship location will be located at 1208 Pine Street (Pine & Melrose). “We are about to be our own tiny part of the Seattle skyline, so that makes us happy,” Fuson said.

Fuson merged her background of cooking and culture with Marshall’s intimate knowledge of Seattle to create My Sweet Lil Cakes. They playfully dare their clientele to try dipping a steaming moist hot cake-on-a-stick into their home-style syrups, then washing it down with their fruit juices, milk, soda pop, or Fuson’s Hush-Hush Chai Tea, a spicy, highly caffeinated, scratch-made blend of ginger, cloves, cinnamon and more, served with fresh steamed milk. “We both share an affinity for this city, love people and service, and especially all this new tasty food the mobile industry is encouraging,” she said.

>Read more about My Sweet Lil Cakes

Are you sweet on the small businesses in your community? Let us know by sending us a tweet using hashtag #SweetOnBiz.

Date: 02/14/2013 Author Information: Lorin.Smith@sba.gov