Survey of Business Owners

Survey of Business Owners is also known as SBO. It is a constituent part of the general Economic Census in the USA. It is conducted at an interval of 5 years. This is done for years which end in '2' and '7'. SBO concentrates data from survey on 'Minority' and 'Women-Owned Business Enterprises'.

More on Survey of Business Owners
This Survey of Business Owners is conducted for U.S. Businesses. In addition to data from SMOBE and SWOBE, SBO also makes use of questions from a 1992 abandoned survey on Characteristics of Business Owners . The latest data for Survey of Business Owners was released in 2006. The data refers to estimated SBO figures of 2002.

The business heads covered here include businesses owned by:

• American Indians
• Women
• Alaska Natives,
• Pacific Islanders
• Asians
• Native Hawaiians
• Blacks and
• Hispanics

Data Structure of Survey of Business Owners
Data Structure of Survey of Business Owners presents an interesting information matrix. It categorizes US businesses by ownership pattern.

This means categorization is done on the basis of :

• Gender of the entrepreneur
• Firm size as determined by the volume of receipts and the employment figures
• Race of the main business owner(s)
• Industry sector as specified by the North American Industry Classification System
• Geographical domain (indicating national , sub-state and state level categories)

SBO business data also specifies the following:

• Total number of firms
• Firm's annual payroll
• Volume of sales and receipts of firms

This categorization in data is available for all the ownership categories in specified geographical areas.

SBO data as published in 'Characteristics of Business Owners reports' present relevant information about the following:

• Family controlled or home based businesses
• Classifies business owners by age, primary function executed in the business, education level and seniority status
• Client base served
• Financial resource and purpose for the funding
• Types of workers employed in the business

Access to SBO data
SBO data for 2002 was released in 9 PDF publications. The reports can be accessed from links provided in the SBO website. Special tabulation facilities are also available from the Census Bureau albeit for a certain cost.