The 7 Rivers Region is blessed with many small businesses that provide the vast majority of our economic base.

In 2018, in the seven-county region served by the UW-La Crosse Small Business Development Center, there were 3,081 new businesses started, according to Mark Lange, executive director for the Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship. 

That’s great news, right? Yes, but 3,229 businesses closed in 2018, leaving us a deficit of 148.

That’s surprising to me, given the generally strong economy right now.

Lange -- who was a speaker at the UW-L SBDC Celebrate Small Business event on June 6 -- provided an interesting explanation. Only 30 percent of the 14,725 business establishments in the seven counties have employees.That means 70 percent of our small businesses are owner-operated and many will never become any larger.

Lange said 2% of the businesses -- 231 -- have more than 100 employees and 80% have fewer than 10. That leaves 18% in the 10 to 100 employee range.

Diving deeper into the data, Lange said there were 157,175 jobs in the region in 2018. Here is the breakdown.

• 38% worked at companies with more than 100 employees

• 39% worked at companies with between 10 and 100 employees

• 24% worked at companies with less than 10 employees

There were 16,411 jobs gained from companies that opened in 2019, Lange said and 17,299 jobs lost from companies that closed -- a total loss of 888. That was offset by a net job gain from existing companies of 1,613, leaving us with a gain of 725 jobs overall.

So what’s the takeaway from all of these statistics?

First of all, entrepreneurship is alive in the region with many new start-ups. The success rate is a challenge -- Lange said there is a 47% survival rate for businesses that opened five years ago. But that’s not unusual with start-ups.

Secondly, our view of economic development and assistance to businesses needs to broaden. Traditionally economic development focuses on the larger employers -- and for good reason. Companies that employ many workers are key to our economy and we want them to continue to be successful.

But given that only 2% of our businesses have more than 100 employees, perhaps our focus also needs to be on those smaller companies. If we can get some of those 80% to move from less than 10 employees, we will gain in the middle and further diversify our economy.

My last takeaway is that the major emphasis of the 7 Rivers Alliance -- growing our workforce -- is still critical. We won’t be able to help any employers -- from the single proprietor looking to add their first employee to the large company looking to add its 3,000th -- if we can’t find them the right person for the job.

Our work on the workforce will continue.