Colorado: Small Businesses Are The State Economy
Colorado's own economic development office says small businesses drive the state's economy: the state counts over 730,000 small businesses, accounting for 99.5% of all businesses statewide and employing 1.2 million people. The Census Bureau's 2023 County Business Patterns counts 182,486 employer establishments in Colorado, and 95.3% of them have fewer than 50 employees. Headline sectors sit on top of that small-firm base. The state's aerospace industry page describes over 2,000 aerospace businesses employing over 55,000 employees directly. Those numbers describe the state, not your business, but the pattern is the point: nearly every Colorado employer runs on tools assembled one at a time.
- Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade: Empowering Colorado small businesses with the Colorado SBDC (2026-06-26 blog post; retrieved 2026-10-08)
- U.S. Census Bureau: 2023 County Business Patterns: State file (cbp23st) (2023 CBP; retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade: Aerospace companies in Colorado: key industry profile (current page; retrieved 2026-10-08)