During Small Business Week, May 5-11, we celebrate entrepreneurs across the country for their willingness to take a risk and follow a dream. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, we have plenty to celebrate: more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.1
Like all businesses, small businesses face occupational safety and health challenges, no matter the industry. But several studies show that the smaller a business is, the more likely its workers are to experience injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.2 ,3, 4 ,5 Small businesses engage in fewer occupational safety and health activities than large businesses.6 They tend to have fewer resources—like time, money, and people—to devote to safety and health. When an injury or illness occurs in a small shop, it may appear to be a minor problem because incidents at that individual workplace are infrequent. However, when looked at across an industry, that one incident may be part of a larger group of injuries that indicates an industry-wide problem. The benefits of peer networks, like finding out about industry best-practices, are lost when managers run their business in isolation, a situation that is all-too-common among smaller firms.