What is a Small Business?

How do you define small business? Probably not the way the government defines it, which is any business with fewer than 500 employees. That's right, 500. Because the government defines "small" so broadly, the category includes 99.9 percent of all firms and 99.7 percent of all employers in the United States...rendering the term meaningless. What's up with that?

Source: Small Business Administration, 2012 Small Business Profiles for States and Territories