Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Select Committee on Small Business

Monthly estimates of retail sales are currently provided
for individual kinds of business for the United States
and more limited kind of business detailed by area. Ex-
pansion of the sample could provide monthly estimates at
the national level for retail sales for the small business
sector. (Companies below some employment cutoff.)

IV. Information Available by Special Survey

A. Business Formations and Failures Survey

This proposed survey would supplement information available
from the Census Bureau's Company Organization Survey and
administrative payroll data for each employer identification
number. A sample of selected firms would be canvassed to
determine their status such as first-time business, pur-
chased going business, changed legal form of organization,
etc. Data could be tabulated at the U.S. level by employ-
ment size class of company. Industry detail and additional
geographic detail would require a larger sample.

B. Federal Assistance to Small Business

A sample survey of small business firms could be selected
to determine the extent to which firms benefit from or
participate in various Government programs designed to
foster the growth of small business. For example, infor-
mation could be compiled on those companies that have had
specific types of assistance from the Small Business
Administration or from the Department of Defense in securing
contracts or assistance in obtaining contracts. Before
such a survey would be initiated, substantially more work
would be needed to pretest the concepts to determine if the
information is collectable.

V. Integration of Outside Data

In order to maximize the utility of the proposed small business economic data base, Census proposes to investigate the feasibility of including financial and other related data developed by other Government agencies into its data file. As a first step, it will be necessary to develop uniform standards and concepts in order to assure comparability of the data.

Note: Table formats for selected proposals are included as Attachment C.