What counts as a small business?

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Kimberly Adams (1:01)

What counts as small when it comes to small businesses and why it matters?

From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. Whether a business is considered small in the government's eyes is pretty important. It determines whether that business is eligible for federal aid money and certain federal contracts. Now the Small Business Administration is proposing some changes to how it defines small business. Marketplace's Justin Ho has more.

Justin Ho (1:28)

The government sets aside about a quarter of federal contracts for small businesses, including manufacturing jobs, service sector work, and construction. Richard Brisenzano with Yale University says those contracts can be a big deal for a small business.

SPEAKER_4 (1:41)

There's a lot of money and the government is a very good payer.

Justin Ho (1:45)

But unless a business meets the government's definition of a small business, determined by revenue or headcount, it might miss out on those lucrative contracts. As a result, some small businesses might not want to grow.

SPEAKER_4 (1:56)

Maybe they want to hire three extra employees, but that would put them out of this. I could see them not hiring because they don't want to go over the employee count.

Justin Ho (2:04)

The SBA is proposing to more than double the size limit in several industries. In some, including architectural services and custom computer programming services, it'll increase more than tenfold. The SBA says the new size standards will better reflect the nature of the markets in which small businesses compete. But Tom Schreier, with Cornell's Management School, says that could also make it harder for the smallest companies.

SPEAKER_4 (2:27)

If I'm imagining my current student who's setting up a new business, just him and his partner competing against a consulting firm with a thousand people, perhaps, it's hard to see how that playing field would be level.

Justin Ho (2:39)

Schreier says supporting the smallest firms can have an outsized impact on employment and the broader economy. I'm Justin Ho from Marketplace.

Kimberly Adams (2:47)

The public comment period for this proposed rule changed was supposed to close on Monday, but the Small Business Administration announced this week it would extend the comment period another 60 days, now closing on November 20th.

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Kimberly Adams (3:51)

President Trump is set to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping when he arrives in the United States later today, with formal meetings coming tomorrow. The last time the two met face-to-face was back in May during a state visit to Beijing. This time, the two are meeting in Washington, DC., where they're likely to discuss some hot button issues like trade and AI guardrails. For more, we're joined by Scott Kennedy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Scott, good morning.

Scott Kennedy (4:18)

Good morning.

Kimberly Adams (4:19)

So what are some of the big economic issues on the table for this summit?

Scott Kennedy (4:23)

The biggest economic issue for the summit is whether or not the economic truce that the two sides agreed to in October 2025 in Busan, South Korea is going to be extended. That would mean capping American tariffs and not re-raising them. It also mean China continuing to ship rare earths, and also both sides agreeing not to impose any additional major export controls on the other.