The SBCS is a convenience sample survey of small businesses. The survey team partners with organizations like chambers of commerce, Small Business Development Centers, and other economic development entities from across the United States to distribute the survey to small-business respondents.
To make the data more representative of the true population of small business owners, the survey data are weighted to US Census Bureau data through a statistical method known as raking. The weighting approach was developed in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. For more, see our Methodology.
Note that the SBCS is not a panel dataset. While some small-business owners do respond to the survey across multiple years, the survey does not survey the same set of respondents each year.