The U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy has issued its report on The Small Business Economy for Data Year 2005 (PDF). The report was just issued in December 2006, but in typical government fashion the data analysis lags considerably.
According to the report, the number of self-employed and small businesses reached a new high at the end of 2005, with over 29 million small businesses, of which 19.8 million were small businesses with no employees. Given the minimum wage increases, health care costs, and paid sick leave laws in California, I predict a the number of businesses without employees to grow.
Here's a great new listing for an
online auto parts store for sale. The owner works about 10 hours a week and it has an annual adjusted net of $191,126.
Read the full report at:
http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/sb_econ2006.pdf