Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are socially and economically important, since they represent 99 % of all enterprises in the EU.

They provide around 90 million jobs and contribute to entrepreneurship and innovation.

Enterprises qualify as micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) if they fulfil the criteria which are summarized in the table below.

Enterprise category	Headcount	Turnover
medium-sized	< 250	≤ € 50 million
small	< 50	≤ € 10 million
micro	< 10	≤ € 2 million

Small businesses are normally privately owned companies, partnerships, or sole proprietorships.

Typical examples of small businesses include: convenience stores, other small shops, rest houses, restaurants, hairdressers, accountants, small-scale manufacturing and online business, such as web design and programming, etc.

Only two-thirds of all new small businesses survive the first two years, but only 44% will still be operating by year four.