The US SBA (Small Business Administration) has a table of industries with their definition of small using either dollar amount of receipts or number of employees:
This link is fascinating. I had no idea that the U.S. government definition of small business was so elaborate. I asked ChatGPT, and it turns out there are 978 industries, covered by 102 different size standards! Why did they come up with this? If a company meets their criteria, it can qualify for government contracts, loans, grants, advocacy programs and more.
According to ChatGPT:
To come up with this list, the U.S. Census Bureau provides detailed information on industries, including employment, revenue, and business structure. SBA economists analyze factors like average firm size, capital intensity, and industry concentration to determine reasonable thresholds for “small businesses.” They study the competition between small and large businesses in federal procurement, considering small businesses’ ability to compete for contracts. The annual budget for the SBA is $1 billion. This does not include $50 billion in various loan programs.
https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/Table%20of%2...
Here are some software related codes/sizes where $ amounts are in millions:
So, according to the SBA you are small until you do $34 million in business annually with no specific number of employees.