SBA Study Identifies Hampton Roads as #1 in U.S. for High-Impact Firms

“High-Impact” Firms Create Most Jobs and Growth

Hampton Roads, Virginia-

A study just released by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy (SBA) ranks Hampton Roads #1 in the country with the highest percentage of “high-impact” firms when compared to other large metropolitan regions. High-impact firms are defined in the report as rapidly growing firms, accounting for almost all employment and revenue growth in the economy although they represent only between 2% and 3% of all business firms.

“Having a higher percentage of rapidly growing companies than North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Washington DC or Silicon Valley in California is a strong indication of the vibrant technology-based industries growing here” says Rick Lally, CEO of Oceana Sensor and Chairman of the Hampton Roads Technology Council (HRTC).

Released at the International Council for Small Business 2008 World Conference held in late June in Canada, the SBA study High-Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited defines high-impact firms as those whose sales have at least doubled over a four-year period, analyzing the 1994 to 2006 period. To illustrate: over the 1998-2002 time period, the average size of high-impact firms in the 1-19 employee firm-size class increased by 534%, the 20-499 firm-size class increased by 322% and the 500-or-more class increased by 221%.

The study ranks regions, states, Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and counties by their percentage of high-impact firms, also known as “gazelles”. The study finds that high-impact firms contribute to the majority of overall economic growth and documents also, over the periods studied, that nearly all job losses came from low-impact firms that are also large in size.

“The Hampton Roads economic development organizations have proactively partnered with the private sector to enhance the defense and homeland security industry which resulted in the creation of the Defense and Homeland Security Consortium (DHSC) in 2005”, according to Warren D. Harris, Director of Virginia Beach Economic Development. “The Hampton Roads area has a robust defense and security sector, and it is imperative the private and public sector work in a concerted effort to address the issues that affect these firms and undertake initiatives to expand this sector.”

DHSC volunteers are comprised of officials from the sponsoring city’s economic development departments, educational institutions, workforce development organizations, federal contracting industry professionals and organizations. DHSC has aggressive goals adopted to improve the industry to benefit the entire community and support increased growth of local companies.

For example, each spring since 2005, DHSC has collaborated with Tidewater Community College (TCC) to bring the "Navigating Business with the Federal Government" Seminar Series to South Hampton Roads. The Peninsula Council For Workforce Development (PCFWD) has joined with DHSC to bring the same 9-week series to the Peninsula starting this fall, offering sessions by senior executives from successful local companies to share their experience on what made them, and their companies, achieve their success.

One of the newest initiatives of the consortium, led by Catherine Giordano, CEO of Knowledge Information Solutions and Co-chair of the DHSC, is collaborating to improve education and training opportunities available in Hampton Roads for current and potential employees of the federal contracting industry.

A complete copy of the High-Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited report and rankings of high-impact firms by region, state, MSA, and county may be found by visiting the Defense and Homeland Security consortium website at http://www.pentagonsouth.org/. For more details, contact DHSC Co-Chair Jack Greenhalgh at 757-345-5508 or Jack@NewEraEnergy.com.

For more information on the report, contact the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, www.sba.gov/advo. The SBA’s Office of Advocacy, the “small business watchdog” of the federal government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats, and it funds research into small business issues.

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The Defense and Homeland Security Consortium (DHSC) is a special interest community within the Hampton Roads Technology Council (HRTC) engaged in collaborative discussion and planning to increase revenue and profitability as well as heighten local, national and international awareness for all defense- and security-related businesses in the Hampton Roads region.