Here are the top 10 reason to love Maryland Small Business, according to the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration:

1. Small businesses make up 97.7 percent of all Maryland employers.

2. Small businesses create more than 50 percent of the American nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).

3. Small patenting firms produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.

4. The 516,700 small businesses in Maryland are located in every community and neighborhood.

5. Small businesses employ 53.4 percent of Maryland’s non-farm private sector workers.

6. Home-based businesses account for 53 percent of all small businesses.

7. Small businesses are 97 percent of America’s exporters and produce 26 percent of all export value.

8. Maryland saw an estimated 22,083 new small firms with employees start-up in the last year measured.

9. There are approximately 114,700 minority-owned businesses and 137,410 women-owned businesses in Maryland, and almost all of them are small businesses.

10. The latest figures show that small business creates 65 percent or more of America’s net new jobs.