Over eighty percent of the growth in the number of businesses in the United States between 1992 and 2002 came from a surge in the number of microbusinesses (firms with fewer than five employees). Right now, more than nine in ten U.S. firms are microbusinesses.

Yet little is known about these tiny businesses — how they operate, what their challenges are, how they grow, what they buy or how their owners vote.

The Microbusiness Research Institute (MRI) will help to address that data gap. Through a series of research projects, publications and policy forums, MRI searches out these small, elusive firms so that lawmakers and corporate buyers and sellers can better address their needs in policy and in the marketplace.