Small Business Credit Survey

Background

The data used here come from the Texas sample of the Small Business Credit Survey. The survey is a national sample of small businesses, or firms with fewer than 500 employees, aimed at providing insight into firms’ financing and debt needs and experiences. In this effort, the Texas Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) remain our largest partners, providing a majority of total responses from Texas participants.

The SBCS is designed to provide timely insights on financing needs and gaps in the country’s small businesses. While many questions remain similar to the Texas Small Business Needs Assessment Poll, the SBCS illuminates how Texas businesses fit in the context of the nation and can provide more rigorous data on credit needs to inform policymakers, academics and small business owners.

This report contains information on Texas firms that employ at least one person besides the business owner. The SBCS collects information on both employer and nonemployer firms. Because nonemployer firms are inherently different from employer firms, and we are interested in workforce and employee challenges, we look only at employer firms for this report. We also include insights from those on the ground—specifically, executive directors of SBDC regional offices.

The total number of Texas respondents for all small businesses in the 2018 survey was 1,146, with 527 of those being employer firms. The survey was fielded during the third and fourth quarters of 2018. For more information on methodology, see the appendix.