That's a phrase that's repeated a lot, but what does it really mean?

Well, for one thing it means jobs - and the creation of new jobs. According to a report just released today

by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses created 1.9 million jobs in 2004, - the most recent year for which job creation was studied.

Other notable statistics from the report include these:

• In 2006, the nation had an estimated 26.8 million small businesses, of which 6.1 milion were employer firms.

• Small businesses employed 50.9 percent of the nation’s non-farm private workforce in 2004.

• Women-owned firms totaled 6.5 million and generated $940.8 billion in revenues in 2002 (latest data).

• America had 1.1 million Asian-owned firms, 1.2 million Black-owned firms, 1.6 million Hispanic-owned firms, 201,400 Native American-owned firms, and 28,900 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander-owned firms in 2002 (latest data). (Note: cannot be totaled, as business owners chose multiple ethnic and racial categories).

Beyond the jobs created by small business, there's another factor that helps drive the economy: all those small businesses need and buy a wide range of products and services - making small business (and home business) a huge market - not only for the corporate giants of the world, but for smaller companies who can produce add-ons or services directed at specific niches within the small business world.