In spite of its key role in the American economy, small business has been largely ignored in major financial publications. This paper empirically explores and discusses some of the key financial characteristics of a sample of 607 small retailing firms. Specifically, the paper presents empirical frequency distributions of fourteen key financial ratios reflecting liquidity, profitability, leverage, and operating efficiency for the firms in the sample. The data indicate that successful small retailers may be considerably more liquid, more profitable, and less highly leveraged than commonly observed.
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