Small business is widely considered the backbone of the American economy, and its impact is anything but small. Over 28 million small businesses are currently operating in the United States, and they employ more than 56 million people. Furthermore, small businesses are usually equated with honesty, trust and being people-oriented, whereas big business is often viewed as cold, faceless and untrustworthy. In fact, Americans are more than three times as likely to express confidence in small business as they are in big business, due in no small part to the following three factors:

No. 1: More personalized customer service. Direct customer service is a hallmark of small business, while customer service for big business often means having to navigate a minefield of voice response systems and/or prompts, of which one mistake can blow you back to step one. Having a live person to field customer calls and provide timely, personalized service is one of the greatest advantages that small businesses have over their larger brethren. Small businesses are better able to listen and talk to their target market and customers, which fosters trust and develops authentic, long-lasting relationships. Small businesses are much closer to their customers than big businesses are to theirs.

No. 2: More focus on a particular market. Many small businesses focus on niche markets, meaning they specialize more in specific products and/or services, whereas big businesses tend to offer more products and services to a wider array of consumers. By adopting a narrower focus, small businesses can develop a stellar reputation for serving a specific market, and, unlike big businesses that are hampered by their size, are able to be more innovative and make quicker decisions without having to cut through layers of red tape to move forward with an idea, which can be advantageous when rolling out a new product. Additionally, a small business that focuses on a niche market usually cultivates a particular demographic of consumer that prefers to do business with it over a large business.

No. 3: Greater impact on local communities. Despite the fact that a number of big-box stores continue to drive smaller businesses out of business by undercutting their prices, locally owned businesses continue to thrive across the nation. Furthermore, locally owned small businesses are synonymous with what is known as the “multiplier effect,” meaning that every dollar spent at a locally owned business stays in the community and helps generate greater economic value. In fact, a multitude of studies have shown that every single dollar spent at a local business leads to two to four times the amount of jobs, income and wealth, tax collections and charitable contributions. President Obama once remarked that small businesses are not only the backbone of our economy, they are the “cornerstones of our communities.”