Small Business
The Solo Economy: 32 Million One-Person Businesses and a $1.86 Trillion Engine
Four out of five small businesses in America have no employees. Most are modest, a few are remarkable, and together they form one of the largest and least understood forces in the economy.
Ask someone to picture American business and they will picture buildings: a headquarters, a factory, the shop on Main Street. Yet the largest class of businesses in the country has no building, no staff, and often no sign on the door. It is one person with a skill, a phone, and a short list of clients who keep coming back.
The Census Bureau calls them nonemployer businesses. We call it the solo economy. Its newest numbers are the largest on record.
By the numbers
A business class that keeps growing
Census counted 31,985,874 nonemployer businesses in 2024, up 5.1 percent in a single year. Together they brought in about $1.86 trillion, an average of roughly $58,000 each.
This is not a blip. The number of businesses with no employees nearly doubled between 1997 and 2022, from 15.4 million to 29.8 million, according to the Small Business Administration. From 2012 to 2023 the solo segment grew about 2.7 percent a year, more than twice the pace of businesses with employees. Today, 82.3 percent of all U.S. small businesses are run without a single employee.
What solo businesses actually do
By count, the largest solo sector is transportation and warehousing, with nearly 4.5 million businesses, much of it driven by app-based driving and delivery. Close behind are professional, scientific, and technical services, with 4.2 million businesses and about $250 billion in receipts: consultants, bookkeepers, designers, developers, and specialists of every kind.
The richest solo sector is real estate and rental, which took in about $363 billion. Construction, other personal services, administrative support, health care, and retail each count millions of one-person operators of their own.
The honest middle
Here is the part most business coverage skips. About 60 percent of solo businesses took in less than $25,000 in 2024. For most owners, a one-person business is not a replacement for a career. It is a second engine, running quietly alongside the first.
Census research on self-employment bears that out. About 9.5 percent of workers combine a regular paycheck with self-employment income, more than the 7.8 percent who are fully self-employed. More than half of solo business ownership is held by people who also have a wage job.
The trade-off is variability. In the Federal Reserve's latest household survey, 58 percent of self-employed adults said their income changed from month to month, and 22 percent said that swing made it harder to pay bills.
The most common path is not quitting to start something. It is building something on the side, keeping the paycheck, and letting the second income grow until it earns the right to more of your time.
And the remarkable few
At the other end, the ceiling is real. In 2024, about 112,700 one-person businesses earned between $1 million and $2.5 million. Another 12,600 earned $2.5 million to $5 million, and just over 1,000 earned more than $5 million. No staff, no payroll, and receipts most small companies would envy.
Almost none of them began there. They began where everyone begins: small, part-time, and very often at home.
How the solo economy is structured
Most solo businesses keep things simple. Individual proprietorships make up 86 percent of them and bring in about $1.12 trillion in receipts. Partnerships and S corporations account for most of the rest, typically as owners formalize a business that has proven itself.
What it means for anyone thinking about starting
- You would be joining the majority, not the fringe. One-person businesses are the most common business in America.
- Plan for modest and variable early income. The data is clear that most solo businesses start small and swing month to month. Keep your paycheck while you find out what works.
- Choose a model that can grow. The solo businesses at the top are mostly skills and services that scale with reputation, not hours alone.
Get the Report
Modern Enterprise Report covers the solo economy from the inside: the numbers, the models that work, and the opportunities worth your attention. Subscribe free.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Nonemployer Statistics
- U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Business Growth, 2012 to 2023
- Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, 2026
- U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies, Working Paper CES 25-60, self-employment and wage work (2019 data)
- Federal Reserve, Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025
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