"Store Front" Business Growth Outpacing U.S. GDP

BOSTON, Aug. 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Four years after the end of the recession, Store Front businesses – those considered the heartbeat of America - continue to grow, outpacing the growth of the overall U.S. economy. The newly launched CAN Capital Store Front Business Index powered by PYMNTS.com forecasts a growth rate of 2.9 percent for Q2 2015, up slightly from the overall annual real growth rate of 2.4 percent growth for GDP for 2014.

"Store Front" businesses are defined as those that drive the local economies of the cities and towns in the U.S. and consist of businesses in 9 segments that typify the local small business enterprise:

• Building Contractors / Remodelers
• Service/Repair
• Eating and Drinking Places
• Retail
• Personal Services
• Professional Services
• Health Care
• Fitness

"The Store Front Business Index is a creative way to measure the health of the businesses that are the backbone of our local economies," said Karen Webster CEO of PYMNTS.com, creator of the model and methodology that powers the Store Front Business Index. "Our model analyzes data for each of the 3.4 million 'Store Front businesses' in the U.S. and not only measures the health of this important business community, but gives us a good sense, overall, of the health of businesses in the U.S. by sector and by geography."

The Store Front Business Index tracks more than 36% of all small business establishments in the U.S., using a variety of publicly available data sets. The quarterly Index measures the vitality of this sector of small businesses based on the growth in new establishments, wages and employment.

"Over the past seventeen years, our team at CAN Capital has worked closely with small businesses across the country and seen firsthand the valuable impact they have on not only local communities, but the broader economy," said Daniel DeMeo, CEO of CAN Capital. "We are pleased to see that the Index points to continued growth within the sector, and we are committed to supporting that growth by providing small businesses with the fast, efficient access to capital that is so critical to their continued success."

According to the Index findings, the Pacific West is the strongest driver of regional gains, while Building Contractors and Home Remodelers is the leading industry segment. Small business wages are the largest driver of growth in the Index, increasing 7.9% on average in 2014. This growth is projected to slow to 5.0% for 2015. Meanwhile, the number of small business employees also saw steady growth throughout the country, at an average rate of 2.9% in 2014 and is projected to grow by 2.7% this year.

For more information and results from Store Front Business Index, please click here.

Note to Editors
The Store Front Business Index, powered by PYMNTS.com provides a metric to measure the health of a subset of small businesses in the United States, with a specific emphasis on "store fronts" or those businesses found in local communities. To help create the index, PYMNTS devised the methodology, model and the analytics behind the Index, while CAN Capital provided insights from its more than 17 years of experience with these types of businesses. The Index is based on three criteria: growth in new establishments, wages and employment and tracks approximately 36.7% of the small business establishments in the US, which is roughly 3.4 million merchants. The average business employs a little more than 9 people per location.

The study evaluates the merchants and service providers that are most typically found in urban and suburban areas: eating establishments, professional and personal services, construction, remodeling and repair services, fitness, and a wide variety of retailers.

About CAN Capital
CAN Capital, Inc., established in 1998, is the pioneer and market share leader in alternative small business finance, having provided access to over $5 billion in funding to small businesses. As a technology-powered financial services provider, CAN Capital uses innovative and proprietary risk models combined with daily performance data to evaluate business performance and facilitate access to capital for entrepreneurs in a fast and efficient way. CAN Capital, an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing company, makes capital available to businesses through its subsidiaries: Merchant Cash Advances by CAN Capital Merchant Services, Inc., and business loans through CAN Capital Asset Servicing, Inc. (CCAS). Business loans obtained through CCAS are made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, member FDIC. For more information, please visit: www.cancapital.com. Follow CAN Capital on Twitter and Facebook.

About PYMNTS.com
PYMNTS.com is reinventing the way in which companies in payments create and share relevant information about the initiatives that shape the future of payments and commerce and make news. This powerful B2B platform is the #1 site for the payments and broader commerce ecosystem by traffic and the premier source of information about "what's next" in payments. C-suite and VP level executives turn to it daily for these insights, making the PYMNTS.com audience the most valuable in the industry. It provides an interactive platform for companies to demonstrate thought leadership, popularize products and, most importantly, capture the mindshare of global decision-makers. PYMNTS.com also produces a number of proprietary data assets and sector trackers, including The Store Front Business Index. PYMNTS.com, where the best minds and best content meet on the web to learn "What's Next" in Payments and Commerce.

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SOURCE CAN Capital, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cancapital.com