[Excerpt] Entrepreneurs drive America’s economy, accounting for the majority of our nation’s new job creation and innovations. According to the U. S. Census Bureau’s 2002 Survey of Business Owners, self-employed individuals who have no paid employees operate three-fourths of U.S. businesses. The U. S. Small Business Administration reports that America’s 25.8 million small businesses employ more than 50 percent of the private workforce, generate more than half of the nation's gross domestic product, and are the principal source of new jobs in the U.S. economy.