Research

Small business snapshot: San Francisco

May 28, 2026

California is home to more than 4.3 million small businesses, and over 12 percent of these are in the metropolitan San Francisco area. Small businesses accounted for 46.7 percent of employment in the San Francisco area, with the largest number of employees in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry (U.S. Small Business Administration 2025b, 2025c).1

We analyzed 2.1 million small businesses with Chase Business Banking accounts operating during 2025,2 including more than 43,000 in the San Francisco metro area,3 to provide a snapshot of their financial health. The typical small business in San Francisco exhibits financial health measures—over 21 cash buffer days and $163,300 in annual revenues—that are more robust than those of a typical small business in the U.S. Median San Francisco revenues were higher than the overall sample in every industry, with professional services—the largest small business sector in San Francisco—having 39 percent higher revenues. While higher revenues may reflect the higher cost of living in San Francisco, cash buffer days scale balances by average outflows. This suggests that small businesses in San Francisco hold relatively larger cash reserves even after accounting for their higher outflows.

Cash buffer days: Small businesses may differ along many dimensions, such as size, industry, location, and growth trajectories, but they all need to manage their cash flows. Cash reserves can be used not only to absorb unexpected shortfalls in revenue or increases in expenses but also to invest in growth opportunities. We use cash buffer days to measure how long a small business could maintain its average outflows in the event of a complete disruption to inflows. 4

Figure 1: San Francisco small businesses held larger cash buffers than typical firms in other metro areas.

Horizontal bar chart showing median small business cash buffer days by core-based statistical area (CBSA) in 2025. The vertical axis lists 25 CBSAs sorted from highest to lowest number of cash buffer days, and the horizontal axis represents cash buffer days ranging from 0 to 25. Each CBSA is represented by a bar, with San Francisco and "All" highlighted. Values are labeled at the end of each bar.

San Francisco has the highest median cash buffer at 24.1 days, followed by San Jose at 23.7 days and Seattle at 23.1 days.  The "All" bar, representing the entire sample, is 17.6 days. At the bottom of the chart, Orlando has the lowest median cash buffer at 12.8 days, preceded by Miami at 13.4 days and Atlanta at 13.6 days.

Figure 1 shows the median cash buffer days for small businesses across 25 metro areas. The typical firm in our nationwide sample held 17.6 cash buffer days in 2025, indicating that its cash reserves could sustain its average outflows for over 17 days. The typical small firm in San Francisco held more than 24 cash buffer days, suggesting a materially greater ability to absorb economic shocks compared to the overall median.

Figure 2: Revenues in San Francisco were materially higher than the overall median.

Horizontal bar chart showing median small business revenue by core-based statistical area (CBSA) in 2025. The vertical axis lists 25 CBSAs sorted from highest to lowest annual revenue, and the horizontal axis represents median revenue in dollars, ranging from 0 to 175,000. Each CBSA is represented by a bar, with San Francisco and "All" highlighted. Values are labeled at the end of each bar.

San Francisco has the second highest median revenue at $163,300, below only San Jose at $168,200, and followed by San Diego at $141,200. The "All" bar, representing the entire sample, has a value of $125,200. At the bottom of the chart, Miami has the lowest median revenue at $97,700, preceded by Atlanta at $98,300 and Orlando at $103,000.

Revenues: Revenue is another important measure of firm financial health. Figure 2 shows the median annual revenues for 25 metro areas. Across our sample, the median small business generated $125,200 in revenues during 2025. In the San Francisco metro area, median revenue was materially higher, at $163,300. Typical revenues may vary by industry, so the composition of the small business sector within a metro area could affect the median.

Figure 3: Across industries, small business revenues were higher in San Francisco than the overall sample.

Dot plot with range bands showing median small business revenue by industry in 2025. The vertical axis lists 15 industries along with an "All" category. The horizontal axis represents median revenue in dollars, ranging from 0 to 600,000. Each row includes a gray band representing the range of median revenues across 25 CBSAs, a circle for San Francisco, and a diamond for the overall sample. A "San Francisco vs Overall" percentage difference is displayed on the right side of each row.

Restaurants have the highest median revenues, with San Francisco at approximately $560,000 and a difference of +41 percent compared to the overall sample. Arts and entertainment and other services have among the lowest median revenues. The San Francisco vs Overall difference ranges from +130 percent for accommodation to +12 percent for retail trade, with all industries showing positive differences. For the "All" industry category, San Francisco's median revenue is 30 percent above the overall sample. The gray range bands vary considerably in width across industries, with restaurants showing the widest range and industries such as administrative services and other services showing narrower ranges.

In the San Francisco metro area, professional services had the most small businesses as well as the most small business employment. A larger share of San Francisco’s small businesses is engaged in professional services: 22 percent in San Francisco compared to 13 percent nationwide.5

Figure 3 shows the median annual revenues in 2025 by industry for San Francisco, relative to the median in our overall sample, as well as the range of median revenues across 25 metro areas. Across industries, small business revenues in San Francisco are typically higher than in the overall sample. Small professional service firms in San Francisco earned revenues that were 39 percent higher than those in our overall sample. Restaurants had the highest median revenues across industries, and revenues at San Francisco restaurants were 41 percent higher than the overall sample.6

Higher small business revenues in San Francisco may be related in part to a higher cost of living in the region.7 However, San Francisco businesses also exhibit notably higher median cash buffer days than the overall sample. The cash buffer day metric scales balances by average outflows, so San Francisco firms are holding relatively higher cash reserves even after accounting for their higher outflows.

Taken together, the median cash buffer days and revenues suggest that small businesses in San Francisco exhibit materially higher measures of financial health than the typical small firm elsewhere in the U.S. San Francisco appears particularly strong in professional services, its largest sector.

Farrell, Diana, Chris Wheat, Chi Mac, and Bryan Kim. 2020. “Small Business Expenses during COVID-19.” JPMorganChase Institute. https://www.jpmorganchase.com/institute/all-topics/business-growth-and-entrepreneurship/report-small-business-expenses-during-COVID-19.

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. 2026a. “Real Personal Consumption Expenditures by State and Real Personal Income by State, 2024.” Accessed April 24, 2026. https://www.bea.gov/news/2026/real-personal-consumption-expenditures-state-and-real-personal-income-state-2024.

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. 2026b. “MARPP Regional price parities by MSA” Accessed April 24, 2026.

U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy. 2025a. “2025 Small Business Profile, United States.” Accessed April 8, 2026. https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/United_States_2025-State-Profile.pdf.

U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy. 2025b. “2025 Small Business Profile, California.” Accessed April 24, 2026. https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/California_2025-State-Profile.pdf.

U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy. 2025c. “Small Business Profiles for Major Metropolitan Areas of the West 2025.” Accessed April 24, 2026. https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/West_2025_FINAL.pdf.

We are thankful to the many people who made essential contributions to this research, especially Michael Vaden for exceptional research assistance. We are also indebted to our internal partners and colleagues, who support delivery of our agenda in a myriad of ways and acknowledge their contributions to each release.

This material is a product of JPMorganChase Institute and is provided to you solely for general information purposes. Unless otherwise specifically stated, any views or opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors listed and may differ from the views and opinions expressed by J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS) Research Department or other departments or divisions of JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates. This material is not a product of the Research Department of JPMS. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries (collectively J.P. Morgan) do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions and estimates constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice. No representation or warranty should be made with regard to any computations, graphs, tables, diagrams or commentary in this material, which is provided for illustration/reference purposes only. The data relied on for this report are based on past transactions and may not be indicative of future results. J.P. Morgan assumes no duty to update any information in this material in the event that such information changes. The opinion herein should not be construed as an individual recommendation for any particular client and is not intended as advice or recommendations of particular securities, financial instruments, or strategies for a particular client. This material does not constitute a solicitation or offer in any jurisdiction where such a solicitation is unlawful.

JPMorganChase Institute. 2026. “Small business snapshot: San Francisco."
https://www.jpmorganchase.com/institute/all-topics/business-growth-and-entrepreneurship/san-francisco-small-business-snapshot

Footnotes

1.

There were 535,998 small businesses in the San Francisco metropolitan area and 4,340,784 small businesses in California. San Francisco area data is reported for the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metropolitan area in 2022, the most recent available from the U.S. Census Bureau.

2.

Our sample includes small firms with no more than three deposit accounts that were open during the entire 2025 calendar year and active, with at least 10 transactions and $500 in outflows, in at least three months. To ensure that these firms were small, we limited the sample to firms operating in one ZIP code and one industry.

3.

Throughout this brief, we use the Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) for San Francisco but may refer to the area simply as San Francisco for brevity.

4.

During times of distress, small businesses may pull back expenses, possibly to preserve liquidity. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, expense growth mirrored the reduced revenue growth small businesses experienced due to operating restrictions and lower demand (Farrell et al. 2020).

5.

There were 115,983 small businesses in professional services in San Francisco, out of a total of 535,998. Nationwide, there were 4,881,738 small businesses in professional services, out of a total of 36,186,089 small firms (U.S. Small Business Administration 2025a, 2025c). This industry corresponds to two-digit NAICS code 54 and is also known as professional, scientific, and technical services.

6.

Small businesses in accommodation and food services employed 148,442 people in San Francisco in 2022, the second largest after professional services (U.S. Small Business Administration 2025c). In Figure 3, we split out restaurants (food services) and accommodation to highlight differences in these sectors.

7.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis computes a regional price parity (RPP), which measures the difference in price levels across states and metro areas, relative to the overall national price level. In 2024, California’s RPP was 110.7, indicating that prices were 10.7 percent higher than national levels. The RPP for the San Francisco metro area was 115.6 in 2024 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis 2026a, 2026b).

Media contact:
Shelby Wagenseller, Shelby.Wagenseller@jpmchase.com

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