The 100 Year Conversation

Many small businesses would anonymously provide financial information to a centralized entity. This statistical entity (StatsRus) would help them crunch numbers to find trends and create reports to help the business better understand where they are financially. StatsRus could also monitor industry trends and give comparison reports to a small business as to how they compare to the average narrowed by industry as well as geography. Basic reporting (mostly anything that can be automated and delivered by a machine for free) would be free to all participants. More details and especially customized reporting would cost money. People contributing their data would get more for free. Businesses only wanting to get data but not provide it back to the commons would pay a higher price, though.