A creator who shoots, edits, distributes across platforms, promotes and monetises a video sits, for the US Small Business Administration, in the same industry group as filmmakers. Creator businesses were eligible for the agency's support before, but guidance issued on 15 October 2026 assigned them an industry code, which the agency uses for its loans and contracts to assess whether they are small. The guidance applies to businesses whose main activity is film and video, and only those that meet the conditions of the agency's programmes remain eligible for support.
Whalar brought creators together in one place in February 2025, when it opened The Lighthouse, a space with production studios and coworking in seaside Venice, California. It is not quite a school, nor quite an office. The company wanted to see whether it would lead to business, funding or other creative projects. According to its co-founder Neil Waller, creators in the middle and upper market are no longer sole traders and have large teams and several revenue streams, so “all of a sudden [they] look like a small- or medium-sized company”.
If such a business makes vlogs and video podcasts, the European Union's industry classification has also placed it under film production since January 2025. Influencer marketing sits with advertising agencies. Publishing videos by influencers and vloggers, on the other hand, belongs to film. Czechia adopted the same classification. In its CZ-NACE classification, the Czech Statistical Office lists vlogs and video podcasts under the class Motion picture, video and television programme production. An influencer or blogger who publishes text and photos without video falls under other publishing activities.
In the US, being classed under film and video determines the limit up to which a business counts as small. The Small Business Administration (SBA) assigns such a limit to every industry code. The limit decides whether a business can bid for contracts set aside for small businesses and use the agency's loan programmes. Podcasters, livestreamers, video gamers, digital publishers and creative agencies alike are to find their exact code within the film and video group according to their main activity.
Creators previously lacked clear guidance on which code matched a business spanning several platforms and revenue streams. Without a loan or grant, a creator short of cash will struggle to seize an opportunity, and many creators used to run into paperwork and approval hurdles with loans and grants meant to help a business grow, Tubefilter magazine points out.
The small business threshold is still a proposal
The industry code is settled. In August 2026, the agency proposed rewriting the small business threshold attached to it. Instead of 978 limits for individual codes, it proposes 338 for broader groups and industries. According to the agency, the proposal would simplify the limits for film and video production, post-production and distribution. Until the agency issues a final rule, the existing limits apply, according to law firm Clark Hill, and businesses should not change their size declarations because of the proposal alone.
The agency received comments on the proposed rule asking for an exception for creator businesses with a permanent place in the rules. It extended the deadline for comments by 60 days. For Shira Lazar, a member of the advisory board of the Creators Guild of America, a dedicated code for the whole creator economy is still only a goal. The guild's founder credits her and Avi Gandhi, who leads government advocacy at the guild, with a key role in securing the guidance.
According to Gandhi, the guidance is amazing for middle class creators, who make up the vast majority of the creator economy. “MrBeast is never going to take an SBA loan, but every single person at The Lighthouse could,” Gandhi says. Under the proposal, however, all existing exceptions are set to disappear. The agency will consider the request for a creator exception only after 20 November.
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