Small Business Week
This is 'Small Business Week' where all across the country we are celebrating Canadian entrepreneurs. The theme for this year's Small Business Week is 'Power up your Business. Invest. Innovate. Grow'. I didn't realize until today that Small Business Week has been going on for 32 years (and the term is actually trademarked!) and it was started in recognition of the contributions and achievements of Canada's entrepreneurs. Events are being planned all over the country. Check out the Business Development Bank of Canada website for more info.
For fun, I thought I’d share a few statistical tidbits about small business. I retrieved this from an article at www.cbc.ca and most of the data source is either Industry Canada or Statistics Canada:
What is a small business?
1 to 4 employees: micro-enterprise
5 to 100 employees: small business
101 to 499 employees: medium sized business
500 plus employees: large business
How many small businesses are there in Canada?
Total number of registered employer businesses in Canada (they have at least one employee on payroll) as of December 2010 was 1,138,761. Of those, 1,116,423 were small businesses – 98% of ALL employer businesses in Canada!
How many Canadians work for a small business?
5,137,147 (48.3 % of Canada’s total workforce). In 2005, 41% of employed Canadians worked for businesses with fewer than 20 employees
How many Canadians are self-employed?
In 2010, 2.7 million Canadians were self-employed.
How active are small business owners online?
In 2007, 85 % of small businesses had internet access (latest year for which this stat is available) – 99 % of large businesses had internet access. 36% of small businesses had their own website (91 % of large businesses did.)
How much do small businesses contribute to Canada’s GDP?
In 2005, small businesses accounted for 42 % of the country’s private sector GDP.
So now go pat yourself on the back for being a contributing member of the small business community. Once you’re done, get out there and Power up your Business! Have a great week!
Photo courtesy: mrpuen from freedigitalphotos.net