The Importance Of Small Businesses

Small business in Ontario (classified as those businesses with 50 or less employees) account for 22% of Ontario's GDP. That is almost a quarter of the province's GDP or in other words if Ontario produces $1 worth of goods about 25 cents comes from small businesses. When you think about this fact it is really mind boggling.

If you are not targeting businesses that have 50 employees or less you may be walking away from 25% of the marketing or even more depending on the industry you are in. Small businesses can sometimes not be worth pursuing because in select cases they are not as profitable as large businesses. This is not always the case though and in some cases they can be even more profitable than large businesses, it all depends on what you are selling and how you are structured.

One common fear of having or targeting small businesses as a customer is that they are unstable and at high risk of bankruptcy. The thing is, small business bankruptcy may not be as high as you think. For small businesses in Canada with 5-99 employees 70.4% of new businesses are still in operation 5 years after they open doors. Even more impressive is that 66.9% of businesses with 1-4 employees are still in operation 5 years after their first day in business. Taking a look at these kinds of results indicate that small businesses are not as risky as the common belief. This is especially true when you consider the bankruptcy rate of all business in Ontario, regardless of how long they have been in business, is usually around 10% any given year. In addition small business can sometimes turn into a gold mine for you business. If you acquire a successful small business as a customer in its early days and it grows year over year at an accelerating rate, a few years down the road you may have a very large customer on your hands.

Another interesting fact.....98% of business in Ontario have 100 employees or less. Big businesses often get a lot of the attention, which they probably deserve, but I think small businesses are often over looked given some of the facts that support how important they really are.

Source: Statistics Canada

My name is Chris R. Keller and I work at Profitworks where I help various B2B small businesses in Waterloo and Kitchener, Ontario generate new customers. I use many sales and marketing methods for each of my customers but a common theme across all of my customers is that I always use email marketing. If you are interested in generating new customers for your B2B small business or you just like reading what I write, enter your email in the box provided below and click the "Send Me Free Updates" button.

I hope this article on the importance of small businesses enlightening.