There are so many great facts highlighted in this infographic (scroll down) put together by BDC, but the one that hit home most to me is the need for startups to adopt a global perspective.
Look at those numbers in the bottom corner of above. Only a small percentage of small and medium size firms export, but they account for 17 per cent of export value.
In our recent Startup Grind Fireside Chats in Toronto, Bob Dorf (Startup Owners Manual) and Anish Achary (Google Ventures) and George Babu each highlighted how important it is for local startup to begin with a business that is designed to have customers anywhere. As Bob pointed out, “You are going to be working 12 or more hours a day on your startup, you might as well be working on a huge opportunity.”
Here are a few other interesting factoids highlighted below:
- 98.2 per cent of businesses have less than 100 employees.
- British Columbians have been starting the most new businesses in recent years but Ontario still has the most SMEs at 35 per cent.
- The top five businesses attracting new entrepreneurs: construction, food and accommodation, business services, wholesale and retail trade, healthcare.
- Only 60 per cent of small businesses plan to invest in technology but when they do – 83 per cent obtain a positive ROI.
- A third of our small and medium sized businesses are led by women.
 
