MICRO-BUSINESSES GROWING IN CANADA
By Adnews Staff
Canadian micro-businesses are spending nearly $3 billion a year on business products, according to a study by Comquest Research, a division of the BBM Bureau of Broadcast Measurement. The survey was sponsored by ADitus, the national sales and marketing division of Southam Newspapers. Micro-businesses are defined as those employing one to four people and earning more than $20,000 a year. Canada's estimated 1.1 million micro-businesses employed over 2.3 million full-time people in 1995.
According to the Comquest study, owners of these small businesses get information on the products they buy mainly from daily newspapers; 47% rely on the dailies. Twenty-one percent watch TV for this information, while 17% count on magazines, 16% on trade journals and 11% on radio. Half of the survey respondents said they would be buying new software this year and almost 30% said they'd be buying new hardware. Eleven per cent will be spending money on training courses and conferences.