Look around you and you’ll realize that the businesses you frequent most in your daily life, especially in a town like Westlock, are small businesses.
Not only does that make small businesses the backbone of Westlock’s economy, but of the Canadian economy as well.
This week we’re featuring many of these small businesses (Pages 22-38) and the proprietors who took the risk to offer their products and services to their community at a fair price. They’re as much a part of the community as the park down the street or the local rec facilities.
According to the Government of Canada, as of December 2015, there were 1.17 million employer businesses in Canada. Of these, 1.14 million (97.9 per cent) businesses were the small businesses that employ nearly half the people in the country’s private sector. About 1.8 per cent, or 21,415 were medium-sized businesses and 2,933 (0.3 per cent) were large enterprises.
Businesses that employ only one to four people made up 54 per cent of all private employers and relative to population, Alberta has the greatest number of these businesses of all the provinces.
The numbers may lead you to believe otherwise, but it’s not easy. Many will fail.
In the age of Amazon and almost every business across the planet having a website people can order directly from, it can’t be easy to make a go of it nowadays. Not only are they competing with local business rivals, but with rivals from across the globe.
It is a two-way street though. To compete globally, customer service, varied product lines and competitive pricing have to be top-of-mind for entrepreneurs and their staff if they hope to be successful in the modern age. It’s no longer just a gimme that consumers will enter your store just because it’s the only one within walking distance.
But creating a vibrant community takes many things and chief among them is strong, vibrant business community.
So remember the next time you’re shopping online that Amazon hasn’t donated any money to food bank, or helped buy jerseys for minor hockey. It’s an old adage, but remains especially true today: money spent here, stays here.
