Which industries give small businesses the best chance of success?

Have you ever wondered which industry would be the best to establish a small business? Surely this would be a big determinant factor for any would-be entrepreneur sitting back at a café and contemplating which market to attack for nation-wide domination. Before scrawling on that paper napkin it would be wise to have an understanding of what you’re up against.

While we won’t be able to bring you the answer in terms of ease of entry, and medium or long-term success, we believe that providing the current lay of the market as it stands would be a powerful indicator of where future rewards may lie, or potential entrepreneurial opportunities await.

The chart below from the Australian Treasury shows the size in dollar terms of each industry in Australia in 2012. This is broken up proportionately to visualize the size of the participants in each sector based on the number of employees to determine whether a business is small, medium or large.

Some interesting data comes to light when shown in the above format. For example, expect difficulty entering the Mining industry as a small business, given its ‘large business’ (ie +200 employees) domination of 72% of the market! Instead perhaps it would be more prudent to look at the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industry which has the highest proportional number of small businesses at 80%, followed by Rental, Hiring and Real Estate services which does well at 76% of the market.

While the Service sector seemed very well balanced, I personally found it interesting to see Health Care and Social Assistance with a slight small business leaning, and the minuscule 8% of small businesses in the Info media and telecommunications industry!

No doubt you will draw your own conclusions as to where you will choose to establish your small business, but as the best generals in history had the knack for picking the right battlefield – hopefully this will put you at an advantage to take the reigns on your business success!

If you do own a small business don’t forget to pickup your free guide to getting on top of your small business finances, some nifty insights in there to help you run a tight ship.