New survey finds a number of Canadian small businesses hiring, making money in 2024
A new survey done by Canadian insurance company Zensurance found that more than half of the 1,000 small business owners, entrepreneurs and self-employed Canadians it polled reported making more money so far in 2024 than in the first half of 2023.
"60 per cent saying their revenues have improved over the last twelve months, and 20 per cent of that saying they've reached new records, 70 per cent are really confident about the future, and a third are planning to hire in the next six months,” said Danish Yusuf, Zensurance’s founder and CEO.
Some Maritime small businesses seem to fit the bill for the trends the survey describes.
Mike Wadden's physiotherapy clinic on Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton has been open for less than 10 months, but has already built a pretty good clientele.
"We opened our doors in October of last year, and we've had a lot of support from the community,” Wadden said.
Right now, Wadden is hiring - and he's heard from a number of other small business owners in the Sydney area who are doing the same.
"I mean, for a long time people were moving away,” Wadden said. “We have more people coming back now, more businesses are opening. I think there's more competition too."
However, a senior policy analyst in Nova Scotia for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the survey results don’t reflect what he has heard.
"We do have some different data, from our members directly, particularly when we look at revenue,” said Duncan Robertson. "So, when we look at our domestic demand we're hearing that is an issue for a lot of our members."
Robertson says local small and medium enterprises have also been dealing with higher costs.
"Particularly the cost of doing business, which we have heard has been on the rise,” he said. “Taxes, fuel, insurance costs, wages as well."
Meanwhile, there were other positive predictions from the Zensurance study.
Nearly 24 per cent of those polled said they are opening a second workplace or office and more than 30 per cent plan to introduce a new service or sell new products.
"I think it paints a good picture,” Yusuf said. “But there are those clouds on the surface as well around inflation and certain hiring challenges - so I'd say I'd be cautiously optimistic based on these results."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.7034404.1726088503!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
'Buy nothing': PSAC wants federal workers to boycott downtown Ottawa businesses
A union representing federal employees is asking its members to bring their own lunch to work, in an apparent retaliation against downtown Ottawa businesses as new return-to-office protocols begin.
Actions speak louder: What experts are saying about the body language in the U.S. presidential debate
The highly anticipated debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was a heated matchup. Here's what experts who analyzed the exchange had to say.
Jon Bon Jovi helps talk woman down from ledge on Nashville bridge
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi and a video production assistant persuaded a woman standing on the ledge of a pedestrian bridge in Nashville to come back over the railing to safety.
Inside a Manitoba ghost town, a group of ladies works to keep it alive
Abandoned homes line the streets of Lauder, a town that's now a ghost of what it once was. Yet inside, a small community is thriving.
B.C. family says razor blades found in bag of frozen blueberries
The B.C. parents of an 11-year-old girl said their daughter recently found a package containing razor blades in a bag of Kirkland-brand frozen blueberries.
Langenburg UFO sighting commemorated with silver coin
Perhaps Saskatchewan's most famous encounter with Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP/UFO) – "The Langenburg Event" is now being immortalized in the form of a collective coin.
Taylor Swift wins at MTV Video Music Awards and Chappell Roan gets medieval
Taylor Swift and Post Malone took home the first award at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, for best collaboration, handed to them by Flavor Flav and Olympian Jordan Chiles.
Man, 70, and woman, 71, found shot dead in Montreal apartment, police
Montreal police (SPVM) are investigating after a man, 70, and woman, 71, were killed by gunshot wounds in an apartment.
Tens of thousands in the dark after Hurricane Francine strikes Louisiana with 100 m.p.h. winds
Hurricane Francine struck Louisiana on Wednesday evening as a Category 2 storm that forecasters warned could bring deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf Coast.