42 ms·

A majority of today's small businesses are not sustainable either. Isn't it something in the range of 85% of small businesses fail after a handful of years?

bjelkeman-again 12y ago
That was an interesting thought. I had to look at the numbers a bit. In Sweden in 2012 69,216 companies where created [1]. In all of 2012 7,471 companies were declared bankrupt [2], about 10%. If 85% fail, then another 75% should have shut down voluntarily. That is out of 1.1 million companies of which 888,000 had some turnover last year [3], Can't find the statistics for the year on year growth though right now. Edit: found the stats. Seems the number of companies have only grown by 10% in total or so in six years [4]. So maybe you are right then. (all references in Swedish, sorry) [1] http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserien/statistikserien/2013-03-19-konkurser-och-offentliga-ackord-2012.html http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserie... [2] http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserien/statistikserien/2014-02-11-nyforetagandet-i-sverige-2012.html http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserie... [3] http://scb.se/sv_/Vara-tjanster/Foretag--och-myndighetsregister/Foretagsregistret/Aktuell-statistik-ur-Foretagsregistret/ http://scb.se/sv_/Vara-tjanster/Foretag--och-myndighetsregis... [4] http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__NV__NV0101/FDBR07/table/tableViewLayout1/?rxid=44afc400-b603-466a-b0c0-a06ecbcb8e3c http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__NV_...
rahimnathwani 12y ago
Not all small businesses are intended to be sustainable. Let's say I start a company in order to bill my freelance clients, but 2 years later I get a job and shut down the company (which never had recurring revenue as I was just selling my own services). That would show up in those figures. So would a company which was set up to operate, say, a restaurant. If the company sold the assets (lease, fixtures & fittings etc.) to another individual or company, so that the owner could move to another country or start and run a different business, that would also look like a small business failure, even if the guy lived well for those years and came out on top before moving on.

bjelkeman-again 12y ago

That was an interesting thought. I had to look at the numbers a bit. In Sweden in 2012 69,216 companies where created [1]. In all of 2012 7,471 companies were declared bankrupt [2], about 10%. If 85% fail, then another 75% should have shut down voluntarily. That is out of 1.1 million companies of which 888,000 had some turnover last year [3], Can't find the statistics for the year on year growth though right now. Edit: found the stats. Seems the number of companies have only grown by 10% in total or so in six years [4]. So maybe you are right then. (all references in Swedish, sorry) [1] http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserien/statistikserien/2013-03-19-konkurser-och-offentliga-ackord-2012.html http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserie... [2] http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserien/statistikserien/2014-02-11-nyforetagandet-i-sverige-2012.html http://www.tillvaxtanalys.se/sv/publikationer/statistikserie... [3] http://scb.se/sv_/Vara-tjanster/Foretag--och-myndighetsregister/Foretagsregistret/Aktuell-statistik-ur-Foretagsregistret/ http://scb.se/sv_/Vara-tjanster/Foretag--och-myndighetsregis... [4] http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__NV__NV0101/FDBR07/table/tableViewLayout1/?rxid=44afc400-b603-466a-b0c0-a06ecbcb8e3c http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__NV_...

rahimnathwani 12y ago

Not all small businesses are intended to be sustainable. Let's say I start a company in order to bill my freelance clients, but 2 years later I get a job and shut down the company (which never had recurring revenue as I was just selling my own services). That would show up in those figures. So would a company which was set up to operate, say, a restaurant. If the company sold the assets (lease, fixtures & fittings etc.) to another individual or company, so that the owner could move to another country or start and run a different business, that would also look like a small business failure, even if the guy lived well for those years and came out on top before moving on.