October 11, 2005
www.cibcwm.com/research
Economics & Strategy
Jeffrey Rubin
Avery Shenfeld
Benjamin Tal
Peter Buchanan
Warren Lovely
Leslie Preston
(416) 594-7357
(416) 594-7356
(416) 956-3698
(416) 594-7354
(416) 594-7359
(416) 956-3219
CIBC World Markets Inc. • PO Box 500, 161 Bay Street, BCE Place, Toronto Canada M5J 2S8 • Bloomberg @ WGEC1 • (416) 594-7000
CIBC World Markets Corp. • 300 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017 • (212) 856-4000, (800) 999-6726
CONTENTS
Executive Summary ................................. 2
Recent Trends In Self-Employment ........... 5
The Quality of Self-Employment ............... 8
Serial Entrepreneurs .............................. 13
Small Businesses Creating Jobs ............. 15
Facing Challenges .................................. 18
The Soaring Canadian Dollar ................ 18
Rising Oil and Gas Prices ..................... 21
A Regional Perspective ........................... 24
A Look Ahead ......................................... 26
Small Business Statistics ....................... 27
Entrepreneurship is alive and well in Canada. But
why have 2.5 million Canadians become small
business owners? Our findings suggest that
lifestyle considerations outweigh financial
motivations. Even though entrepreneurs may
work longer hours for less pay, they tend to stay
in their positions longer than those who work for
someone else. Self-employment is not static, as
the nature of these small businesses has evolved
over time, perhaps adding to their longevity. Love
for the entrepreneurial lifestyle has also found
expression in the number of “serial
entrepreneurs”, or self-employed Canadians who
have owned or currently own more than one
business.
The recent small business expansion has had a
positive impact on the Canadian economy. In
addition to the 80,000 jobs that entrepreneurs
have generated for themselves this year, they
have created one-quarter of the paid
employment positions in the year ending March
2005, providing a boost to the l