Every other month, CFIB members lend their opinions to 'Your Voice,' a survey exploring a variety of current topics. The latest takeaways are showcased in a series of informative charts that summarize these findings.
Your Voice Highlights
September 2024
CFIB’s September Your Voice captures key insights on the current health of businesses and explores whether small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Canada would encourage others to start a business today. The survey also delves into the labour market challenges SMEs face.
Business Health
Business health includes factors such as cash flow, financial stability, employee and customer satisfaction, and the effectiveness of systems and processes. As of September 2024, 25% of businesses are in weak or critical condition, while one in three report being in strong health.
Sentiment on Starting a Business
Fewer than one in five business owners (19%) would advise someone to start a business at this time. The primary concerns include rising operational costs (89%),economic uncertainty (76%), the high tax burden (72%), and excessive government red tape (62%). Together, these factors highlight the challenging environment for SMEs, leaving many owners doubtful about the sustainability of new ventures.
Labour Market Challenges
Labour market issues remain a significant hurdle for SMEs, with the overall cost of labour (56%), difficulty recruiting skilled employees (52%), and labour quality concerns (51%) being the top issues. Additionally, concerns about workforce quality are widespread, with 40% of business owners expressing neutral or negative views, citing low productivity (69%), excessive personal communication (67%), and lack of motivation (66%). These issues highlight the growing difficulty SMEs face in maintaining a capable and productive workforce.
Addressing these challenges is critical to ensuring the success and growth of SMEs and fostering entrepreneurship in Canada.
Dive Deeper into the Numbers
Explore the interactive dashboard below to delve into the data from our September 2024 Your Voice survey. You can filter the data by province, sector, business size, and age for SMEs across the nation.
Marvin Cruz
Director of Research
Explore more September 2024 insights and our extensive survey collection below.
'Your Voice' survey collection
Report | Download |
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Your Voice September 2024 Topics covered:
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PDF (6.0 MB) |
Your Voice August 2024 Topics covered:
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PDF (1.6 MB) |
Your Voice June 2024 Topics covered:
InsightBiz Blog: Empowering small businesses: The critical role of reducing taxes and costs
|
PDF (16.8 MB) |
Your Voice April 2024 Topics covered:
InsightBiz Blog: Small Business Financial Health Amid CEBA Loan Repayment & Carbon Tax Hikes |
PDF (370 KB) |
Your Voice February 2024 Topics covered:
InsightBiz Blog: Takeaways from our February 2024 omnibus survey: Current top challenge at Canadian firms and their preferred tax measures |
PDF (14.6 MB) |
Your Voice December 2023 Topics covered:
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PDF (379 KB) |
Your Voice November 2023 |
PDF (623 KB) |
Your Voice September 2023 |
PDF (377 KB) |
Your Voice July 2023 |
PDF (523 KB) |
Your Voice May 2023 |
PDF (5.55 MB) |
Your Voice April 2023 |
PDF (4.82 MB) |
Your Voice February 2023 |
PDF (666 KB) |
Your Voice January 2023 |
PDF (688 KB) |
Your Voice November 2022 |
PDF (880 KB) |
Your Voice October 2022 |
PDF (449 KB) |
Your Voice September 2022 |
PDF (877 KB) |
Your Voice June 2022 |
PDF (925 KB) |
Your Voice April 2022 |
PDF (1.2 MB) |
Your Voice February 2022 |
PDF (2 MB) |
Your Voice January 2022 |
PDF (831 KB) |
Your Voice November 2021 |
PDF (783 KB) |
Your Voice October 2021 |
PDF (427 KB) |
Your Voice September 2021 |
PDF (632 KB) |
Your Voice August 2021 |
PDF (485 KB) |
Your Voice July 2021 |
PDF (760 KB) |
Your Voice July 2021 (Infographic) |
PDF (4.8 MB) |
Your Voice June 2021 |
PDF (476 KB) |
Your Voice April 2021 (Infographic) |
PDF (849 KB) |
Your Voice March 2021 |
PDF (1.9 MB) |
Your Voice February 2021 |
PDF (1.4 MB) |
Your Voice January 2021 |
PDF (2.1 MB) |