THE lure of opening a popular new cafe or restaurant continues to attract many aspiring business operators.
And despite the two-year-old ‘tech wreck’ on the stock market, computing and the Internet are also growth areas for new business operators.
These are some of the findings from the Small Business Development Corporation’s analysis of business licence applications.
The most popular small business start-up ideas were cafes and restaurants.
This finding will compound the concerns of the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association. It wants controls placed on the number of new cafes and restaurants in order to protect the commercial viability of existing operators in the industry.
Other popular business ideas were general and computing consultancies, reflecting the growing trend towards homebased self-employment.
Computer repairs and maintenance and Internet and web development were also popular options.
The SBDC’s online Business Licence Information System has attracted more than 29,000 visits over the past year, and more than 20,300 licence forms have been accessed.
Managing director George Etrelezis said the online service was developed so that people could access licence information at any time of the week.
