Home-based Businesses Continue to Grow, Kamloops This Week
This article appeared in the Kamloops This Week on February 8th, 2012 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch. I thought this would be an interesting article to post on my blog since I think it shows that Kamloops has a healthy economy in comparison to some other smaller cities. This article does not specifically relate to real estate in the city however a healthy economy by default keeps real estate moving (no pun intended). Read the article below.
In the last decade, the Tournament Capital has become a do-it-yourself town.
Roughly three quarters of new business licences handed out by the city since 2002 have been for home-based operations.
The numbers have city officials trying to figure out why there hasn’t been as big an increase for businesses in commercial- and industrial-zoned areas.
David Trawin, director of development and engineering services, said his department will study the issue.
He said the numbers are disconcerting, given there is an increasing number of vacancies downtown, while the city has plans to grow the North Shore.
“What we are undertaking is looking at the geographic locations of those increases or decreases over 10 years in terms of business licensing,” Trawin said, suggesting new businesses are likely locating in the southwest sector of the city.
However, he wouldn’t speculate on any solutions — or if there is even a problem.
Since 2002, the city has handed 1,100 additional business licences, but only 350, or 35 per year, have gone toward businesses destined for commercial or industrial areas.
In the meantime, it turned out to be an average year for the city’s business-licensing department.
According to the 2011 development and engineering services department annual report, the number of new businesses licensed dropped by 3.5 per cent to 790, compared to 819 in 2010.
The total number of business licences in the city rose slightly to 5,512 for 2011, up from 5,421 the previous year.
The number has steadily increased over the last 10 years.
In 2002, there were 4,432 businesses licensed with the city.
The city also managed to take in more money, collecting an extra $15,247 in license revenue, bringing the total for the year to $1.025 million.
The number of home-based business in Kamloops also rose last year, to 1,943 from 1,915 the previous year.
Home-based businesses make up 34.9 per cent of all licences in the city, but the share dropped slightly from 35.2 per cent in 2010.