BC business starts increased in March by 16% over February to 4,929 registrations, 14% more than March 2009. Registrations include proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and extra provincial corporations that open an office in BC. Since the economic recovery in the late spring of 2009, BC business starts have been greater than those of 2008/09.

The total number of proprietorship starts, incorporations, and partnership starts were higher over the last 12 months than the previous 12 months. The number of extra provincial starts, however, fell to approximately a quarter of what they were in the previous 12 months.

Proprietorship registrations rose by 8% over the period to reach approximately 21,000 while incorporations increased by 3% to over 25,000. These increases, however, were dampened by shrinking extra provincial starts which fell by 64% to 814 for the period.  This decline resulted in a net business start increase of 1,043 or 2% for the period.

Mark Eversfield is Small Business BC’s Market Research Analyst. He also teaches the Start Smart Level 3 – Market Research seminar and provides Market Research Advisory Services.