Small businesses all around the world are what make the world go around.
In the U.S. alone, there are nearly 27 million small businesses, and they generate about 50% of our GDP, according to the Small Business Administration. They also create jobs, spark innovation and provide opportunities for women and minorities to achieve financial success and independence.
Globally, small and medium businesses represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment, according to the World Bank, and in emerging economies they contribute up to 40% of GDP. The figures don’t even include informal small businesses.
What kind of businesses do people want to start? In the U.S., many people want to start a cleaning business, according to an analysis of Google search terms by ZenBusiness, an online platform that provides legal and compliance services for small business startups. And it’s not a bad idea—a cleaning business has low overhead and reliable demand and you can start small.
To find the type of businesses that people most want to start in every country, ZenBusiness used a search engine optimization tool to find the frequency of certain search terms in every country. They searched the term “start a business” or its equivalent in the most spoken language of each country then identified the relevant keywords with the highest search volume. Relevant terms, for example, might include “how to start a cleaning business” vs. “how to start a cleaning business in Australia” for results in Australia. Cleaning was the third most popular search in the world.
The results are inspiring and vary from country to country depending on factors such as infrastructure, business climate, economy and culture. The startup-related search in nearly a third of all countries was either clothing, real estate, or cleaning, with clothing the most popular worldwide.
In North and Central America, the most popular query related to starting a business was about the retail and e-commerce space in nearly half the countries.
In Europe, where the top search was real estate, entrepreneurs in 16% of countries were looking to capitalize on the hot housing market.
The diversity and variety of business aspirations around the world cover industries ranging from cosmetics and clothing to spices and software. Here are the top 10 types of businesses that people want to start most: