One-Person Creative Enterprises Show Three Consecutive Years of Growth

Announcement of the Results of the '2021 Survey on One-Person Creative Enterprises'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The number of one-person creative enterprises with creativity and expertise has increased for three consecutive years. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Kwon Chil-seung, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced the results of the '2021 One-Person Creative Enterprise Survey' on the 30th, revealing this trend. One-person creative enterprises refer to individuals or joint business operators with fewer than five people who operate a business without regular employees, possessing creativity and expertise.

Based on the 2019 Statistics Korea Business Register, the survey found that the number of one-person creative enterprises totaled 458,322, an increase of 30,955 (7.2%) compared to 2018. Considering that there were 402,612 in 2017, the number of one-person creative enterprises has increased for three consecutive years.

By industry, manufacturing (39.3%), education services (25.6%), personal and consumer goods repair (10.8%), and professional, scientific, and technical services (8.8%) were the main sectors operated. These four industries accounted for 84.5%. Due to the enthusiasm for innovative startups and continuous support policies, most industries showed an increasing trend, with e-commerce notably increasing significantly compared to the previous year.

By region, Gyeonggi had 105,318 enterprises (23.0%), Seoul 96,811 (21.1%), Gyeongnam 32,783 (7.2%), and Busan 30,746 (6.7%), with 48.5% (222,428) located in the metropolitan area and 51.5% (235,894) in non-metropolitan areas.

The average sales per enterprise were 276 million KRW, and net profit was 31 million KRW. These figures represent increases of 33 million KRW (13.6%) and 5 million KRW (19.2%) respectively compared to the previous year. The average age of representatives was 52.8 years, slightly higher than the previous year's 51.1 years, and the gender ratio was 75.0% male and 25.0% female, with a slight increase in the proportion of women compared to the previous year.

The average business duration was 12.7 years. Due to the nature of one-person creative enterprises, most were sole proprietorships (81.6%), but the proportion of corporations (18.4%) has been steadily increasing. The main sales method was offline sales targeting individual consumers. Online sales methods using the internet have also been steadily increasing. The main motivations for starting a one-person creative enterprise were 'aptitude and ability utilization' (49.6%), 'high income generation' (32.9%), and 'livelihood maintenance' (16.4%). Notably, 'high income generation' increased by 12.9 percentage points compared to the previous year. The preparation period for starting a business was 11 months, slightly longer than the previous year's 7.8 months.

Additionally, many one-person creative enterprises reported experiencing difficulties due to COVID-19 (78.5%), with impacts such as 'sales decrease' (88.7%), 'business disruption due to closures' (18.5%), and 'parts supply disruption' (9.9%). As responses to COVID-19, they cited 'developing new sales channels' (51.5%), 'strengthening non-face-to-face services' (20.3%), 'changing main products/services' (9.7%), and 'restructuring business' (3.3%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.