About 40% of small businesses made investments in 2021

Four out of ten micro and small companies made investments during 2021, according to the Quarterly Thematic Survey, carried out by Sebrae in partnership with Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV). Among the small businesses, those that invested the most in the company were those from Industry, with 47% of the companies; followed by services (39%) e Business (35,2%).

“Although most small businesses have not been able to invest in the company, we see that entrepreneurs have sought to innovate and improve the quality of products and services offered, despite the adversities encountered this year”, says the president of Sebrae, Carlos Melles.

According to Sebrae, in 2021, small businesses were responsible for 70% of the new jobs created and for 30% of the Brazilian GDP.

Among the universe of companies that are finding it difficult to invest in their own business (which represents 41% of respondents), the three main reasons given were the uncertainty about maintaining the level of demand (44.6%), the limited resources of the company (42.1%) and the cost of financing (29%).

Manufacturing is the only sector that showed an improvement in the prospect of hiring for the next quarter. According to the Survey, 16.4% of entrepreneurs in this sector intend to increase their staff, against 15% who had the same intention in October, and another 68.9% will maintain the same number of personnel.

Although the service sector is the one that most intends to hire, with 18.2%, the intention to increase personnel fell compared to October, when 21.8% of small business owners had this intention, and another 76% intend to keep their contractors, causing only 5.8% to think about the possibility of layoffs. Among commercial entrepreneurs, 10% intend to hire; 81.3% want to keep their staff and another 8.7% think about dismissal.