Costa Rica is in a privileged position in terms of economic and business development compared to the rest of Central America; According to the World Bank, Costa Rica is the second best business environment in Latin America. In this way, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MiPymes) represent 99% of all registered companies in the country.
In this sense, Alegra.com, the electronic accounting and invoicing platform with more than 750,000 registered MiPymes, carried out an analysis regarding the sectors most chosen by Ticos when it comes to starting a business; determining that the Retail Trade category is the preferred one. Similarly, the Services and Consulting sector continues to be among those chosen, followed by the agriculture, livestock, forestry, and fishing sectors.
Global trends have led Costa Rican entrepreneurs to focus their businesses on these sectors. Additionally, it is necessary to consider that the resources (financial, human, natural, technological) that small entrepreneurs have are decisive when choosing a sector in which to undertake, highlights Jahzeel Cordero, from Alegra.com.
The food and beverage subsector is the strongest
According to the study, 36% of MiPymes are dedicated to retail sales, that is, retailers that sell products or services to the final consumer. Within the sector, the food and beverage subsector is the one with the largest number of companies, representing 28% of all MiPymes in the country within the industry. This subsector includes local stores and supermarkets, butchers, bakeries, among others. In second and third place is the clothing and footwear subsector and the hardware and construction materials subsector, which represent 22.6% and 11.6% of the total number of SMEs in the country within the industry, respectively.
Likewise, 28.5% of the enterprises created in Costa Rica belong to the category of Services and Consulting. Within the sector, the outstanding subsectors are business consulting (25%); design, architecture and engineering (20%); information technology and communications (16%), legal services (10%), and accounting services (10%).
