The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) announced the results of the '2024 One-Person Creative Business Survey' on the 19th.
A one-person creative business refers to a business operated by one person or less than five people with creativity and expertise, without full-time employees (excluding the real estate industry, etc.).
This survey targeted one-person creative businesses corresponding to 43 medium-class industries in the Korean Standard Industrial Classification System among businesses registered in the Business Statistics Register (SBR) of Statistics Korea as of 2022.
◆ General status of one-person creative companies
As of 2022, the number of one-person creative businesses was found to be 1,007,769, an increase (2.0%) from 987,812 in 2021.
By industry, it was found that they mainly engaged in ‘manufacturing’ (24.2%), ‘e-commerce’ (24.2%), ‘educational services’ (17.3%), and ‘professional, scientific and technical services’ (10.8%). (Proportion of 4 industries: 76.5%)
By region, Gyeonggi took 28.5% (287,000 units), Seoul 22.6% (258,000 units), Busan 6.2% (62,000 units), Gyeongnam 6.0% (60,000 units), and Incheon 5.5% (55,000 units), with the metropolitan area taking 56.6% (570,000 units) and the non-metropolitan area taking 43.4% (437,000 units).
The average business period was approximately 12.6 years, and companies established ‘before 2011’ accounted for the highest proportion at 41.2%, showing that they have maintained the form of a one-person creative business for a long time.
The correlation between previous industry and current job was 63.4%, the period of employment before starting a business was 15.5 years, and 63.4% worked at small and medium-sized enterprises.
◆ Characteristics of one-person creative companies
The statistical figures for 'Characteristics of One-Person Creative Enterprises' are all the results of a 2023 survey targeting a valid sample of 5,000 businesses selected as of 2022.
The average age of the representatives was 54.7 years old, 72.6% were male and 27.4% were female. The average sales per company was 236 million won, and the net profit for the period was 34.8 million won.
The corporate form was found to be more individual businesses (85.9%) than corporate businesses (14.1%) due to the nature of one-person creative businesses.
As for the main business partners, ‘individual consumers (BtoC)’ took the highest proportion at 68.8%, followed by ‘corporations (BtoB)’ at 28.5%, and ‘government/public institutions (BtoG)’ at 2.5%.
The motives for starting a one-person creative business were 'to earn more income' (37.8%), 'to demonstrate aptitude and ability' (28.1%), and 'to make a living' (14.6%), in that order. The average period of preparation for starting a business was found to be 11.7 months.
Additionally, the average period for generating first sales after starting a business was 2.7 months, and the average period for reaching the break-even point was 28.6 months.
Kyungwon Cho, the Director of Startup Policy, said, “The results of this survey show that most people start a business in their 40s after working for about 15 years in a company and gaining expertise and creativity to enter middle age.” He added, “We will do our best to create an environment in which capable people can jump into entrepreneurship.”
The results of the '2024 One-Person Creative Enterprise Survey' report can be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups or the website of the Startup Promotion Agency .
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