Business service centres — NAICS 56143 industry report

01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–430061%

5–910421%

10–195411%

20–49204%

50–99102%

100–19920%

200–49910%

500+0—

Of 491 Canadian establishments with employees, 82% have fewer than ten — an industry of very small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario21243%

Quebec10521%

British Columbia8718%

Alberta5712%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Administrative and Waste Services, US · opened 2020

79.4%

1 year

63.6%

3 years

51.5%

5 years

37%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 561, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionlow capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 561 Administrative and support services

Janitorial, landscaping, security and staffing: low capital and easy to start, so margins are competed down to labour cost. Route density and contract retention decide the outcome.

Who sets the price: Tender and the client's procurement; labour is most of the cost.
The software it runs on: Workforce scheduling, route and work-order management, staffing front and back office.

03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 5614 Business support services covers it.

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5614

Contact Centre & Customer Experience PlatformsOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

Incumbent NiCE (NASDAQ: NICE)

NiCE at $2.95B and Five9 at $1.15B are both growing double digits and both now selling AI deflection into the same seat count — which is the harder fact for an entrant: the incumbents are already pricing the transition away from per-seat licensing, and they hold the telephony and compliance-recording integrations that make a contact centre switchable at all.

NAICS 56144 vendors named4 sourced figuresOpen →

04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5614 Business support services

Contact Centre & Customer Experience PlatformsOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

Incumbent NiCE (NASDAQ: NICE)

NiCE at $2.95B and Five9 at $1.15B are both growing double digits and both now selling AI deflection into the same seat count — which is the harder fact for an entrant: the incumbents are already pricing the transition away from per-seat licensing, and they hold the telephony and compliance-recording integrations that make a contact centre switchable at all.

NAICS 56144 vendors named4 sourced figuresOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

05

Who works here

The occupations employed in Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Security guards and related security service occupations Mostly one sector 69.7%

Contractors and supervisors, agriculture, horticulture and related operations and services Mostly one sector 67.9%

Logging, forestry, landscaping and other related labourers Mostly one sector 56%

Water and rail transport operators and labourers and related occupations Mostly one sector 16.8%

Service supervisors Mostly one sector 14.2%

Tourism and amusement services occupations Mostly one sector 12.9%

Educational and employment counsellors Mostly one sector 8.5%

Logging and forestry workers Mostly one sector 6.4%

Labourers in processing, manufacturing and utilities Mostly one sector 6.3%

Roofers, glaziers, painters, decorators and floor covering installers One industry 4.7%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Other technical trades Across the economy 29.2%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 15%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 13.5%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 6.6%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 5.1%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 4.8%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 4.5%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 4%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 4%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 3.9%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 82% of establishments have fewer than ten employees, and at that size most of these roles are one person wearing several hats, or bought in from outside.

All 162 occupations →

06

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 56143. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
561430	Business service centres	491	screened at 5614

Alongside it, under 5614 Business support services

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
56141	Document preparation services	332	screened at 5614
56142	Telephone call centres	572	screened at 5614
56144	Collection agencies	189	screened at 5614
56145	Credit bureaus	57	screened at 5614
56149	Other business support services	1,122	screened at 5614