The small business landscape looks different from 30 years ago, but what hasn't changed is the passionate and hard-working small business owners and entrepreneurs who are building businesses across the country to delight their customers and clients.

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We are seeing important changes in the demography and journey of these enterprising women and men.

In the 1980s, there were twice as many small business owners aged between 30 and 49 as there were aged over 50. Now the most common age of a small business owner is 50 years, but in 2006 it was 45. And there are 22 per cent of small business owners aged 60 and over.

When we look at the under-30 group, 8 per cent of business owners are currently under the age of 30. And it's interesting if you go back to 1976 because it was over twice that number at 17 per cent.

The proportion of the younger generation that are part of the small business community, is far less than it was.

What we are seeing though, is young entrepreneurs engaged in the digital economy on social media as content creators, digital nomads and starting-up new and exciting businesses. And while start-up rates vary across OECD countries, young people are more likely to be starting a new business than older adults.

According to the OECD, "About 9 per cent of young people in the OECD were working on a start-up relative to an overall rate of 8 per cent between 2018-22. Young people are also active in managing new businesses with a share of 6 per cent in the period 2018-22, which was above the overall population (5 per cent)".

Yet, young people are much less likely to be operating an established business than adults over 30 years. The large........

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