The best business to start in Ontario, judged by what 620+ Ontario businesses actually earn

The short answer

This page answers which business to pick. For the registration steps, fees, HST and WSIB, use our guide to starting a business in Ontario. The numbers here come from the Main Street Index, BigIdeasDB’s census of 84,900+ businesses-for-sale listings, plus public data we pulled the same day. They are listings of existing businesses, so they show what a business model earns once it works, not what a founder makes in year one.

Three Ontario sectors have 30 or more listings that state both a price and earnings: home and trade services, manufacturing and retail. Those are the only rows where we publish an earnings median. Retail is the cheapest per dollar of earnings at 2.83x (n=30), but on $152K of SDE, the lowest of the three. Food and beverage is Ontario’s biggest listing sector (95+), yet only 22 of those listings state earnings, which tells you something before you open a single file: restaurant sellers are the least willing to show their numbers.

The “Our read” column is a judgment built from the rest of this page: what the business costs to start, what it costs to buy, and whether Ontario is gaining or losing businesses in that field. The sections below show the evidence for each call.

The year-10 finding: Ontario businesses peak at 10 to 20 years

Ontario businesses for sale that have run 10 to 20 years state a median $250,000 of SDE (n=51). Businesses 5 to 10 years old state $164,519 (n=32), about two-thirds as much. Past 20 years, earnings barely move: $260,198 (n=77), only 4% above the 10-to-20 band, even though revenue keeps climbing (BigIdeasDB Main Street Index, Ontario listings with a stated age, October 10, 2026).

It is not a sector-mix effect. Older Ontario listings lean toward manufacturing, which earns more anyway, so we compared every listing to the median of its own sector. Businesses aged 5 to 10 earn 0.83 of their sector’s norm (n=31). At 10 to 20 years they earn 1.21 times it (n=50). Past 20 years they fall back to 1.01 (n=77). The peak survives the adjustment, and it survives removing listings that include real estate and templated franchise adverts ($171,000 at 5 to 10 years against $250,000 at 10 to 20).

The oldest businesses grow sales, not profit. Median stated revenue rises from $869,772 at 10 to 20 years (n=62) to $1,144,000 at 20 years and older (n=86), but the SDE margin drops from 25.5% to 22.5%. That fits what sellers say: in our study of retiring Canadian owners, retirement is the most common stated reason for selling, and a founder coasting toward retirement rarely re-invests.

The year-10 business is also the cheapest per dollar. Ontario listings aged 10 to 20 ask 3.06x their SDE (n=48), the lowest multiple of any age band in the province; 20-year-plus listings ask 3.29x (n=70). The same plateau shows up in the rest of Canada ($209,000 at 10 to 20 years, n=72; $200,000 past 20, n=147), but there the 10-to-20 band asks 3.48x (n=67). Ontario’s mid-life businesses are the bargain.

Now set that against survival. ISED’s Key Small Business Statistics 2024 reports that of Canadian businesses that start with 1 to 4 employees, 62.5% are still active after 5 years and 44.3% after 10. In the services sector, 46.4% reach year 10. So the business that earns $250K in Ontario is, by definition, one of the fewer than half that made it. Starting means paying for that decade with your own time and risk. Buying means paying a seller about three years of earnings to skip it.

“Many of the profitable businesses are wildly overpriced.”r/canadasmallbusiness, a self-described small business banker

That warning, from the thread Google ranks first for this search, is why the multiple matters as much as the earnings. A 10-to-20-year-old Ontario business at 3.06x is the sweet spot in our data: near-peak earnings, the lowest ask per dollar. Our valuation guide shows how to test a seller’s SDE before you accept any multiple.

Where Ontario is adding businesses, and where it is losing them

Ontario had 357,671 active employer businesses in June 2026, down 0.5% from 359,438 a year earlier, while Canada as a whole grew 0.1%. Closings beat openings by 1,720 over those 12 months, against a near-even 96 the year before (Statistics Canada, table 33-10-0270-01, seasonally adjusted, released September 2026). Inside that flat total, a few industries are growing fast and one is shrinking hard.

Health care is where Ontario’s new businesses are surviving. The province added 1,706 more health and social assistance businesses than it closed in 12 months, the largest net gain of any industry, up from 1,200 the year before. That covers clinics, therapists, home care, dental and daycare. It is also the one growth sector where our listings are thin (15 Ontario health listings state earnings), which is a supply signal: owners are opening these businesses faster than they are selling them. Home care is the plain-language version of this, and a reply in the top-ranked Reddit thread names it directly:

“In Ontario, service based business, Like cleaning home improvement, HVAC or anything related to seniors (like home care) tend to do well.”r/canadasmallbusiness

Transportation is the sector to avoid starting in. Ontario lost 7.3% of its transportation and warehousing businesses in a year (21,237 to 19,692), and the Toronto area lost 9.1%. The group covers trucking, couriers, taxis and warehousing. If you want to own a vehicle-based business, buy one with contracts rather than enter a field that is shedding a business in every 14.

Construction and real estate are shrinking slowly (-1.4% and -2.4%), and faster in Toronto (-3.1% and -3.3%). Food services, cleaning and support services, and repair and personal care are all growing about 1% a year: steady, crowded fields where a good operator can win share but nobody is handing out a boom. For the national picture, our business success rate study compares survival by industry.

Start it or buy it: the Ontario call, sector by sector

The useful question is not “which business is best” but “which business should I build myself, and which should I buy already built.” Here is the call for each Ontario sector, using the earnings, multiples and growth figures above.

Home and trade services: start it, if you hold the ticket

Cleaning, landscaping, HVAC, plumbing, renovation and similar businesses state a median $233,428 of SDE in Ontario (n=48) on a 23.4% margin (n=46), and a third of them are run from home (28 of 80+ listings). Starting costs a van, tools, insurance and a licence, not premises. The catch is that plumbing, electrical and refrigeration and air-conditioning work are compulsory trades in Ontario: to practise legally you need a training agreement or a certificate of qualification (Skilled Trades Ontario), so the business is only open to you if you or a partner hold one. Buying one costs a median $395K at 3.26x (n=41), the most expensive multiple of the three measurable sectors, which tilts the call toward starting. Our home service business ideas list compares the trades.

Manufacturing: buy it

Ontario manufacturing earns the most ($280,646 median SDE, n=37) and keeps the highest margin (28.2%, n=34), but you cannot realistically start a profitable machine shop from zero: equipment, customer contracts and certifications take years. Statistics Canada counts 17,074 Ontario manufacturers, down 0.3%, and our earlier Ontario guide found two in three manufacturing sellers who give a reason are retiring. That is a buyer’s sector: $900K median ask (n=51), 3.27x (n=34).

Retail: buy cheap, or start online

Ontario retail is the cheapest earnings you can buy (2.83x, n=30), but the earnings are small ($151,570, n=30) and Statistics Canada shows the sector flat (-0.2%). A new storefront fights rent and big chains; one Reddit reply on grocery put it in five words: “They’ll beat you on volume every time.” If retail is your field, buy a profitable shop at under 3x, or start online where rent is not the first cost.

Food and beverage: buy, and look in Toronto first

Restaurants are the most-listed business in Ontario on both sources we read, and the least transparent: fewer than 30 of 95+ Main Street listings state earnings. Starting a restaurant means a build-out, a licence and months of losses; buying one transfers the build-out, and in Toronto it can skip the zoning review (see below). Prices are lowest in the city of Toronto, as the next section shows. Our guide to buying a restaurant covers the checks.

“There will be gems in a tough industry (like restaurants) and stinkers in an industry that you’d expect would be doing well.”r/canadasmallbusiness

Health care: start it, if you are licensed

The Ontario industry adding the most businesses, and a thin resale market (15 Ontario listings with earnings, too few to publish). For a physiotherapist, dental hygienist, RMT or nurse, opening a practice is the best-supported start in this data. In Toronto, medical clinics, dental offices and RMTs need no City business licence. Canada-wide, health listings ask 3.74x their SDE (n=32), second only to automotive and transport (3.85x, n=49) among sectors we can measure, which is another reason to build rather than buy.

Business and professional services: start it

Bookkeeping, marketing, staffing and similar firms ask a median $375K in Ontario (n=34), with too few earnings figures for an Ontario median (n=24). Canada-wide, this sector has the highest SDE margin we measure (34.1%, n=45, on our Canada start-up guide). The work runs on skill and a client list, both of which you can build from a laptop for close to nothing.

Personal care: start small

Salons, spas and barbers ask a median $330K in Ontario (n=31), but almost none state earnings (6 of 40+), and 60%+ of these listings are in the GTA. A Toronto personal services licence costs $450.91. A chair rental or a one-room studio is a far cheaper test than buying a salon whose numbers you cannot see.

If you are still deciding between the two paths in general, our buy vs start comparison runs the trade-off with numbers, and the best businesses to buy ranks industries across North America.

Best business to start in Toronto: cheaper to buy than you think

Toronto is losing businesses faster than the rest of Ontario. The Toronto census metropolitan area had 187,515 active employer businesses in June 2026, down 0.9% in a year, with closings ahead of openings by 2,340. The rest of Ontario was flat, from 170,245 to 170,156 (Statistics Canada, table 33-10-0270-01). Health care grew 4.8% in Toronto; transportation fell 9.1% and construction 3.1%.

Our Main Street data has no city field for Ontario, so we placed listings from their headline, location note and description. 200+ of the 620+ Ontario listings name a GTA municipality as their location (Toronto, Peel, York, Durham or Halton). Two things stand out.

• No Toronto premium on earnings. GTA listings ask 2.86x SDE (n=51) against 3.09x for the rest of Ontario (n=168), but that gap is sector mix. Compared with the median for their own sector, GTA listings ask 0.99 of the norm (n=48) and the rest 1.00 (n=164). A dollar of owner earnings costs the same in Mississauga as in Kingston.
• The GTA is where personal-care and food businesses are sold. GTA listings are 33% of Ontario’s total but 62.5% of its personal-care listings (n=40) and 44.3% of its food and beverage listings (n=97). GTA food and beverage listings ask a median $249,500 (n=40) against $385,000 in the rest of Ontario (n=42).

Because our GTA earnings cells are small, we checked the price pattern against a second, larger source: 1,400+ Ontario business listings on an MLS-fed listings site, scraped on October 10, 2026. That feed carries asking price and city, but no revenue or earnings field at all.

Two independent sources agree: a food business costs less to buy in Toronto than anywhere else in Ontario. The median Toronto restaurant asks $185,000 (n=267), and 40.1% ask under $150,000, against 22.3% in the rest of the GTA. The feed carries no earnings or rent, so a lower Toronto price can mean a smaller business, a shorter lease or a higher rent; we cannot tell which from asking prices alone. That makes the lease and the tax returns, not the price, the things to check first. A cheap Toronto restaurant with two years left on its lease is not cheap.

Buying also saves a step in Toronto. A new Eating or Drinking Establishment licence costs $536.64 ($268.32 application plus $268.32 licence, $362.96 a year to renew) and normally needs a zoning review first. The City waives that review when you take over a business with a valid licence, or one that expired less than three years ago, in the same category (toronto.ca, Eating or Drinking Establishment). Personal services settings (hair, nails, aesthetics, tattoo) cost $450.91 to license, with the same takeover rule (toronto.ca, Personal Services Settings).

Starting in Toronto from home is cheapest in fields the City does not license at all: accounting and bookkeeping, consulting, tutoring, gyms and trainers that do not sell food, retail of new goods without food, wholesale and import/export (toronto.ca, Business Regulations). Confirm zoning with Toronto Building before you work from a residence.

The Toronto Reddit thread Google ranks for this search is a useful reality check for anyone hoping to buy a business as a side income:

“The only way a small business is successful is if the owner is hands on and all in.”r/askTO

Another reply in the same thread: “if you want to buy an existing business that’s profitable enough that it can run itself and you don’t have to do any work, you gonna need a whole lotta money.” Our data backs that up: the businesses big enough to pay a manager are the 10-plus-employee listings, which ask a median $1.07M in Ontario (n=42).

Grants, loans and what a small budget gets you in Ontario

The $5,000 grant is Starter Company Plus. Ontario offers training, a mentor and a grant of up to $5,000 to people starting, expanding or buying a small business. You must be 18 or older, an Ontario resident and a citizen or permanent resident, not in full-time school, and put in at least 25% of the grant yourself, in cash or in kind. Applications go through an Ontario Small Business Advisory Centre (ontario.ca, Starter Company Plus, updated September 23, 2026). The “buy” clause matters: the grant can go toward a purchase, not only a start-up.

Futurpreneur lends up to $75,000 with mentoring to founders aged 18 to 39, and up to $25,000 for a side business you run alongside a job (futurpreneur.ca).

• Under $5,000: a service business in your own name. No Ontario registration is needed in your legal name; a business name is $60 (ontario.ca). Bookkeeping, tutoring, cleaning, consulting.
• $5,000 to $50,000: a van-based trade or cleaning business, or a licensed personal-services chair. This is where the $5,000 grant and a Futurpreneur loan stack.
• $50,000 to $150,000: enough for the down payment on a business, not the business itself. 50+ priced Ontario listings ask under $100,000 and 100+ ask $100,000 to $250,000, but fewer than 30 in each band state earnings, so treat every cheap listing as unverified.
• $150,000 and up: a down payment on a 10-to-20-year-old business. In that age band the median Ontario listing with stated earnings asks $725,000 for $250,000 of SDE (n=48).

Our best business to start or buy by budget guide runs these tiers across North America, and the Canada-wide version of this page covers every province, with a separate look at Alberta and best business to start in BC. If you would rather buy than build, see buying a business in Canada.

What this data cannot tell you

• Asking, not closing. Prices and earnings are what sellers state in listings. Final prices are usually lower and SDE is unaudited until you see tax returns.
• Survivors only. Listings are businesses that lasted long enough to sell. The age curve shows what a business earns if it survives, not the odds that yours will; that is what the ISED survival figures are for.
• One marketplace for Main Street’s Canadian data. All Canadian Main Street listings come from one national listings site. The MLS-fed sample is a second channel, with prices only.
• GTA placement is inferred. Ontario listings carry no city field. We placed 200+ in the GTA from their own text; 260+ name no place at all and sit in “rest of Ontario”. A spot check of 40 placements found one error.
• Sectors, not industries. No single Ontario industry reaches 30 listings with earnings, so every earnings figure here is a sector or age-band median, and many cells are withheld.
• StatCan counts employer businesses. Solo operators without payroll, the most common kind of start-up, are not in table 33-10-0270-01.

Methodology and data sources

From 84,900+ Main Street Index listings we kept non-duplicate Canadian listings quoted in Canadian dollars and located in Ontario (620+), read with read-only SQL on October 10, 2026. SDE counts only listings whose earnings are stated on a seller’s-discretionary-earnings basis and above zero. Sector is an AI-assisted industry classification rolled up to sector. Business age is years in operation as stated, else 2026 minus the founding year (330+ listings). The sector-adjusted ratio divides each listing’s SDE by the Ontario median SDE of its sector (sectors with 5+ earnings listings) and reports the median ratio per age band. GTA placement uses GTA municipality names in the headline, location note or description, excluding distance phrases such as “an hour from Toronto”. We screened 45+ templated listings (14 groups sharing the same opening description, mostly franchise territory adverts); they barely move earnings medians ($228,027 with them, $230,975 without) and the age-curve results hold without them. Every figure is a median; any cut under 30 listings is withheld.

The MLS-fed sample was scraped from category pages of an Ontario listings site that republishes the realtor MLS business feed (restaurants, personal services, convenience, food and beverage services, services, automotive, laundromats): 1,500+ cards, 1,400+ unique listings, all tagged as business sales. We grouped them by the city on each card. They were not matched one-to-one against Main Street listings because the cards carry no headline; the two channels overlap little.

Leads that failed. We expected Toronto businesses to cost more per dollar of earnings; they do not (0.99 of sector norm). We expected GTA sellers to hide earnings more often; against listings that name another Ontario city, the gap is small (27.9% of GTA listings state SDE against 30.9%). GTA cuts by sector, and franchise resales (13 with earnings), were too thin to publish.

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