Services

The service sector is the tertiary industry, the third stage of economic development, and encompasses organizations’ economic activity other than agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing. As this definition reflects, the service industry covers a large range of activities including: 

• Information technology 
• Design: graphic design, product design services 
• Transportation 
• Travel 
• Medical services 
• Media 
• Educational services including colleges and universities industry which comprises public and private nonprofit institutions that grant baccalaureate or graduate degrees. Nearly 2,500 businesses operate in the colleges and universities industry and employs nearly 3.2 million workers. 
• Banking 
• Insurance 
• Waste disposal 
• Telecommunication services 
• Hospitality  
• Consulting and staffing 
• Professional services including certified public accountants, attorneys in public practice. 
• Culture. Museums and non-commercial galleries for instance are engaged in the preservation and exhibition of objects of historical, cultural, and educational value. More than 10,000 businesses operate in the industry and employ more than 109,000 workers. 
• Entertainment including musical group & artists, racing and individual sports. The musical groups and artists industry is composed of musicians, recording artists and songwriters whose profession is to produce music in a recording studio and or to perform music before a live audience.The racing and individual sports industry consists of professional and semiprofessional athletes who participate in live sporting events before a paying audience. It encompasses more than 169,000 businesses that employ 212,000 workers such as individual athletes, athletic trainers, automobile racing team members, equestrians, and greyhound racing team members. 
• Personal services such as wellness, pet grooming, dry cleaning, dating services, hair & nail salons, parking lots and garages, laundromats, maids, nannies & gardeners, and repairs and maintenance. 

Demand for data loss prevention tools have grown considerably over the past decade because more data is stored digitally, and organizations seek proven methods to secure their sensitive data. This is especially true for organizations in the healthcare industry, credit card processors, certified public accountants. However, data loss prevention software developers must continually invest in R&D to handle new threats, and to keep up with operating systems updates and new releases.  

• Low economic barrier to entry: in most cases the obstacles such as technological challenges, government regulations, patents, or education and licensing requirements that make it difficult for new companies to enter a market are minimum. 

The possibilities for services are endless and with creativity you may start a service business to serve a need that has not been identified. However, when there is an economic downturn, consumers tend to cut back on services.  

In an industry with many small or medium size firms where no firm has a significant market share or strong influence on the industry, service sector organizations need to differentiate themselves. Some of the key success factors that we see include tax reform, innovation, customer experience, cyber security strategy.   

Some of the key success factors  

In an industry where many small and medium-sized companies compete with no one in a dominant position, differentiation is required. Tax reform, innovation, customer experience, cyber security strategy are other key success factors we have identified.