Founded in 1992, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada is a federally incorporated, non-profit organization dedicated to serving the interests of established women in business.
Specifically, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada focuses on issues that challenge Canadian women entrepreneurs, such as access to capital, opportunities to sell to the corporate market, regional disparity in the success of women owned businesses and access to international networks, training and technology.
Financing Especially Challenging For Women Entrepreneurs
In their Submission to the Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs (1993), Women Entrepreneurs of Canada identifies access to capital for women led and women owned business for development and growth as the number one issue challenging women entrepreneurs. While women owned and women led businesses provide 1.7 million jobs in Canada, compared to 1.5 million jobs provided by Canada's top 100 companies, and women generate approximately 40% of new start up businesses in Canada, ( Royal Bank, Women Entrepreneurs Statistics), and women owned businesses are still having trouble raising the money they need to start and grow their businesses.
And because women entrepreneurs are more likely than men to depend on their business earnings and personal debt for financing, women business owners are being held back (WEC, ...Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs).
In the same document, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada points out that 58 percent of SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) that are majority-owned by women entrepreneurs are in a slow-growth stage of development - mainly because of a lack of access to financing. There IS a higher turn down rate for loans to women business owners, perhaps because women entrepreneurs tend to own and operate smaller firms, and because women tend to own and operate businesses in slower growth and higher risk sectors such as retail and service.
The upshot is that women owned SMEs don't have the same access to capital and services that male owned businesses do. In their Submission to the Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada recommends that financial institutions set and monitor targets to ensure that women entrepreneurs are receiving a proportionate share of loans. They also recommend that the federal government develop and implement an economic assistance program to support the financing of SMEs, particularly for women owned businesses.
Continue on to page 2 to read more about issues affecting the success of Canadian women entrepreneurs...
