This week, I had an Intake session for Women Founders program. It was the first intake session of many, which we will keep having this summer. As we were introducing ourselves, a few women repeated something similar in their introductions: I’m doing this alone, or I feel alone in this work.
They’re not wrong. Entrepreneurship is one of the loneliest career path that one can take. You’re doing everything on your own. Figuring everything out from A – Z, without anyone there to really validate it or guide you through the process. It’s not easy at all.
When I heard these sentiments throughout the session, on one hand, it made me sad, but on the other, I felt grateful these women have trusted me to join our network and ecosystem, and I truly hoped that they feel a sense of belonging throughout the cohort.
A recent poll that I came across listed women as 39% more likely to start a solo business, compared to a much smaller share of men. Keep in mind that women now own approximately 20% of businesses in Canada. This number is a threshold up since 2017, which was around 16% (I always like to thank our Women Founders program in increasing those numbers over the past 7 years).
Women-owned businesses contribute more than 1 million jobs in Canada. It feels like we’re breaking record numbers, but we’re still doing all of this alone.
Why? I have a few ideas. Women who are starting a business, most often are looking to find a more meaningful sense of purpose in their work beyond a 9-5. Social impact and making a difference drives many women to start their own business.
Another reason is an extra source of income. For many women, working in precarious work environments doesn’t provide the sustainability they need to support their families and still help them meet their caregiving responsibilities. Running your own business can change that.
The Canadian governments boasts that they’ve supported over 400,000 women founders in accessing loans, financing, mentorship and networking through their Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, since 2018. And yet, I hear from women all the time that they struggle building networks, connecting with mentors, finding advisors and co-founders, accessing capital, and balancing care-giving responsibilities and the business all in one. It’s a lot. And it’s a wonder we get so much done.
Still. My question remains, what does Canada end up losing when women founders are building alone?
What’s interesting is that the answer lies in the stats I mentioned above. When women founders build alone, we end up with slower growth. While 17-20% growth in women-led businesses stat is great, it’s still a slow trajectory to happen over the course of almost 10 years!
And those who have a successful business, end up with a slower growth cycle. We’re not growing fast enough to break stuff. A good thing and a bad thing all at once.
When you think about it, building entrepreneurship is a lonely journey, but even lonelier for women founders. More so, that we’re not being connected to the right networks on time, we’re lacking access to the right people, and as a result, it takes us longer to figure out things that we can easily figure out when we have more support rallying around us.
I’m happy that we support women founders through our ecosystem, but I think we need to dismantle silos and break barriers, and create more pathways, more opportunities for a shared network that comes together and weaves support for entrepreneurs seamlessly, with a collaborative and open mindset to support entrepreneurs when they need it the most, during those early days.
Inclusive Entrepreneurship 