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What’s Behind the Rising Number of Women Entrepreneurs?

The number of women entrepreneurs is growing rapidly. As more women find ways to balance business and family life, look for those numbers to expand even more.

By Himani Adiriweera


Representing a growing economic force, enterprising women are narrowing the gender gap and playing a pivotal role in the nation’s economic recovery with their entrepreneurial efforts.

With the number of self-employed women surging 50% in Canada since the early 1990s, women with a vision for high-growth companies are knocking down barriers and debunking the arbitrary positioning that once kept them from being entrepreneurial leaders.

According to RBC, Canadian firms run by women create new jobs at four times the rate of the national average, collectively providing more jobs than the Canadian Top 100 companies combined, with 821,000 self-employed women, contributing $18 billion to the Canadian economy.

The 2004 CIBC Small Business Outlook Poll shows the average age of a self-employed woman is 41, roughly in line with the average self-employed man. In the past 15 years, there has been a 50% increase in the number of self-employed women in Canada, and one million Canadian women are expected to own a small business by the end of 2010— the number of women-owned businesses is growing 60% faster than those run by men.

According to the report: “Note that it also shows the fastest pace of growth in women who are self-employed is among older Canadians. The fastest pace of small business  growth among women who are self-employed is in the over 55 age group, with an annual growth rate of around 4% since 1989, double the pace seen among self-employed men in the same age group. Given these findings, it is no surprise that in the past 15 years, the number of women entrepreneurs in Canada has grown by 50%.”

And, according to the World Bank, women own or operate 25% to 33% of all private businesses worldwide and women-owned enterprises grow faster than those owned by men.

An Ernst & Young report shows: “Women have yet to attain equality with men on such measures as educational attainment, wages, political empowerment and economic participation. Many are turning to entrepreneurship as a more viable route to income parity. This, in the long run, leads to economic growth.” But women still face some gender-specific obstacles when it comes to doing business.

“In many countries they still grapple with discriminatory laws and economic, legal and cultural obstacles can stand in the way of significant progress. Women entrepreneurs have distinctive needs. More access to both capital and business networks can make the difference they need to really scale up and drive economic revival,” the Ernst and Young study says.

Also, for women entrepreneurs, finding a balance between work and family life is a critical motivator in achieving success. According to CIBC, 79% of women small business owners overwhelmingly say that being an entrepreneur gives them the flexibility to take care of their family commitments.

“More than 70% of Canadian women who run a business are married and nearly one-third of them have children under the age of 12. Add to this the growing need for the sandwich generation’ to care for their aging parents, and time becomes a woman entrepreneur’s greatest challenge. To illustrate this point, note that between 2001 and 2004,  revenue growth for firms run by single self-employed women rose by a cumulative 70% — three times faster than revenue growth among firms run by married women.”

The study also shows more than 60% of self-employed women can be described as “lifestylers”—that is, business owners who are not actively looking for growth opportunities, but rather choose self-employment as a way to balance work and family demands.

Lee McDonald, president and CEO of Southmedic Inc., an Ontario-based medical device manufacturer and distributor of specialty surgical products, is a mother of three and saw her company grow to annual revenues of more than $18 million last year.

“You can’t force your life and career to be at the same stage at the same time. For example, if your kids are little and need you, save your involvement in that board meeting for a later time. The tendency is to pick the best of everyone’s life and say, ‘I should do it all.’ But be careful not to compare yourself with others who may be at a very  different point in their cycle. We all have differing needs, challenges and support systems,” the former critical care nurse, who founded Southmedic in 1983, wrote in RBC’s  Champions, Breakthroughs and Resources in the summer of 2000. “Yes, your business is ‘your baby,’ too. You brought it into the world and helped it grow. But, like sending a child off to school, there’s a time to let others take over certain responsibilities and tasks. (Entertain the possibility that they might even do some things better!) As your business grows, you need to delegate more.”

McDonald, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year nominee in 2008, won RBC’s Canadian Women Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.


More than 7,000 women have been nominated for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards—that provide national recognition to Canada’s women entrepreneurs—and 92 awards have been presented for outstanding entrepreneurial achievement in the areas of Start-up, Momentum, Trailblazer, Impact on the Local Economy, Sustainability and Excellence.

Having won RBC’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship in 2008, Christina Jennings, the CEO and founder of Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films, says her biggest challenge as a woman  entrepreneur is controlling the balance between her work and family life. Delegating responsibility at work was something she had to do.

“People would say, ‘I wonder if Christina will ever learn to delegate.’ But I think I have done a pretty good job with it—because I can’t do it all, it’s not possible,” Jennings said.

What sets her apart from the highly male-dominated industry, individuals who run the same kinds of film and television companies in the country, is that someone calls her, “Mommy.” With an 11-year-old daughter, Jennings, who has successfully found a way to juggle work and family life, says this is the only thing she finds that sets women apart from male entrepreneurs.

“I grew up as a teen feeling I was no different than any man with my aspirations and I never, ever saw any difference between myself and a guy,” says the self-proclaimed, A-type personality workaholic. “That is the difficult juggle…I love my work, but suddenly you have a child and now you are running a company, (and your child) expects mommy home at a certain time, to be up in the mornings, whatever those things are. Women are also running a family somewhere. She has that list somewhere to keep the household and the family running.”

And even when she was a teenager, she had the drive to keep her family running. Her father, who she said is the biggest influence in her life, was a dreamer, but terrible with money management. He showed her any dream is possible, but is also a constant reminder that she needs a, “safety net.”

She started working at a young age to help support her family and her entrepreneurial spirit surfaced at about 15-years-old when she started a landscaping business with a friend.

The CIBC report shows 82% of women small business owners say “yes,” that if they had it to do it over again, they would definitely open their own businesses.

Nominated for an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Media and Entertainment in 2009, Jennings also saw her company receive the Lionsgate/Maple Pictures Innovative Producer Award at the Banff World Television Festival the same year. She was named Playback’s Person of the Year in 2007, honoured by Women in Film & Television—Toronto in 2006 with a Crystal Award for Outstanding Achievement and is one of Canada’s most accomplished producers.

If you ask her, it is around that time she will say, albeit very humbled by the accolades, she reached a paramount level of success as an entrepreneur.

But seeking new ventures, instead of conceding to praise in a volatile climate, is what kept Shaftesbury competitive.

“I really don’t take anything for granted, so I might have basked in it for a few days, but was then back to let’s keep going, how do we make other challenges. Who would have predicted the recession that hit ad revenues? You have to stay on your toes and you have to stay nimble. You have to look into the future,” Jennings says.

A mentor to the staff she refers to as “family,” Jennings said it’s important for entrepreneurs to have role models, her father having been one of hers.

“Role models are incredibly valuable, like Dragon’s Den that did so well on CBC. We love to hear those stories about someone who did not come with a silver spoon in their mouth. (People) who had a dream, and guess what? It worked. They are very valuable,” Jennings says.

And the secret to success?

“Clarity of vision starts with you. It starts with your vision—you have to be clear and you have to be passionate. It is very hard to start something from nothing, as you have to know what it is you want, you have to see it and you have to want it and you have to be prepared to work hard for it,” she says. “You have to be prepared to look and find others who are willing to join you on your journey … ultimately you cannot do it alone … you are not everything.”

Words to live by, for the rising number of women entrepreneurs who are joining her.