Cross-Country Inspiration: Meeting Female Entrepreneurs From Across Canada

By Carolyn Lawrence, President and CEO of Women of Influence inc.
June 12, 2013

In May I had the pleasure of running a few great workshops for women entrepreneurs.  My mission: to help them get the courage and advice they need to fill out an award winning application for the 2013 RBC Canadian Entrepreneur Awards.

I did stops in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Cambridge, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, and met the best and brightest, supported by RBC, who truly where just as excited and sincerely passionate about helping support women entrepreneurs as I am.  As an entrepreneur myself, I was inspired and re-energized by hearing the stories of women who own businesses across this country.

It was also a time where I was able to re-connect with the winners from the 2012 Awards. Hearing how their businesses have grown and new opportunities were presented after winning last year make me eager to meet the 2013 crop.  Some past winners couldn’t put an actual number on the impact, but were sure that the doors that opened, recognition received and morale boosted could be attributed to having this important Award take note of their work.  Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

What are the barriers to women filling out applications to the Awards?  Confidence, and time.  We have close to 3500 nominees each year, and only 150 applications.  Knowing this, don’t you want to take your chances and see how far you can go?!

I encourage all of our nominees to apply for the Awards this year. We do this because it is vital to Canada’s future economic development and prosperity that entrepreneurs, particularly women entrepreneurs, be encouraged and cultivated. Why? Because female entrepreneurs are one of the fastest growing business segments in Canada. Women are creating not just jobs, but entire companies, at double the rate of the national average and this is vital for the Canadian economy to continue growing.

Join our LinkedIn group for insider tips on preparing your application. I visit the page daily and will respond to your questions and comments personally. I will share tips from past winners, judges’ comments and score cards. RBC representatives will also contribute to the conversation and provide their insight.

Join the group here