ALONE AT THE TABLE Taking on ageism, access to capital and networking

Mayhew of Business Launch Solutions and Wise Seniors in Business was speaking to a guest at an event last year. When she said she had recently switched her focus from entrepreneurs in general to older, experienced entrepreneurs, the man put on a slobbering face and pretended to walk with a cane.

“It was thoroughly disgusting,” says Mayhew. “I had done some business referrals to him but, after that statement, I quickly advised he wouldn’t be getting any more.”

Mayhew says a report from the U.S. covering 104 countries, including Canada, shows experienced entrepreneurs are the fastest growing demographic. But ageist tropes prevail, not least of which is the outof-touch, befuddled, middle-aged technophobe who calls the help line only to find the computer isn’t even plugged in. Add to that, well-documented barriers to women in business, such as trouble getting access to capital, lack of mentors and spotty networking opportunities, and it all adds up to long odds for women of a certain age who want to start a business.

That has to change because the economic potential of women in business is enormous. In a 2013 report by the Royal Bank of Canada, the estimated contribution of woman-run small- and medium-sized enterprises, which make up 15.6 per cent of all SMEs in Canada to the economy, was pegged at $148 billion.

That’s why SheEO’s Saunders started the non-profit organization, now a network of 500 businesswomen who paid $1,100 into a perpetual nonprofit fund that makes interest-free business loans to five high-potential member businesses each year. Though they don’t ask the age of members, Saunders says it ranges from 30s to 70s. She knows from personal experience as a serial entrepreneur that the playing field is not level when it comes to women running businesses.

“I witnessed 25 years of having an incredibly difficult time getting funded, difficulty getting into the door of a lot of places and feeling like I didn’t fit in,” says Saunders,