Women entrepreneurs ‘a Top priority’
‘We know by adding women into the economy we will add jobs and create prosperity’
The pandemic and the move to digitization could be the needed push for more women entrepreneurs to access international markets to grow their businesses, an outcome the federal government is hoping to encourage.
There are already signs of such activity. In November, Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, took part in the first Virtual Canadian Women-only Business Mission to South Korea.
“Normally, for in-person trade missions, we take about 30 companies," she said in an interview. "More than 200 women-led businesses took part in this mission."
Helping women entrepreneurs expand into global markets is a key part of the federal government’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES). Launched in 2018, the government has almost doubled its investment to nearly $5 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic to help women-led businesses.
Some $30 million of that went directly to entrepreneurs looking to scale up via the Women Entrepreneurship Fund, and 300 projects were approved for funding.
The overarching goal of the government’s strategy is to create an ecosystem to help women entrepreneurs access capital, networks and expertise, still the top barriers female entrepreneurs say they face when starting and building their businesses.
“Supporting women entrepreneurs has to be a priority," Ng said. "They are 50 per cent of our population. We know by adding women into the economy we will add jobs and create prosperity."
Women own 16 per cent of the 99 per cent of small and mid-sized businesses that make up the Canadian economy, or about 114,000 of those 730,000 businesses, according to the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub.
Many of those firms are in the retail, hospitality and food services sectors, which have been the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic and related lockdowns.
“Making sure women-led businesses have all the support they need to succeed is critical, especially now on the road to recovery,” Ng said.
There are a number of federal programs and support initiatives for women entrepreneurs.one of the biggest is the $2 billion earmarked for export development canada to spend by 2023 in support of womenowned businesses looking to export.
The Trade commissioner Service also provides funding to help small and midsized companies enter international markets through its canexport program. Specifically, companies can apply for up to $75,000 to cover the cost of things such as custom market research, legal and business advice, intellectual property protection, search engine optimization and attending virtual trade shows. The program also covers up to 75 per cent of marketing products and services into new international markets.
Other initiatives include the Women in Trade Investments Program, which received $100 million to help women grow their businesses, and the WES ecosystem Fund, which received $85 million to fund more than 50 projects led by non-profits aimed at building capacity and closing gaps for female entrepreneurs, both on a national and regional level.
These projects include initiatives to help advance supplier diversity activities, support women in under-represented sectors, provide networking, matching and mentorship, and fund incubator and accelerator programs.
An additional $15 million in new funding was made available to provide urgent business support to women entrepreneurs impacted by the pandemic.
To help access these programs and services, the government in 2019 launched the free canada Business App, which now includes information on how to access COVID-19 support. The app can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store or from Google Play. users can tailor search results, receive calendar updates and access a chat feature to receive assistance.
Another part of WES is the Women entrepreneurship Knowledge hub. Made up of 10 regional hubs, it includes a network of more than 250 organizations and serves as a one-stop resource for research on women’s entrepreneurship, best practices and links to activities and events focused on advancing female entrepreneurship. It also provides access to a database of organizations that support women entrepreneurs across canada.
“We want to make sure people who should be in the economy are, and that they are supported. That absolutely is the case for female entrepreneurs,” Ng said.