LET'S HELP WOMEN-LED BUSINESSES RECOVER

Women entrepreneurs in Ottawa, like everywhere else, are a special breed. Coping with the extra economic and mental health issues caused by COVID-19 has forced us to become superheroes with superhuman powers.

On top of the regular lockdowns and financial stress from being a regular business owner, women entrepreneurs tend to take on more of the childcare and household responsibilities. Since the pandemic, we have learned to juggle more than normal: a new learning environment for schoolaged children with intermittent school closures, no organized sports or extracurricular activities, no babysitters, playdates or visits to grandparents.

These necessary safety measures to flatten the curve have added responsibilities and forced us to juggle between being boss, home-schooler and kid entertainer, all while trying to keep a household somehow livable, arrange meals that are healthy-ish and hold on to a business that's likely been severely affected by the various lockdown measures.

I have ridden the roller-coaster of business here in Ottawa for more than 12 years. The strains and pressures of being a woman in business in the time of COVID-19 have posed the most difficult challenge I have ever faced.

I opened my first retail business in Kanata during the recession of '08. My first child was only one year old. Two years later, I had a second store and a second kid. Yet somehow the midnight feeding haze and the long, 70-hour work weeks are nothing compared to the stress of this last year.

My life has become a never-ending Zoom meeting. The uncertainty of when restrictions will begin or end has prompted a sense of powerlessness I had not felt until now in my journey as an entrepreneur. My kids have picked up on my stress and combined it with their own angst of being cooped up for too long. Some days I feel like I am getting ahead, but invariably this is when the Wi-Fi crashes. My “mom guilt” has skyrocketed as my sales have plummeted.

Women are more likely to own newer and smaller businesses. According to a recent study by the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, small businesses with under 20 employees have been the hardest hit during the pandemic. Women are also more likely to be solo entrepreneurs or self-employed, without employees (often with subcontractors). Unfortunately, most government assistance programs are aimed at more established businesses with a workforce on payroll.

Women entrepreneurs are more likely to be in services — social, health and beauty — and food sectors, areas among the most affected by the pandemic. Add to that financial stress the home and childcare responsibilities, and it's the perfect storm for a different type of problem: a mental-health pandemic. Women-led businesses must be fairly considered and included in the recovery process of our local economy.

In a recent roundtable featuring Ottawa-area women entrepreneurs, MPP Jill Dunlop, associate minister of children and women's issues, and Carleton MPP Goldie Ghamari, we talked about special considerations such as affordable access to mental-health services, as well as additional grants and retraining programs for the hardest-hit industries. Affordable and safe childcare is something everyone would benefit from too.

Back in 2018, the federal budget introduced a $2-billion Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, aiming to double the number of women business owners by 2025. Little did we know that COVID-19 would crash the party. I believe there is an opportunity to redirect some of these funds to create a recovery process where women-led businesses get their fair share and are supported in the ways we need.

Ottawa's women business owners are smart, strong and resilient. Invite us to the table and include us in these decisions. In doing so, Ottawa will benefit from an army of Wonder Women whose collective brains and power will help not just our businesses and families, but the local economy as a whole.

Karla Briones is a local immigrant entrepreneur and owner of Global Pet Foods Kanata & Hintonburg; Freshii Westboro; founder of the Immigrants Developing Entrepreneurs Academy; and an independent business consultant. The opinions here are her own. Her column will appear every two weeks.