Resources for Women Entrepreneurs in the Wake of COVID-19
“The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted women entrepreneurs. It has severely affected sectors such as retail, hospitality and food services—sectors where women entrepreneurs are most present. On top of typically operating smaller businesses and having less access to capital, many women business owners also still bear a disproportionate share of domestic work, caregiving and childcare.” This was a statement from a news release on May 16th from the Government of Canada.
When looking at the profile of a women entrepreneur in BC, you find it generally looks like this:
· Around 44 years old
· 2-5 employees
· Self financed and probably debt averse
· Married or in a relationship
· 1 in 3 chance of having kids under the age of 12
· No prior management training
Currently, 37.7% of all small businesses in BC are owned by women - that’s just over 145,485 women-owned businesses who fit the profile above and are struggling to keep the doors open and the businesses running through the pandemic. Early forecasts predict 50% of businesses won’t survive COVID-19 impact. More than ever small businesses, many owned by women, need support.
The City of Campbell River Economic Development has been offering support through its Campbell River Streaming Forward programming which includes weekly virtual meet ups for the business community, COVID-19 Health, Funding and Restart resource lists as well as no cost business resilience programs.
The most recent virtual meetup on Wednesday June 3rd, featured the Women’s Enterprise Centre. The organization has been around 25 years and has helped many women navigate the process of business start up, funding start up and expansion through loans, skills training and mentoring. They are stepping up to the challenge of helping businesses survive COVID by allowing concessions to loan repayments, they have increased the one on one mentoring with a business advisor and are offering webinars focused on topics that small business are struggling with during the pandemic such as self care, financial fitness and search engine optimization (SEO) for beginners.
Pauline Stevenson, the Vancouver Island Regional Ambassador, assures that The Women’s Enterprise Centre is accessible to everyone. “The focus is looking at business through a “female lens” in order to gain understanding of the unique issues facing women in small business. Men are encouraged to access the information off the website through the webinars as well, it might give them a new perspective as to business practices and working with the women in their lives.”
Small Business BC also has an extensive list of resources for Women Entrepreneurs in order to break down the barriers to entry into owning and operating your own business. With links to five different Mentorship networks, it is easy to find at least one that will fit your business and lifestyle needs for support. Small Business BC and many other resources are listed on Techatchery.ca.
The City of Campbell River has partnered with Spring Activator to provide a Resilience Program to small businesses in the area for no cost. “As a female entrepreneur myself, I wanted to create a course that is actually useful in a time of crisis. Crisis can come in many forms as a founder- a cash flow problem, unexpected staff turnover or something as terrible and global as COVID. The Business Resilience is intended to lead entrepreneurs step-by-step through the process of accessing and then acting quickly to save our businesses.” states Jamie Smith program creator.
If you are struggling with your business and in search of specific information, networks or resources, you can also reach out to Rose Klukas, Economic Development Officer at invest@campbellriver.ca.
Resources:
Thank you to the Women’s resource centre for the Stats and demographics provided in this blog. Much of the information was provided during a CR Area Zoom Meet up on June 3, 2020