PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – A teacher and a nurse, both aware of job shedding in their professions, were among women wanting to start their own businesses.
“I was a teacher but I won’t get back on. I’m looking for a new direction,” said one woman after attending a provincial entrepreneurship seminar devoted to women.
Another at the session, Linda Wick, is a nurse who decided to start a business because of health-care cuts and a desire to look after her young son at home.
“I’m also a new business looking for information and contacts,” said Wick of her Front Porch business, which sells nursing uniforms and accessories.
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Unemployment and company downsizing are common reasons women start their own businesses, said seminar leader, Norma Facca of the Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan. Other reasons include restrictions many women hit in corporations and helpful husbands willing to pitch in around the house while their wives work.
Focus on business women
“This is the decade of the entrepreneur,” said Facca. Her group has counterparts in the other western provinces and all were set up by the federal government to help women start and keep their businesses.
The women entrepreneurs programs are based in prairie cities but this fall are starting outreach programs to rural women.
Facca said businesswomen are more successful than men even though their numbers are smaller because women won’t start or expand a business until they are sure and they borrow less money. Statistics show that in 1970 one in 10 small to medium Canadian businesses was owned by a woman. By 1980 the figure was one in four and by 2000 women-owned businesses will equal the number owned by men.
One difficulty businesswomen face is gaining credibility with lawyers, bankers and suppliers, Facca said. Prince Albert accountant Myles Gardiner said women are more willing to say they don’t know something and will buy advice from business professionals and follow it. He also said “women plan better and are more willing to put up with the sacrifices.”
Attitudes destroy confidence
One woman at the seminar said such an attitude comes from the past, when men were expected to know things and women listened – “we were wimps.”
It takes nerve to step into a business, said another.
“My friends all think I’m crazy to be in this,” said Adele Wellar, part owner of AK Combos, a gift basket business she and a female partner have started in St. Brieux, Sask. She said they need to talk to someone who’s also starting a business to be reassured they are on the right path.
