International Women’s Day: Greater supports urged for B.C.’s female entrepreneurs | 24CA News
As the world marks International Women’s Day, there are renewed requires higher helps for girls in business.
In Vancouver, feminine entrepreneurs gathered on the Cycle Collective Wednesday for a fundraiser for The Women’s Network mentorship packages, the place many stated they now depend on each other for help to beat challenges lots of their male friends don’t face.
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“It’s the communities that sort of keep my purpose and passion going and within the space and say the women entrepreneurs that I’ve met that are athletes, on careers that are mothers, we are one huge community and we support each other,” Cycle Collective proprietor Amanda Lau advised Global News.
About 39 per cent of self-employed individuals in B.C. are girls, the second highest in Canada behind Nova Scotia, in response to the province’s 2022 small business profile report.
That determine has held regular for the final 5 years, one thing younger advocates like Laurel Brooksbank with the Women’s Network at UBC hope to assist change.
The Women’s Network is a U.S.-based group that has just lately expanded to Canada, together with a UBC chapter. Brooksbank stated the group goals to assist younger entrepreneurial girls construct connections and confidence as they put together to enter the skilled world.
“It’s pretty much a chapter about empowering women to get involved in professional spaces and really just encourage each other to go out be their best either in the professional world or the social world and empowering each other,” she stated.
“We want to make sure they’re empowered to feel like they have just as much right to be there as anyone and their opinion is just as valid and their ideas are just as good and to take up space, like they don’t need to feel quiet and small.”
The province’s small business profile report additionally discovered that feminine entrepreneurs typically selected to work for themselves due to the versatile work-life steadiness.
But that, too, can include its personal set of challenges.
Angie Buonassisi, a serial entrepreneur who has began three companies within the final decade, together with her current skin-care begin up Lontreau, stated she relied closely on the help of different girls when she first obtained began.
“What was really difficult in the beginning was managing family and business — when I launched my first business I had a newborn baby, lost my receptionist and brought my baby to work. Those are the type of things you do as an entrepreneur,” she stated.
“I would say because I am a single mother, (it’s) challenging being at work and also raising two children and just managing my time,” added Lau.
Buonassisi stated all of her corporations are actually female-led, with girls in the important thing management positions.
But she stated the business world has work to do in the case of making room for girls to succeed.
“What I’d like to see other companies do is make that same commitment, and at the same time, making those small modifications that make it so that women like us can have families and careers, and that might mean a little bit more time off or a little bit more leniency if something is needed on the childcare front,” she stated.
“If we can make that space for women it pays off, because women are really good at business.”
Both girls stated they’d seen the business world change in optimistic methods for girls in recent times, and whereas there’s extra work to do, it’s price it.
“It’s really important that we acknowledge that women, whatever their legacy is, or whatever purpose and passion they want, if it’s being a mother, if it’s being a business owner, they can do it all,” Lau stated.
“I have a daughter — she’s seven — and I want her to know that whatever she puts her mind to, she can do.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
