According to the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB), less than 30 per cent of Indigenous business owners are accessing loans through traditional lending institutions.
That’s thanks to a statute outlined in the federal Indian Act that makes on-reserve citizens ineligible to use their property as collateral.
But if you’re an Indigenous woman trying to access those funds, said Tabatha Bull, president-CEO at the CCAB, the success rate is even lower, because so many loan programs require that entrepreneurs be running their business full time.
“For women, as we all know, that’s not necessarily the case,” she said during an Aug. 11 virtual panel examining the importance of women’s entrepreneurship for economic recovery.
“Maybe you’re doing this as a part-time job, because you’re also taking care of your kids, or your parents, or your community.”
A lack of support recognizing cultural differences was just one of the challenges examined by the panel.
Jointly hosted by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the discussion followed the release of a new report prepared by the Hub: The State of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Canada 2020.
Launched prior to the onset of COVID-19, the study was adjusted to reflect how many of the existing barriers for women entrepreneurs have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Dr. Wendy Cukier, the report’s lead author and academic director at the Hub, noted it’s important how we define “entrepreneur.”
Roughly 16 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are majority-owned by women, while 37.4 per cent of women register as self-employed, Cukier said, and the impact of those small businesses on the Canadian economy shouldn’t be underestimated.
“I think we have to continually remind people that those micro-businesses are critically important, especially when you start to look at Indgienous entrepreneurs and racialized entrepreneurs,” said Cukier, founder of the Diversity Institute at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Business.
According to the research, women entrepreneurs are more likely to be in the service, social, health and beauty, and food sectors, than in manufacturing and technology.
Meanwhile, the idea of an entrepreneur is “overwhelmingly” presented as white, male, and working in tech, and men are four times more likely to get funding from angel investors and venture capitalists.
That’s a great oversight, said Cukier.
“If our definition of innovation is always tied to STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), we are going to unintentionally exclude women, and we’re going to miss massive opportunities for other kinds of innovation,” she said.
When it comes to government support programs, Cukier said the Hub wants to see that social issues are seriously considered as a part of the overall framework and not just as an afterthought.
Poverty, social exclusion, crime, and health issues should all be given equal weight to profit.
“Our ambitions are to actually look at where the barriers are and make the entire system more inclusive,” Cukier said.
“So rather than just thinking about the funds that are specifically targetting women or diverse entrepreneurs, think about what opportunities would be created if we applied that gender and diversity lens to all the money that government is investing in innovation and supporting business and social programs.”
With the onset of COVID-19, Bull said, a higher proportion of Indigenous business owners were working from home, where many had poor broadband quality, and events like powwows, conferences, and women’s gatherings were cancelled.
“That’s where a lot of those sales were happening, so they’ve really had to pivot to e-commerce,” she said. “And then, again, your broadband infrastructure really hampers that ability to be able to pivot.”
Nadine Spencer, founder of marketing firm BrandEQ Group and president-CEO of the Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA), said many of the Black women entrepreneurs they’ve spoken with did not have a reserve fund to keep their operations going during an emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Because of that, instantly, the light was shut right off,” she said.
Part of the issue is that Black women entrepreneurs aren’t always given the same consideration as other business owners.
In Canadian business circles, there’s a lack of knowledge about the nuances of Black culture, and that can result in a “disconnect” in how people relate to Black entrepreneurs, she said.
Too often, she said, she’s been judged on her skin colour before any of her skills or experience.
“As a Black woman, I walk into a space, I don’t want to have to be content with someone asking about my hair or any of that,” she said. “I’m there for business.”
As the country’s economy recovers from COVID-19, Spencer believes women entrepreneurs need to continue vocalizing their concerns and needs, so that their voices are “heard and not just tolerated.”
“Until our leaders start taking seriously what we have to say, we won’t see lasting change,” she said.
It will help to have more women and people of colour in government and leadership positions, who understand the needs of those demographics, she added.
“The only way that we’re able to advance women as entrepreneurs and Black women, specifically, is by them seeing themselves in the space,” Spencer said.
Though there’s still progress to be made, Nicole Verkindt, founder and CEO at procurement firm OMX, said she sees change happening.
Research shows that organizations with more diverse leadership are actually more profitable, generate a broader range of ideas, and take more risks, which can all lead to growth.
That applies to startups, large, established organizations and governments, Verkindt said.
There’s also a growing interest among companies in “2-D diversity”: a practise that considers both a person’s inherent abilities and their acquired experience, she noted.
"The long-standing progress will continue to happen the more we can also try to also tie it into those objectives,” Verkindt said.
“I've just always believed that for-profit enterprises, unless they're legislated to do something, they're always going to behave in a way that maximizes shareholder benefits"