What Women Want

“For me it’s also really important that I enjoy doing it,” says McArthur. “The bottom line for me is I’m happy I took this on. It’s certainly a lot of work, but it’s also really fun. I had no idea how much I would grow by doing this.”

“Women make concessions in their careers because raising a family is really important to them. They want that time with their kids,” adds Drew, who has a blended family with four children. “But after their kids have left home, women have a chance to really expand on their own creativity. Women nowadays are healthy and they have financial means. They’ve had these lifelong dreams, and now they have the time to fulfill them." In fact, Drew and McArthur are enjoying entrepreneurship so much they think they’ll start another venture, once they cash out with Artisan Edibles (they’ve had an exit strategy in place since day one). “I thought this would be my last kick at the can, my last chance to really go for something before retiring. But I’m enjoying this so much, I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” McArthur says with a laugh.

The other big trend in women’s business is, of course, the explosion of “mompreneurs” such as Theresa Siochowicz. Following in the footsteps of B.C. mom Sandra Wilson, whose cute baby-shoe designs begat the Robeez empire, more and more mothers are going into business for themselves. Mompreneur-specific statistics are scarce, but if the recent surge in mompreneur support systems is any indication, the trend is huge: it has spawned networking and support organizations (such as Momcafé Nework Inc. and Enterprising Moms Network Inc. in the Lower Mainland and a host of others across the country), websites (such as Savvymom.ca), trade shows and even a Canadian magazine, the Calgary-based Mompreneur.

“As women get longer maternity leaves, it allows them to think more about how they can organize things so they can be home with their kids and make money. All these talented women are spending time at home but don’t want to be inactive,” Douglas explains. Observers of the trend have also noted other contributing factors: scarce child care and family-unfriendly workplaces. (An oft-cited employer survey conducted by a University of Western Ontario business prof found that most respondents did not offer flexible work scheduling, reduced hours or the option of working at home to employees.)

“Women are realizing they don’t have to go back to the work force on somebody else’s terms,” says Kelley Scarsbrook, a former insurance broker who started her own consulting business after “basically being shown the door” when she asked about working part time following her first maternity leave. “I had given weekends, I had worked late nights, and when it came time for me to ask for a favour, there was no flexibility,” says Scarsbrook. Her business, which eventually became the Enterprising Moms Network, is doing well enough that her husband recently quit his full-time software sales job to join her in the venture. “My former employers actually did me a favour, by leading me to open up my entrepreneurial side. For me it’s been amazing; I’ve found my true life calling,” says Scarsbrook.

It sounds ideal: women finding work/life balance, fulfilling their passions and achieving success on their own terms. But according to Barbara Orser, it’s not all wine and roses for female entrepreneurs. The University of Ottawa management professor, who authored the aforementioned study of how small-business owners assess success, does not want her research used to gloss over real problems with female entrepreneurship. “Those warm and fuzzy ‘success-depends-on-what-your-goals-are’ arguments may come at a huge cost to women,” says Orser. She notes that, on average, women-owned businesses are smaller, less profitable and grow slower than businesses owned by men.

“Women entrepreneurs are working long hours for crappy pay. That’s not sustainable,” she says bluntly. “Then they burn out and consider employment again. But that leads to other problems for those women because there’s an opportunity cost to having been out of the labour market. If women step out of the paid workplace, they never catch up financially.”Part of what may be holding female entrepreneurs back is that women starting businesses tend to have less managerial experience. The solution? “Women need to bring in partners with complementary skills,” says Orser. “Not friends, necessarily, but people who can fill in what they are missing.”

Women tend to start businesses in low-growth, low-margin service and retail sectors, where competition is stiff, Orser says. She encourages women entrepreneurs to think carefully about margins and growth opportunities, and to start businesses in higher-growth sectors like high tech. She also encourages women wanting to start their own businesses to “think big” and build expansion options in from the start. “Choosing a ‘born-global’ business – like something Internet-based – means you have great built-in growth potential,” says Orser.

Laurel Douglas doesn’t necessarily disagree with Orser’s advice. But she’s more bullish on the overall benefits of business ownership for women. “The last stats I saw said the average female entrepreneur earns about $30,000 per year while the average male entrepreneur earns $50,000. But women are working less hours for their money. And they’re getting other things they want – work/life balance, personal satisfaction and control over their lives.”

From Douglas’s perspective, the increasing number of female entrepreneurs is helping to normalize a more sustainable, holistic approach to work, buttressing a broader societal shift toward people choosing – or creating – work that works for them, their values and their desired lifestyles.

Furthermore, while these women are helping to change society, Douglas argues, they are also changing themselves in the process. “Women entrepreneurs develop new skills, new confidence and are opened up to new possibilities. That’s what’s so great about female entrepreneurship – it’s a real win-win for women and society overall.”