Small businesses are hard to maintain due to the competitiveness in the markets, and it is difficult for them to stand out, particularly from larger, more established companies. Women own 15.6% of small businesses in Canada, these businesses having an overall $135 billion in debt.
These small businesses need recognition in order to survive, and women-owned businesses would benefit greatly from programs, resulting in these small businesses being able to grow and compete in the national and global markets. Here are some women-owned small businesses in Canada, along with the challenges that they face.
Pooja Grover owns a business called Mindful Institutions in Ottawa, Ontario. She is a transformative consultant, corporate wellness expert, and mindful workplace consultant to help connect people with their minds and soul through her art. She is also a Certified Reiki Master Teacher (USUI, Karuna, Heart-Centered), Energy Healer, Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, and Intuitive Visual Artist. Pooja envisions a world where people are connected with their innate abilities to heal themselves holistically so that everyone can live in unison with their divinity. Her goal is to facilitate the healing of the inner world of every soul that comes in contact with her through alternative healing modalities like Reiki energy healing and meditation, qualities that help people access their deeper states of consciousness.
Pooja says that the most significant challenges she faced as a small business owner are uncertainty, planning ahead, time management, and balancing responsibilities. She says when balancing responsibilities, delegating more often is a great way to get a breather, but also comments that as nurturers, women will always eventually find themselves balancing responsibilities.
Doreen Fernandez is the owner of Memory Bloom, a business that writes keepsakes about families, people, places, and events that she brings to life in her creative writing. Her artistic eye has explored many domains: book writing, family albums, framed tributes, video scripting, website content, and keyword audit.
Doreen’s challenges are building awareness around what she does and reaching out to various audiences. Doreen’s advice to solve these challenges is; in order to have a successful business, you have to have good mentors and supporters of your team, as these are the people who can help uplift your spirit, decide on a plan, and develop market initiatives. As Doreen overcomes these challenges, her future goals are to be well-known for her work and trusted by her customers to provide the best service.
Small businesses owned and built by women play a necessary part in our economy and therefore should be recognized for their uniqueness; they need better opportunities to grow and become bigger companies. The number of women entrepreneurs and business owners has been thriving — if people contribute to this growth, the number of small businesses owned by women can climb even higher. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made these challenges harder, as approximately 7000 businesses go bankrupt every year in Canada, but as we segue back into our normal lifestyle and the economy opens up, female-owned small businesses will be able to thrive again.
Works Cited
“Memory Bloom.” Memory Bloom Content Writer | CREATING MEMORIES THAT LIVE, www.memorybloom.ca/.
“Mindful Institutions.” Mindful Intuitions, 19 Mar. 2021, mindfulintuitions.com/.
“WEKH.” WEKH The State of Womens Entrepreneurship in Canada 2020 Comments, 11 Aug. 2020, wekh.ca/the-state-of-womens-entrepreneurship-in-canada-2020/.
Published November 9, 2021
Written by Raveena Duggal ~ Edited by Scarlett Chu ~ Graphics created by Prabneet Kaur
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