GoDaddy Inc. has released a new survey ahead of International Women’s Day that provides insights into what it means to be a woman small business owner in Canada.
The findings revealed that 68% of women entrepreneurs feel represented as a woman in their chosen industry.
Women in Canada surveyed businesses across a range of categories and industries including professional services (19%), retail (15%), health and wellness (9%), education, entertainment, finance and more.
Authors of the study noted that passion for their business idea is the key factor driving millennial women to open their own businesses. While millennial women entrepreneurs (ages 20-34) said passion is the number-one motivator in launching a business (36%), older women (ages 35-54), identified flexibility as their top motivator (32%).
Both groups ranked financial independence as the second most important factor behind deciding to open a business (23%).
“I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and love technology,” said Sara Koonar, president and founder, Platform Media & Management. “When the opportunity arose to harness that passion and help others do the same, my business started. The passion I have for my company is what motivates me each day to keep going, even during this past challenging year.”
According to the survey, “regardless of motivations, when it comes to financing their businesses, women entrepreneurs are doing it for themselves, with 71% funding their businesses through personal financing.”
Millennial women are four times more likely than their cohort in older generations to raise capital through angel investors or venture capitalists, the survey revealed.
How Women Build their Business: When women entrepreneurs choose to launch a small business, one of the first decisions they need to make is whether to launch the business full-time or start it as a part-time side hustle, GoDaddy said.
The women surveyed were split almost evenly between those who chose to go all in full-time (51%), and those who began their business as a part-time venture (49%).
When asked about building an online presence, 57% of women small business owners felt confident they could create their own website using a website-building tool or platform themselves.
However, one in five women responded that they felt they lacked confidence in this area, with the percentage increasing among older women entrepreneurs. The survey also revealed that a higher percentage of younger women valued an online presence as being extremely important (44%), versus the older generation (33%).
“It’s encouraging to see so many women entrepreneurs feel confident in building their own websites,” said Anne De Aragon, vice president and country manager of GoDaddy Canada.
GoDaddy stated in a release that “another critical element of building a business is marketing and advertising. It is clear that women value online tools to help get the word out about their business with more than half (55%) using social media, and more than a quarter using a website (35%). While all ages of respondents believe it is important for their business to have an online presence, younger women (ages 20-34) regard it as extremely important.”
For those women who want to start their own business, women entrepreneurs in the survey recommended they invest in a social media presence (59%), as well as financial tools (47%) and a website (38%).
The survey, commissioned by Logit Group, was sourced from a random sample of 350 women Canadian small business owners across the country.
Small business owners were defined as those businesses that have one to 99 employees (87% of survey respondents were micro businesses with four or less employees). Over 30% of the businesses had been in business for more than 10 years.
