Respecting individual differences boosts society’s value and strength
According to research by the Diversity Institute, women entrepreneurs who identified as Black, Caribbean or African consistently reported experiences of racism and barriers at every stage of their journey as entrepreneurs. supplied
From research to impact
Small business is the engine of the Canadian economy, employing almost 70 per cent of private-sector workers. When small businesses fail, our shared economy falters too.
Under normal circumstances, only half will survive to a sixth anniversary and, too often, the reasons have nothing to do with anything Canadians might consider fair. Borrowing ability and access to essential resources such as capital, markets and supportive networks are not distributed equitably.
“All small businesses are hurting, but the extent of the impact on Black women, on Indigenous women, on women with disabilities and so on, is just heartbreaking. ”
It’s no secret that COVID has devastated small business, hitting some sectors, like services and retail, harder than others. Smaller, newer and under-financed companies are particularly vulnerable. But the impact on Black-owned businesses is far worse.
A study led by the Black Business Professionals Association (BBPA) surveyed its members and compared the results to a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Black businesses were half as likely to be fully open, more than twice as likely not to have cash flow to pay their bills (80 per cent versus 30 per cent) and twice as likely to be unable to take on extra debt. At the same time, they were much less likely to believe that they would qualify for government support (80 per cent versus 20 per cent).
“The facts speak for themselves” said Nadine Spencer, president of the BBPA and founder of BrandEQ, a marketing communications agency, an entrepreneur herself. “Looking at these numbers objectively is the only way we’re going to be able to pull together solutions to help this particular sector recover.”
BBPA, the Casa Foundation, deSedulous Women Leaders, and 40 other organizations serving Black women recently came together to examine the issues specifically affecting Black women entrepreneurs. They reported barriers such as bias, systemic racism, a lack of mentoring and networking opportunities, and limited access to finance, on top of the many barriers that other small business owners also face.
Their insights and experiences are part of a soon-to-be-released report and led to the creation of Rise Up, a pitch competition supported by partners such as BMO, BDC, Loblaw, Impact Hub Ottawa, Foodpreneur Lab, League of Innovators, Réseau des Femmes d’affaires du Québec and the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH).
The competition attracted 700 Black women entrepreneurs vying for eight $10,000 awards. According to Statistics Canada, there are about 10,000 Black women entrepreneurs of about 900,000 self-employed women entrepreneurs in Canada. “The high level of response speaks volumes about the dire need for support,” says Ms. Spencer. “We selected 450 to go through intensive training; the judges will have to whittle that number down to the 40 who will be in the final pitch. We’re going to end up being able to give $10,000 to eight entrepreneurs, and there are at least 300, maybe more, for whom a small amount of funding would be transformational. We’re trying to find somebody who will support the others.”
Wendy Cukier, academic director of the Diversity Institute and WEKH, emphasizes the need for further support. “Our research shows that our entire innovation ecosystem and financing models put these women at a disadvantage. We pour many billions into our tech-oriented innovation ecosystem, which is justified because tech is potentially high growth. But businesses in other sectors – services, culture, food, retail – also create and sustain jobs, families and communities.”
WEKH is also trying to dismantle the stereotypes that associate entrepreneurship only with tech by celebrating 1,000 leading diverse women entrepreneurs in its “See it Be it” campaign.
The Government of Canada is also taking action. Recognizing the invaluable contributions of Black entrepreneurs and acknowledging that their success is essential to Canada’s economic recovery, the federal government launched the Black Entrepreneurship Program. “The program has the potential to greatly enhance the available support for Black Canadian entrepreneurs amid COVID-19 and beyond,” Dr. Cukier says.
Black women entrepreneurs find themselves at the intersection of a number of disproportionately barriered groups: they are Black, they are women, many are low income, and many are new to Canada. “The evidence is overwhelming – Black entrepreneurs face obstacles at every level. When you layer gender on top, with childcare and the crushing burden of unpaid labour, it’s a really grim situation,” adds Dr. Cukier.
“We found that 78.4 per cent of self-employed women have no paid help, versus 67.5 per cent of men,” explains Ms. Spencer. “This means that we don’t have the support needed to take us to the next level. And the reason we don’t have paid help is that we don’t have the same resources. Forty per cent of Black women business owners who apply for capital receive zero, $0.”
WEKH has also supported a number of training programs targeting racialized and Black women, including BBPA’s Boss Women program. “We have to recognize the pervasiveness and profound impact of anti-Black racism and trauma in the lives of many of these women as well as structural differences,” says Dr. Cukier. “They’re much less likely to be incorporated, which automatically means that they’re not going to have access to a lot of the resources available. They’re more likely to be lower income. And the pandemic has amplified every aspect of inequality.”
The Diversity Institute and Dr. Cukier are long-time collaborators of the BBPA and have undertaken research on newcomer and Black entrepreneurs for many years but were unprepared for the results of its latest research. “We analyzed data from 1,000 women entrepreneurs who applied to a competition hosted by BMO, of whom about 60 were identified as Black, Caribbean or African,” says Dr. Cukier. “These women consistently reported experiences of racism and barriers at every stage of their journey and were often pushed into entrepreneurship because they were excluded from other opportunities. At the same time, many pursued entrepreneurship because they spotted opportunities – for products designed for them, for books and toys that their children could identify with, for services tailored to the needs of their community – along with competing across virtually every sector.”
“All small businesses are hurting, but the extent of the impact on Black women, on Indigenous women, on women with disabilities and so on, is just heartbreaking,” says Ms. Spencer.
Ms. Spencer is the instructor of the BBPA Boss Women Entrepreneurship Training program and reports that, in the second week of the program, white supremacists hacked the group’s Zoom call, joining the meeting with swastikas in the background to call the women present horrific racist epithets. “It was an awful experience, and we all felt violated, particularly because we were in what we imagined was a safe space,” she says. “But I’ve been inspired by the resilience of these women. We kept coming back, every single week. We’re now in week three of cohort three, and we have 115 women in the program.”
Access to financing is also essential to recovery, and the program works to help women overcome the financing inequity they face. “Within the networking framework and collaboration with WEKH, we are able to learn about the available resources. You don’t know what you don’t know. With training, we’re able to learn about programs, such as SheEO and Futurpreneur, that can help. Together, these women are learning what it takes to build their business to the next level,” says Mr. Spencer.
Over the longer term, a systemic shift requires recognizing the value, strength and different skills society benefits from when individual differences are respected, Ms. Spencer stresses. “Globe and Mail readers are a demographic of individuals in society who can make profound change. If you don’t know what to do, reach out to somebody and say, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ Google. When George Floyd was murdered, I had somebody call and say, ‘Nadine, what’s happened is awful. I don’t know what to do, but I’m here to listen.’
“It really was the best response. You don’t have to have the answers. Just be open to listen.”
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