Making the Jump.

Women enterpreneurs make up one-third of all small business owners. They employ more people than Canada's largest corporations. The numbers of self-employed women has nearly tripled in the last two decades. is this success? That depends on your definition.

Four months after deciding on a freelance career in copy writing, Marilyn Sinclair paid a visit to her father. She wanted to tell him she was ready to quit -- that after months of shopping her meager portfolio around to Toronto design firms she still hadn't gotten a contract. "I was also young enough -- and somewhat stupid enough -- not to know that you don't go out and open your own business when you have four things in your portfolio to share," she says now with a smile.

Her father, an entrepreneur himself who had his fingers in a number of businesses, looked at her gravely and quoted an old Yiddish proverb that loosely translated means, "better to sell your last pair of shoes and be your own boss." He told her he was willing to lend her money because he knew she could make her business fly. "So I thought, well, I guess if my father believes I can do it, I better stick it out," says Sinclair.

That was over 10 years ago. Now, Sinclair is the president of WordCheck, a writing and editing company specializing in providing Internet content. And business is booming. But, she maintains, getting from there to here has meant long hours, thinking outside her four walls and networking with like-minded women.

As it turns out, role models are now in abundance. There's a cultural and economic shift at work in Canada these days. As children watch their parents lose jobs after 20 years of employment with a medium or large corporation, as employees realize that a work-home balance is important for personal satisfaction, as people see others making the jump to self-employment and prosper, a soundless question resonates across the country: "Why not me?"

Women have especially taken this issue to heart and are starting their own businesses at an unprecedented rate. According to a 1998 Statistics Canada survey, there has been a 46% increase in female-owned businesses between 1991 and 1996. Men's new businesses, however, only increased 20% during the same duration.

As more women head to the printer to design their cards and company letterhead, the old question, are women entrepreneurs different than men and what does that mean, seems slightly antiquated. For good reason, most female entrepreneurs want to be known as an entrepreneur first and female second. After all, having a strong business platform and strategy is far more important to the success of a business than all the "soft" issues revolving around communication and management.

And yet[ldots]

While female entrepreneurs are taking a jackhammer to the ceiling that has traditionally kept most out of executive positions, there still are differences between how self-employed men and women handle some areas of their businesses. Those differences include definitions of success, reasons for going into business in the first place, and yes -- communication and management paradigms.

The new questions to ask are how can business communities incorporate the female entrepreneurs' styles into the financial lexicon, and what can the women themselves learn from taking a look in the mirror? And while it's nearly impossible to catalogue every detail in how every women entrepreneur works, dreams and runs her business, it is possible to roughly categorize the who, how, when, where and why.

Why go the entrepreneur route?

The recent boom in women's self-employment comes down to a simple pull, push equation. In other words, has a woman always had an entrepreneurial spirit, or was she pushed into self-employment by reasons not in her control, such as unemployment or a stagnating market?

There is little doubt the faltering economy in the mid-90s pushed many women towards running their own businesses, and the reverberations of that time are still with us now. Just as Sinclair's father explained, self-employment means controlling your own destiny. And as it turns out, that control is one of the more predominant reasons women in particular are turning to becoming entrepreneurs.

Paula Jubinville, CMA, is the president of AQUEOUS Ltd., a company geared toward helping entrepreneurs fulfill business and personal goals, and is an entrepreneur herself. She is also the co-author of Raising Your Business, A Canadian women's guide to entrepreneurship. She says although the mainstream likes to paint entrepreneurs as risk takers and unstable, control is at the heart of the matter. It's like driving a car. "Where do you feel a greater sense of risk -- sitting behind the wheel or sitting in the passenger seat while somebody else is driving?" she asks. "As an entrepreneur I feel more at risk if I'm working for someone else. So I'm actually trying to minimize and mitigate my risk by working for myself -- not seek it."

Another reason many women are choosing self-employment revolves around the need to balance home and work, and that includes the question of starting a family. Jubinville says when family is a factor, there are two main reasons why a woman chooses to set out on her own.

"I don't know if that's the cart or the horse," she says, referring to the fact that many women who decide to leave well-paying jobs also seem to start families around the same time. "Sometimes it's the cart -- there's the insane hours of working in a corporation, but she doesn't want to give up her channel to feeling fulfilled in her career. So it's a bridging technique from one to the other." If it's the horse, however, women tend to use self-employment's possible monetary rewards as the main driver. She wants the money for raising a family.

Another reason for the self-employment trend in women can be linked to a simple fact: as more role models are made, more women want to become role models themselves. It's the pull factor. In fact, seeing other people -- even if it's a mother, father or sibling -- running a business, has a great impact on future entrepreneurs.

Just ask Molly Mak, CMA who was voted Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998 for her leadership of Calgary-based, Onward Computer Systems. "I always knew I was going to be independent," she says. "And growing up in a family where my dad was an entrepreneur, I always knew that was the path I would take." In fact, Mak was "pulled" by the draw of self-employment even when she was a young girl playing "restaurant" with her sister.

WordCheck's Sinclair also had a strong family tie to self-employment. Her sisters both run businesses, her father ran businesses and her mother, a time when women were discouraged from making their own money lest they make their husbands look bad, was the top selling "Avon Lady" in Canada.

Then there are the newer role models - women who started their own businesses and are successful now. "There are some great role models out there now that five years ago we didn't even have," says Barbara Thrasher, president of Communicating Power Inc. in Edmonton and co-author of Smart Women.

But success means more than money. Some women, she says, are tuning into the fact that these successful women are also successful in terms of keeping their positive personalities and integrity intact. "It's a huge difference. They still have families. They still have community involvement. They still are nice people. They're not mean, or manipulative so it's OK to be successful. And that's a huge load off of women's shoulders," she says.

Thrasher also notices that although the older generations of women had family of peer role models to look to for inspiration, more younger women without such role models are turning to self-employment as a means to self-preservation and control. "It's the exact flip-flop of what we have seen traditionally because their parents worked for the corporation or government and put in their faithful 20 years and still ended up on the street," she says. "These young people are saying, 'Not for me. There's no way you're going to do that to me.'"

Women entrepreneurs and the new economy

Whether women entrepreneurs have been pulled or pushed into self-employment, once they're there, they fall into one of two groups, says Karen Hughes, a sociologist and assistant professor at the University of Alberta.

In her recent study, Gender and Self-Employment in Canada: Assessing Trends and Policy Implications, women entrepreneurs become either "employers" or "own account workers." According to the study, women who work on their own, usually working out of their home and offering contract services are "own account workers" and make up the majority of women entrepreneurs in Canada. They also make far less money than the women who make up the employer sector - a paltry average of $15,000 per year compared to female employers who brought home an average of $27,600.

Hughes is quick to point out, however, that the employer class is growing and many women who are "own account workers" merely start that way and later become employers. Besides, she says, money is not the only indicator of success. Working from home has its advantages when building a home-work balance. "It's just simply a decision to work on their own and it makes the whole package work," she says.

Jubinville says she's exasperated every time she hears the argument that women entrepreneurs are less successful than their male cohorts because they're not making as much money on average. She encourages her clients to re-evaluate what success actually means to them - whether it be making enough money to buy a Porsche, or having enough time to spend with family.

"The measuring stick that women have always had to live up to is men's measuring stick. If I work three and a half days a week and I make three quarters of what a man makes - but it allows me to do all these other things in my life that are important to me - am I being more successful or less successful?

"So when people say women's businesses make less money than men's, therefore they are not being as successful and draw a conclusion from that -- that's where there is an error in assessment," she says.

Success also comes from confidence, says Karen Fraser, president of Women Entrepreneurs of Canada, an association aimed at helping experienced, self-employed women network. Confidence is the ingredient that helps determine if a women's business is going to be prosperous and give her what she wants. It also helps the would-be entrepreneur start out on her own initially. "Half of my career is teaching courses to help women get where they want to go next with the best information and highest level of confidence," she says. "Because if you don't have the confidence, then it's just cocktail chatter and you'll never give it a try."

She also says women are often intent on finding a business they have a passion for, as opposed to simply choosing an idea that is going to be hot in the marketplace. "I don't think you can drive yourself seven days a week for something you could care less about," she says.

The challenges

Without question, women entrepreneurs face challenges many men who are self-employed don't. But some of those obstacles are diminishing as years pass. For example, banks in the past had a terrible reputation amongst self-employed women for being inaccessible. And if a female small business owner actually could get a meeting, the woman was usually told her husband would have to cosign for a loan or other financial service.

Sinclair remembers the time not too many years ago when she was writing the ad campaign for a large Canadian bank. The campaign championed the bank's relationship with small businesses. Ironically, when Sinclair went to the same bank herself to get a $150 overdraft on her account, no one would speak to her. "I'm sure it was because I'm a woman," she says now. "I had a business that certainly had more than $150 in income."

Her solution? She went straight to the CEO of the bank and told him her dilemma.

"I said, I have a problem here because I'm writing an ad campaign that talks about how you're so friendly to small business -- and I'm a small business and when I go to your bank, I can't even get the consideration of a meeting." Thankfully, the bank industry is changing, she says. Now banks try to offer her lines of credit and the need for her husband's signature has gone the way of the dinosaur.

Jubinville says there's an extra dimension to the exchange when women walk into a bank due to different communication styles between women and "bank speak." She says when a man fails at getting what he wants from a bank, he'll get frustrated and upset. When a woman walks into a bank, however, there are other communication gaps so she is apt to feel frustrated on a few levels. "There's an added layer for them because it's how they've been treated, not just what they've been able to get and not get," she says.

Another obstacle many women entrepreneurs face is getting over the "doing it all" mentality. Sinclair knew she had to bring in outside help when the workload started piling up so high that she was afraid she'd start loosing customers. Building relationships, she maintains, is what many female entrepreneurs are great at, but without the time to do that, the whole business could crumble.

She also realized she needed to hire help to take care of her personal life too. Now she has someone who cleans the house, drives her children home from school and does the cooking. She has accountants and lawyers working for her and a staff that runs the office. All this to get through her seven days a week. "Sometimes it feels like a juggling act and that the balls are in the air and everything is in perfect rhythm - and then one ball drops and you feel that everything has fallen. So you have to pick them all up and start juggling again," she says.

Jubinville says there's an easy way to decide when to bring in outside help. "You're working more and making less," she says. Women are known for their perseverance in business and forget to come up for air when the work becomes too demanding. Instead, the best thing to do is step back, analyze the situation and decide which customers are giving too little return. The next step is to break free from them and make way for rewarding - and well paying - work.

Communication and Leadership

Mak is the first to admit she doesn't like to "lay down the law." But it's not because she doesn't like to stand up for herself or fears conflict. Instead, she says she abides by new managerial styles. In other words, communicate more both inside and outside the organization and success will follow.

Her computer company, which started out as a family business over 10 years ago, now employs 70 people and is still growing. She says the secret to her management style is keeping your eye on what is important as a visionary leader: Keep people happy by keeping them informed.

By cutting down on miscommunication, employees understand the company's vision. She doesn't push people, she says. She educates them. "Because you want to take a more holistic approach, the people you've got are happy. You continue to not just grow your organization, you want to make sure that you grow yourself and grow the people around you."

Sinclair agrees. Her employees give her their loyalty, she says, because she lets them know when they're doing a great job -- not just when they've made a mistake. She also agrees that communication -- specifically the way women communicate, more with their inner ear than with their calculator -- is key when it comes to working with her clients. "I think women are perfectly suited to be entrepreneurs because we understand how to build relationships and I think that's more than half the battle," she says.

Looking to the future

Being an entrepreneur can mean flexibility in one's personal life, but also when it's time to change direction. After 20 years of running her business, Patricia Thornton, president of a business management firm called Change Resources Group Inc. recently decided to shift direction. She swung away from her old business that dealt with corporate change and into a new one centered around employee retention. "In the corporate world, it would be like a drastic career change. In the entrepreneurial world, we just call it re-inventing yourself," she jokes.

But the switch was not a laughing matter. In fact, it cost her half a million dollars. "I had a mortgage-free house and was basically going to coast into retirement, so it was quite the decision to do this. What I did at this stage of life was roll the dice and go for it," she says.

The reason? Thornton says she couldn't bare the thought of sitting on the beach in Florida years from now not knowing if she could have pulled it off. Thornton's story will probably not be as unique in the future as more women take to self-employment. Her spirit is found in all women who decide to leave corporate Canada behind, or even turn a love for quilting into money.

Controlling their destiny, even if that means refinancing their homes, is more important to many women than the executive parking spot or the gold watch after 30 years of service.

So would Sinclair ever give her control up? No way, she says. "I just enjoy this so much that if tomorrow I could retire, I wouldn't. Why would I? I'm having too much fun!"

Kira Vermond is a Toronto-based freelace writer (a.k.a. an entrepreneur).