The Importance of Creating an Inclusive Ecosystem for Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs

The Importance of Creating an Inclusive Ecosystem for

Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs

Firstly, we are going to start off with a question, "What would it take to make sure that all indigenous women in Canada have the opportunity to grow into an entrepreneur?" Although there isn 't any simple solution to a seemingly intricate issue, it is quite a known fact that entrepreneurship is a rising and promising path. To empower indigenous women to enhance their lives, uplift their communities, and strengthen their families. All it can be achieved with relatively little action to bring massive impact on enriching opportunities for aboriginal women entrepreneurs. Develop gender-specific programs for Indigenous women;

Create a special fund for aboriginal women ' s entrepreneurship;

Facilitate access and promote awareness using the latest communication technologies.

The challenges that Indigenous women face while pursuing entrepreneurship are complex and diverse. Firstly, because they are women, and secondly, they are Indigenous. Therefore, it is vital to use an intersectional perspective when considering their challenges. This point of view emphasizes that human experience is mediated by overlapping and multiple identities (race, gender, age) that collectively affect diverse people in many different ways. It helps us understand how aboriginal women face these challenges more than non-Indigenous women or Indigenous men, allowing us to develop solutions to meet their unique needs.

To make entrepreneurship accessible to the Indigenous women of Canada, the country should:

Benefits of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship offers Aboriginal women many opportunities to enhance their lives by achieving stability and financial independence. We know that entrepreneurship is a challenging role, especially for Indigenous women entrepreneurs, but can improve the socio-economic conditions of individuals and communities as a whole. Today, Aboriginal women are starting businesses at twice the rate of Canadian women.

Aboriginal women view entrepreneurship as a chance to refine their family ' s quality of life and are also likely to pay off their loans compared to men.

Their lives through entrepreneurship benefit the entire community.

Successful women entrepreneurs act as role models. Compared to the workplace, entrepreneurship offers many advantages to Indigenous women.

Since entrepreneurs are bosses of their own, their work schedules are much more flexible.

Entrepreneurs can set their own time and organize work according to their schedule, simplifying work-life balance since family life is often a severe problem for women who bear most of the responsibility for raising their children.

Having control over their own business means choosing the amount of responsibility they want to assume.

Entrepreneurship also gives Indigenous women a sense of satisfaction and the purpose of creating something from scratch. This often allows them to work in a passionate zone, making them much more successful than regular jobs.

Breaking Barriers

While Aboriginal women pursuing entrepreneurship face numerous challenges, one thing that sets them apart is their ability to overcome any obstacles and their inspiring resilience. Therefore, to effectively help Aboriginal women seek entrepreneurship, understanding these barriers are significant.

Lack of Access to Capital for Equity

Since Aboriginal people live totally on reserve, they do not own any property. Thus, they cannot get loans from financial and traditional institutions for the need of collateral. Even with the capital, they still have to put share capital to qualify for a loan. High unemployment rates directly translate to difficulty in raising money for equity, especially for Indigenous women. It' s too difficult for them to save money for equity, ultimately making it invisible to the lenders. Lack of credit is also stated to be a major hindrance for Aboriginal women seeking loans.

Inability to Work Full-Time

Many banks also require borrowers to work full-time, which is impossible for many women due to household responsibilities. As a result, many women are attracted to entrepreneurship since it allows them to work part-time, helping them to balance several other aspects of their lives.

Lack of Education

Lack of education, especially financial literacy, is also a significant obstacle. Aboriginal people are less likely to complete secondary education than other Canadian groups. Since they cannot sketch out a robust business plan or explore a financial institution, it turns out to be highly cumbersome for them to get a loan.

Lack of Confidence

Many Indigenous women are incredibly discouraged by being turned down by banks, causing some of them almost to give up their entrepreneurial spirit (although these women continued to take out loans from Aboriginal financial institutions). Lack of confidence is a big obstacle. This is partly due to a lack of mentors due to the continuing impact of boarding schools on other generations or a robust family support system. Children who are forcibly sent to boarding schools are now parents and often have difficulties raising children without continued nurturing. As a result, some Aboriginal women may feel they do not deserve good results, while others fear success.

Lack of Access to MaleDominated Fields

Two of the major engines of the economy - mining and construction are dominated by men, and women find it hard to penetrate. Thus, entrepreneurship is the only way to make them robust and selfsufficient.

Diversity of Circumstances

Indigenous women in Canada are diverse, and the obstacles they face are very different. Métis women, specifically, face unique challenges. Many programs designed to help Indigenous women are not available to Métis women, and many companies are extending their responsibilities to consult only with Indigenous people, not Métis.

The situation is different with Indigenous women living on and off the reserve. People living on the account can own property that can be used as collateral, but they still face high unemployment rates disproportionately.

Similarly, Aboriginal people residing in isolated rural areas tend to have fewer job opportunities than those living in urban areas, making it difficult to find work to finance a loan. In addition, residing in a remote location makes it difficult for them to access meetings and other programs from downtown. Therefore, any program to help Indigenous women should take these factors into account.

Recommendations

To back Aboriginal women engaging in entrepreneurship, nothing is more essential than launching programs designed explicitly for them. For instance, caring for children through seminars and training makes it more accessible to women with family responsibilities.

The content of the program should address topics related to Indigenous women. This means understanding how the objectives of entrepreneurship differ for women and men and changing the subject accordingly. For example, one program may target small part-time businesses. The other focuses on the types of businesses run by women in general and can provide advice on how to overcome the unique challenges women face when running these types of businesses. Finally, it is essential to showcase successful Aboriginal women entrepreneurs in these workshops or sessions. This demonstrates that participants can be successful and offers entrepreneurs a rewarding opportunity to mentor.

Finding new and stable funding sources is essential to enabling more Aboriginal women to start businesses. One promising practice is to leverage co-financing by linking AFIs with a comprehensive track record of regional engagement and success with major financial institutions seeking to promote sustainable economic development via entrepreneurship.

Wrapping Up

The entrepreneurial spirit of Indigenous women can transform communities. Entrepreneurship enables Indigenous women to gain financial independence and security while increasing the status of others in society. However, enduring obstacles such as lack of fairness, credit, trust and financial understanding are in many cases preventing and hindering Indigenous women from doing business. Placing Indigenous women at the core of any program will help ensure that initiatives reflect the unique needs of these women. As funding is the most pressing issue, we believe the establishment of Canada ' s first dedicated Indigenous Women ' s Entrepreneurship Fund, run by Indigenous women, will be an essential step in ensuring that starting a business should not be out of reach for Indigenous women.

Work Cited

Jakobsh, K., & Boskov, S. (2020). Breaking barriers: A decade of Indigenous women ’ s entrepreneurship in Canada. Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.

https://wekh.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2020/12/Breaking_ Barriers.pdf

How to build a start-up from scratch: Essential steps you need to succeed

Starting a business can be overwhelming, but it’ s not unachievable. All you need is a drive, passion, and determination. So many success stories out there have established a whole empire from scratch. If they can do it, why can ’t you?

All you need is a fool-proof business plan and the right guidance to execute that idea into making it something substantial. Well, there ’ s nothing to stress as this all-in business guide will probably answer all your questions:

1. Come up with a business idea

If you have the zest to start a small business, one of the first things to do is come up with a smacking business idea. First, you need to understand what problem you are hoping to solve that will be appreciated by the people out there. Start by thinking about the fields of interest to you before anything else. Or maybe you want to see a change in the world that no one has thought of yet. There are some things to remember and a few questions to ask before finalizing something: Identify where there is a gap in the market.

Ask yourself - Is my idea good enough to fill the gap?

Is someone else doing the same?

If yes, what can you do better?

2. Write a start-up business plan

So, you have finalized that smacking idea; what’ s next now? Another critical aspect of starting a business has a very sustainable business plan. It’ s almost like a roadmap where you jot down every essential component that you may need to run your business.

Some of the main sections to include in a business plan are:

1.Your Vision Your Mission Your Objective Executive summary Opportunity analysis Sales Marketing Logistics Operations Finance

3. Register your small business

After you have your business plan in place, it’ s time to get started with registering your business. Of course, you can ’t miss this step. Once you ’ ve found a business idea you love, it’ s time to get everything set up. So, you need to register your business with Companies House and HMRC. However, you can register your business under various formats as described below:

Sole trader - This means that you and your company are one entity and you have no partners, etc supporting your operations. Limited company - A limited company is a separate legal entity and you and your company ’ s finances are separate in this case. So, if the company is in debt, you won ’t be held responsible. Partnership - When you start a company with a cofounder, it comes under a partnership. In this case, all partners share everything equally.

4. Legal checklist for small businesses

Now it’ s time for some legal paperwork, another important thing to sort out beforehand. There are numerous things that you need to keep in mind, some of them are listed below:

1.The business structure Regulatory Requirements Health and Safety Rules Insuring Your Business GDPR compliance

2. 3. 4. 5.

5. Raise money for your start-up

You must have realized that running a business requires money and not just a few dollars by this time. We are talking about the capital that many people don ’t have in their bank accounts. But that does not mean they can ’t start a business. There are several routes that you can take from here to raise the capital that you need.

At this point, it’ s essential to understand what kind of funding will suit your business needs the best. You can either take loans which you ’ll need to pay back with a personal guarantee. Or, you can sell shares that will give absolute control of your company to the investors. There are specific government grants that you won ’t need to return. Remember, these processes might take a bit of your time, but in the end, it’ll be worth your while.

6. The Importance of Branding

Branding helps put forth an identity of your brand that the audience can connect with. One of the first aims of a new business is to know who you are – branding is the perfect way to introduce yourself. Your brand will allow you to win potential customers by building and instilling trust through consistency.

7. Digital Marketing

To sell your product and pass through that sales funnel, it’ s important to start marketing your products. Some of the most effective ways are:

Social media marketing Email marketing A website with a user-friendly interface Put out blogs to show how your product is filling some gaps. Flyers and other promotional tactics5.

8. Tech checklist for small businesses

Last but not least, on our list is a checklist of everything tech must incorporate to ensure seamless functioning within your organization. Let’ s take a look:

Customer relationship management: Pipedrive

Online accounting software: FreeAgent, Xero, and QuickBooks

For social media: Buffer

Getting organized: Google Drive and Dropbox

Staying in touch with your teammates: Google Chat, and Microsoft Teams

To Wrap It Up

So, folks, that’ s pretty much it, everything that small business owners need in the very first few months of starting and setting up their businesses. For more information, please subscribe to the CanadianSME Small Business Magazine.

HOW TECHNOLOGY

Can Boost Your Small Business

Running a small business can be one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. The progress made from the initial inception of the business idea to the actual company launch is a successful journey in itself. Long-term accomplishments are, however, significantly more difficult to achieve than short-term ones.

Unfortunately, a large number of small businesses fail. In fact, around 20% of start-ups fail within a year and 50% don ’t make it past five years. These damning statistics show how difficult it is to grow a successful business. For start-ups and newly established small businesses, growth can be one of the most challenging goals to achieve. There are so many hurdles to overcome regularly that survival often becomes the main focus. A common issue for many small businesses is that they don ’t have the staff numbers to take care of routine functions. As a result, owners and managers often spread themselves too thin to the detriment of their business.

While it’ s normal for business owners to put a lot of time and effort into their venture, it’ s essential for them also to realize they can ’t do it all. At some point, they need to seek help, advice, and services from elsewhere. Outsourcing services such as IT., accounting, payroll, and HR is a valuable option for some companies. It allows the owners and management to concentrate on the core functions of the business, thereby maximizing opportunities for success.

In today

’ s digital era, people are constantly engaged by one form of technology or the other. Technological advancements influence all industries. Companies of all sizes must embrace technology to thrive in modern business.

1. Utilizing data

The majority of businesses today have a website and multiple social media channels. From their online presence alone, companies can generate a massive amount of data. Even with limited analysis, valuable insights and information can be gained. Upon indepth analysis, even more, excellent knowledge about customers, interests, and spending habits can be uncovered.

Set clear goals relating to the growth of your business and your online performance. Outline key metrics to track your progress. Conduct regular analysis using your website and social media channels and use the data generated to drive decision-making .

2. Prepare your business for ecommerce The online marketplace is constantly expanding. More and more people are purchasing online, and this trend looks set to continue. It’ s estimated that by 2040, 95% of all transactions will be facilitated by ecommerce.

By preparing your business for e-commerce, you are preparing for the future. Whether your company offers a service or you sell a product, put a plan in place to build an online store. By opening up your business to the online marketplace, you effectively reduce the limitations of your marketing approach and increase the potential of targeting customers worldwide.

3. Communication is key

Although we are witnessing a shift to conducting business online, people still value companies with a human element to their operations. Technology should be used as part of a comprehensive communications strategy but should not be the only approach to customer engagement. Direct conversations are the most effective form of communication. You should consider installing a phone line for your business if you don ’t already have one. Here ’ s how to get a small business phone system, gain a reliable and trustworthy phone number and open up communication lines with customers.

You should also encourage communication via social media channels. This has become one of the most important customer service delivery approaches in recent years. Building an e-mail list to regularly update customers is another powerful method of communication.

4. Digital management

Management tools and project management software can help your team interact in real-time. However, there are many more advantages to digital management tools, particularly when it comes to managing large teams.

Digital management tools can be used to manage and store files, invoices, and account information. Employees can also use computer-based tools for accessing and sharing business-related documents.

5. Advertising

Targeted advertising is a must for modern businesses. One of the most effective advertising techniques for a small business is social media.

Through research and analysis, you should establish a transparent target market. This target audience should be broken down into specific segments targeted via paid advertisements. Create adverts to suit each component and launch a digital advertising campaign. It’ s also important to outline KPIs to determine the effectiveness of your campaign. Finally, monitor the progress, analyze the results, and use the information gained for future campaigns.

6. The mobile audience is the future

Mobile has surpassed desktops when it comes to website traffic. Your website, social media, and digital advertising strategy should be optimized for mobile users.

We are beginning to see increased numbers of transactions from mobile devices too. Don ’t make the mistake of ignoring this segment of the marketplace and ensure that you plan and target the mobile audience.

7. Improved security

With such a reliance on internet and digital technology in recent years, there has also been an increase in cybercrime. To many people ’ s surprise, small businesses and start-ups are regularly targeted by hackers. Cybercriminals see smaller companies as easy targets for theft. It’ s vital for small businesses to implement strong security measures. Being trustworthy and reliable when it comes to customer information can be advantageous for your company, so ensure you take all necessary security measures and beware of data breaches.

8. Remote access

Technology has changed the way regular business is conducted. There are no longer standard practices when it comes to business operations. One of the most significant technological changes in recent years is the emergence of remote working.

Due to the availability of communication software, high-speed internet, conference call technologies, and other digital tools, employees can now get their work done remotely. As a result, there is less need for physical presence at meetings or conferences.

This is highly beneficial to small businesses as this means they will require minimal office space, if at all, and can hire employees from anywhere in the world. It reduces costs, increases the bottom line, and boosts the potential for success.