Originally published in The Canberra Times
By Bruce Billson
More and more women are creating new businesses to find solutions to everyday problems.
About 35 per cent of small businesses are owned or led by women.
This is double the rate in the 1970s.
These enterprising women are sharing their ideas and building businesses from their ingenuity, life experience and willingness to "have a go" despite the barriers they face. And numbers of women- business leaders share with us that being their own boss is the best way to contend with the balancing act of juggling life, livelihoods, family and personal objectives (while not necessarily lightening the load).
The 2021 ABS census revealed that 68 per cent of self-employed females are working part-time, compared to 47 per cent of female employees in the overall workforce who work part-time.
In terms of ongoing active economic contribution across the sexes, 22 per cent of self-employed business owners are aged 60 and over, compared to 9 per cent of employees.
Our on-the-ground discussions with small business owners and preliminary analysis of new datasets indicates that the extent of female entrepreneurship is constantly underestimated. If we can't see people, we can't make or evaluate policy for them.
And more than that, we can't include them in the discussions and consultations about how a policy or its intent may impact, either positively or negatively, on women led businesses.
It is often too easy for policy makers to assume knowledge or believe that data reflects the whole small business picture. At ASBFEO, we know you have to dig deeper and understand that without showcasing the lived experience of women small business owners or having boots-on-the-ground contact with them, we might miss the contributions and valued input from this vital element in the small business ecosystem.
In the ASBFEO survey of women owned and led businesses, we asked respondents to choose their top three barriers from a list that included access to capital, lack of networks/mentorship, other responsibilities outside work, unconscious bias, regulatory barriers/red tape and risk appetite.
And one response to our survey noted "Your list of items WOEFULLY misses the actual issues we face" and this really highlighted for me, the pressures that entrepreneurial women deal with every day.
Where is the question about childcare and employee share ownership, she'd decried. We were keen then, and are keen now, to hear and learn about the real-world, right-now issues for women owned and led businesses.
We know we need to do more to make sure that our voice of advocacy for women owned and led businesses reflects the things that matter the most to them.
A significant frustration for women business leaders is the impact of responsibilities outside of work and how it affects their ability to deliver their business opportunity in a way that reflects their business personality and objectives.
In fact 35 per cent of survey respondents in the ASBFEO survey included "responsibilities outside of work" in their top three barriers.
There were many comments emphasising how better access to support services for the caring responsibilities that these women juggle, is also needed. Being able to have more "headspace" to innovate and invest valuable time and resources into their businesses was called out in many survey comments.
We know that all small businesses can struggle to access finances, but concerningly 38 per cent of women who completed the survey listed access to finance as another of their top three barriers.
Sadly, a small number of survey responses indicated that some women had been told that they needed a male on the application form to be approved.
We have taken some strides since the 1950s but obviously not enough.
It is encouraging to see some financial institutions trying to tailor financing options and services designed specifically for women in business.
Interestingly in the ASBFEO February Small Business Pulse, increasing numbers of all small businesses and start-ups looking to invest in sustainability initiatives were researching alternative funding sources such as crowdfunding and venture capital options.
Making sure that these empowered women who are willing to take risks and back themselves to start a business can access data which reflects their experiences and "sees them" is a priority for my office over the coming 12 months.
We are prioritising our understanding of new datasets to better understand the "true" extent of female entrepreneurs in the small business ecosystem. And we are particularly interested in the data and numbers which tell the female sole trader story.
We will be doing this through the ASBFEO Small Business Pulse and the data portal on our website at www.asbfeo.gov.au. We will continue to share our excellent research and high quality data analysis with federal colleagues to tell the story of what being a woman leading a small business is like, what people are thinking of doing and the decisions they are making is a crucial element of the ASBFEO's work over the next 12 months.
Owning and running a small business can be a wonderful and purposeful journey for women who have a passion for their business and its role in the small business environment.
Successful small businesses are essential to growing our economy and supporting our communities, and we need to do more to show it is a pathway worth taking, particularly for women.