Jinous Nouri had a hot start to her career, but being burned has proven to be good business for the founder and president of Stick-With-Us Products Inc.

"I married very young," she says from her office in Richmond, "and I bought hot wax to use as a hair-remover product. I did something wrong and burned myself very badly. I knew right then that there had to be another way."

Starting in her own kitchen, Nouri drew from her background in chemistry to come up with a prototype of an all-natural hair-removal product that was kind to the skin. She soon had friends and neighbours clamouring for her chamomile and lemon juice-based products.

At the time, Nouri was living with her husband and young daughter in Iran, but their lives changed dramatically when they were forced to flee the country during the 1979 revolution.

In 1981, Nouri and her family settled in Canada, but although she had been a trained chemist in Iran, she struggled to find a job in her adopted country. She ended up working in a retail boutique where "I was wasting my knowledge," she says, "and I decided right then to put the product I invented on the market."

After more research, Nouri put together a business plan. By the 1990s she felt ready to move forward, but as a recent immigrant she wasn't sure where to turn.

"Someone told me about the Women's Enterprise Society of B.C. (WESBC)," Nouri says. "They were always so kind to me. They helped me know who to talk to and what to ask for and they even tried my products."

With the support of the society - which has recently changed its name to the Women's Enterprise Centre (WEC) - Nouri sought funding to market her line of skin care products. Today, Nouri's Moom All-Natural Beauty products are marketed internationally and she's happy to talk about the role that the centre played in the startup of her company.

According to the centre, 36 per cent of private businesses in British Columbia are owned by women.

And with more than a third of the ownership sewn up across the province, women entrepreneurs are sharing their skills and knowledge this week at a forum in Vancouver.

Nouri will be one of 10 women featured at You Grow Girl, a WEC seminar aimed at female entrepreneurs in the Lower Mainland.

Billed as a landmark networking event for women entrepreneurs, You Grow Girl features speakers including Nouri and other women who have gone through the trials of startup and have managed to steer their businesses to financial success.

The WESBC was founded in Kelowna in 1996.

It began as an initiative of the Western Economic Diversification Canada to manage one of four $5-million funds set up across Western Canada. Second-generation funding in 2000 allowed expansion into Vancouver with a mandate for the WESBC to continue assisting women to establish and grow their businesses in the province, and they are marking their 10th anniversary with the You Grow Girl seminar and other events celebrating women in business.

"This is our 10th year of operation, and in that time, we've generated $7.5 million in loans and a further $8.6 million in leverage, partnering with other sources," says Brenda Tournier, manager of skills development at the newly rebranded WEC.

"Initially, women came to us just to secure financing for their business idea, but over the years we have changed to meet the needs of startup businesses. Now we offer a full range of services to meet those needs."

Today the WEC works to help steer women through the pitfalls of new business startup. From formulating a business plan to seeking financing, training and business advice, the organization has a team in place to address whatever issues arise in the course of starting up a new company.

"In my experience, women do business differently than men," says Tournier. "Women tend to take a more co-operative approach and are more willing to ask for help. I believe that the new push towards strategic alliances in the general business community has come about largely because there are now more women in business than ever before - they like to work together and have a desire to get input and support from their peers."

Tournier adds that WEC has more than 6,500 client contacts, and has made more than 21,000 business counselling appointments with women across the province.

Another success story is being driven by Tracey Axelsson, founder and executive director of the Co-operative Auto Network (CAN), a B.C. car-share co-operative.

"I have less time than patience," says Axelsson, explaining why she is washing her car while being interviewed. But her words also go a long way to describing some of the motivation behind her entrepreneurial spirit.

Axelsson founded CAN in 1997 following a stint working with the not-for-profit Fraser Basin Council.

"At that time I was ready to get rid of my car. I lived in Vancouver and the only time I used it was to drive my grandmother to Costco so she could try out the samples," she says.

"I was looking for a way to do the right thing environmentally, and we'd heard a bit about car-sharing in Germany and Quebec, but there was nothing happening in the English-speaking world at the time - so I decided to start CAN."

She started the company nine years ago with an idea and a single Pontiac Firefly, and today, Axelsson heads a co-operative that boasts more than 2,000 members in the Lower Mainland and a fleet of 112 cars.

Members pay $500 to join and then pay a usage fee every time they want to use a vehicle.

But founding and running a co-operative just fed her desire to try something new. Axelsson now also owns and manages a consignment store for children called Bundles in the west end of Vancouver. "Working in retail taught me a lot about the pitfalls of owning your own business. Like, partnerships - don't do them," she adds with a laugh.

"How hard it is to work in a retail environment, staffing, that sort of thing. It's been a whole different experience from starting the other businesses."

Axelsson will join the other women business owners to share some of the lessons she has learned in both her companies at the seminar.

Web Watch: www.womensenterprise.ca

(Karen Dyer can be reached at karen@businessedge.ca)