Some choose to become entrepreneurs. Others are pushed. No matter, nearly 800,000 women now run small businesses in Canada.
And they love it, according to a CIBC report released earlier this summer. Perhaps no group is enjoying self-employment more than the fastest-growing segment over the past 15 years - the "seniorpreneur," women 55 and older who seem poised to make their mark in the workplace for years to come.
"They've got extensive backgrounds, a lot of skills and life experience, which is huge," says Enise Olding, who teaches workshops for pre-retirees and retirees in British Columbia.
Recently, Olding says she's seen more women in their 50s who want to become entrepreneurs, reflective of the CIBC report.
"They're talented people, but they're also asking, 'What do I do?' They're stuck, partly because they're looking at themselves with the hat on that they wore in their previous job. So they are sort of limited in their views."
Barry Witkin - the founder and CEO of Prime50 Employment Services, a Toronto-based company that matches over-50 workers with employers across Canada - says many women attend his company's workshops. Like Olding and her business partner, Carol Baird-Krul, Witkin is seeing excited, energetic, skilled clients who only need to be pointed in the right direction.
Some want to convert hobbies into a business. Others would like to be consultants of some sort, while many are interested in acquiring a franchise or partnering in a business.
A large segment that experienced long careers (such as teachers and public servants) now enjoys good pensions, flexibility, and a desire to set their own policies and procedures for the first time in 25 or 30 years.
"They've got this time, energy, this purpose and productivity, and they want to stay young," Witkin says.
In the CIBC report, 96 per cent of women entrepreneurs indicated that they had worked as an employee for someone else before starting their own business.
Witkin says workshops such as his help prepare the 50-plus crowd for a whole different world.
"We know that there are people who come from certain backgrounds. They are very structured, they get a paycheque every week and they are very happy with that.
"When we go through the legal implications, the accounting implications, the time spent on marketing and business plans, it's a real eye-opener."
Workshops also help people understand their strengths. While someone may not fit the profile of an entrepreneur, it doesn't mean they can't be one, he says.
As an example, a person who loves to cook may want to open a restaurant. All she (or he) wants to do is cook, but doesn't have the time or the inclination for business.
"They need a partner who may not know how to cook, but does know how to market, run and operate a business. Those two people could be perfect partners. That's one of the things we get them thinking about."
Based on Vancouver Island, Olding and Baird-Krul were both over age 55 when they started their consulting company, D.R. Associates. They say a common failing with older clients is that they don't realize their marketability.
Olding says a recent client, a woman in her mid-50s, is a perfect illustration. She had been teaching English to Japanese students in B.C. and in Japan. But that market is drying up.
The woman didn't realize the interpersonal skills and the etiquette knowledge she had acquired while working with that cultural community, Olding says. She simply saw herself as a teacher in the classroom.
"When we got to the brainstorming, we said to think about people coming over for the 2010 Olympics ... people who are here for a short time and want to know how to move in this society. It sort of opens a person's ideas to their own abilities and the breadth of their own skills."
Generally, the women with whom Olding and Baird-Krul consult started their careers later in life, saw them interrupted to raise children, or gave up jobs to accompany their spouse when business transferred them to a new community.
"Now these women want to continue a career or working experience, not stop. They started later, so now they want to keep going. It's something they enjoy."
It's a sentiment reflected in the CIBC report - Women Entrepreneurs: Leading the Charge.
The report predicts that one million women will operate their own businesses by the end of the decade, led by seniorpreneurs whose annual growth has been four per cent since 1989, double the pace of self-employed men in the same age group.
The report notes that overall, the number of women-run businesses has risen 60 per cent faster than those run by men over the past 15 years. Currently one in two self-employed women are in occupations with above average wages - up from only one-third in 1989.
As of 2004, nearly one in four self-employed women were university-educated, a record high, the report notes. Those levels have led women into more professional occupations such as the natural and applied sciences, and businesses with finance'-related occupations including advertising, consulting and accounting.
The average age of a self-employed woman is 41, similar to that of men. While women, as sole proprietors, are the fastest-growing segment in the Canadian small-business sector, the number of small-business women with employees grew by 40 per cent since 1989.
Across Canada, the highest rates of growth in the number of self-employed women were in British Columbia and Alberta, followed by Ontario.
A key part of the growth in B.C. is the flow of new Canadians - typically they're young and well educated - who initially derive a significant amount of their business revenue from international markets (likely their home country).
In Alberta, women are benefiting from the strong economy, particularly in the oil and gas industry, and that has led to increased opportunities in the services sector.
Ontario is a different story. Third in growth among self-employed women, nearly 30 per cent began their businesses because of "negative employment circumstances," a figure well above the national average.
