Platform Aims To Secure Funding For More Female Entrepreneurs
CAMPBELLTON–A new resource to help even the gender gap for entrepreneurs in New Brunswick is picking up momentum.
Leading Lenders is a free online information database, toolkit, and blog for lenders who are innovating and adapting to the needs of New Brunswick’s women entrepreneurs.
“It’s called Leading Lenders because the target audience is lenders across Canada,” said Carole Gignac, project coordinator for New Brunswick.
“We’re trying to increase the awareness of lenders that women entrepreneurs might have different needs or motivations when applying to start up or grow their business. We want women to feel comfortable asking questions.”
To that end, Leading Lenders provides lenders information to start a conversation between entrepreneurs, with nine tools on its websites.
Gignac said lenders can easily access a wealth of information based on studies and research, including infographics, statistics, breakdowns, and easily digestible information.
“It takes away some of the unknowns when women entrepreneurs go to apply for financing. There are a lot of resources for them,” noted Gignac.”
“It will make the process more transparent and make it easier to build relationships so the entrepreneur feels more supported on her journey starting or growing her business. It’s really that relationship that’s really important.”
Citing the fact that 16 percent of Canadian small and medium enterprises – and 17 percent of those in Atlantic Canada – are majority women-owned, Gignac said Leading Lenders’ goal is to “move the needle” on that statistic and “get more women into the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Gignac noted that Leading Lenders is also aimed at encouraging women entrepreneurs to come back if they are not approved for loans, putting themselves in a position where they can get loans approved.
Founded in 2018, Leading Lenders was developed by the Restigouche Community Business Development Corporation with funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
Gignac told Huddle’s she is promoting Leading Lenders, touting the expertise of its National Advisory Committee, a body informed by the knowledge and expertise of Canadian business luminaries like Anne Guimond-Nadeau, associate VP of commercial banking with the National Bank of Canada for Southeast New Brunswick and P.E.I; Katherine Lanteigne, director of Women in Business NB; Annie Nadeau, regional vice president of commercial banking with UNI Business; Cathy Bennett, board member of Business Development Canada (BDC), to name a few.
Guimond-Nadeau, one of the first committee members to get on board with Leading Lenders, told Huddle she finds it encouraging to see the project taking shape.
“We want to see barriers come down and see women entrepreneurs grow in volume right now. This is something that will help women in the future. For myself, as a lender, and a woman in business with a husband in business, I really get to see both sides of the coin,” she said.
Guimond-Nadeau works with Leading Lenders in an advisory capacity, helping with website design.
“Our goal is to break down barriers, increase the volume of women entrepreneurs and increase lending institutions’ awareness of systemic barriers preventing women from accessing business financing,” she said.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].