International Women’s Day Celebration in Ajax

Last Tuesday over a hundred women came together at the Ajax Council Chambers to celebrate International Women’s Day, an event organized by the Heart of Networking in conjunction with BACD (Business Advisory Centre Durham). The two Durham organizations partnered for the first time ever and invited guest speaker Maria Locker, founder and CEO of Canada’s fastest growing media company for women in business, MOMpreneur Showcase Group Inc, whose presentation that morning was both eye-opening and inspiring and who gave some valuable insight into how women, and especially moms, are the fastest growing force shaping the evolution of the business world. We at Alma Latina were already familiar with Locker’s work, as learning about the organization’s existence inspired one of our articles a few months ago about two LatinAmerican mompreneurs, so it was a special treat to meet and hear the driving force behind this important organization.

Lea la Versión en Español Aqui.

As a form of introduction, Locker told her own journey to becoming a Mompreneur, coming from an entrepreneurial Italian family who owned a bakery. Straying from the family business, she was the only one to eventually become a teacher, only to find herself years later also as an entrepreneur when she started The Mompreneur company, an organization that aims to, as its motto states, Empower Women and Connect Communities. With 20 chapters in Ontario now (something that was beyond her expectations as her 5-year plan was to have only one chapter in the province), Locker found that the need for guidance, information and connection with women (and moms) entrepreneurs was huge.

In her presentation, Locker provided some very interesting statistics: women are the fastest growing entrepreneurial segment of Canadian business and they represent a growing economic force. In the last couple of decades women’s self-employment has expanded almost 50%. Over one million women are self-employed and moms are at the forefront of this trend. There are more than a million women entrepreneurs in Canada who annually contribute in excess of $20 billion to the Canadian economy. Moreover, four out of five businesses are started by women. On the other hand, women are responsible for 83% of all consumer purchasing and make 95% of all household financial decisions.

However, even with those encouraging statistics and the talent, drive and motivation that having more women in business provide, there are still some key struggles women face when making the switch to entrepreneurship. As with any project, limited cash flow is always a challenge and finding grants, funding and economic support becomes the biggest hurdle in the process. For women, and especially moms, time and scheduling are also a big challenge and women must learn and struggle to learn to set priorities. Locker advises women that defining one’s vision is imperative: entrepreneurs need to be clear on their goals and they must always have a plan so they know where it is they want to go.

The key aspect of her talk that morning was to present her five methods for mastering female entrepreneurship: Being resilient is number one in her list, as there are many, many challenges any entrepreneur, but especially mothers, face in the business world and it takes a lot of work, patience and perseverance to reach their goals. Women need to be realistic, says Locker, and be able to set priorities and not try to be perfect all the time.

Another very important factor is to know when to change direction. “You have to fail in order to know and grow,” points out Locker. “There’s no end in sight. The sky’s the limit and there are no boundaries. The road to success is not a nice, straight path.”

Two very important factors are also to have a business plan that will set the tone for what you want to accomplish. This will allow you to know when you want to work; what, who and why you’re working and ultimately the business plan provides you with the guidelines on how you’re going to do this. As for Locker, her priorities have shifted in the last few years (and that’s okay, she says). “I’m in this for me and for all the women that I’ve connected with. My why has changed at this point: I’m doing this for me and to prove that this wasn’t a crazy idea.” All these factors will make it easier to lessen the last method for mastering female entrepreneurship, and that is eliminating the fear of entrepreneurship.

We had a chance to chat with Maria Locker after her presentation was over and we asked about the sacrifices women make when deciding to become entrepreneurs or mompreneurs. “Time, money. You sacrifice your sanity, that’s for sure,” she mentioned. “There are a lot of sacrifices—I mean, you don’t know when you’re going to get paid, right? There’s not a steady paycheque a lot of times because it all goes right back into the business. But I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons for most people and that’s why we have so many entrepreneurs.”

For moms especially, says Locker, there are a lot of motivators to embark on the entrepreneurial world—things such as the high cost of daycare, for instance. “The marketplace is not very accepting of moms who leave the workforce, stay home for a little bit and then go back into it. It’s really hard. So a lot of women are just deciding to do it for themselves.”  More women are helping and supporting one another and Locker credits and attributes this to women’s natural traits of being natural communicators. Networking, she says is very important, and Teresa Shaver, Executive Director of BACD, couldn’t agree more.

“A lot of networking can be done online but really sales are a face to face game,” says Shaver. “It’s where you have eye contact, you have trust, respect and you have people getting to know you and like you. And once you have those, then you have trust and once you have the trust, then you can do business together. Today more than ever we’re so busy—busy on our technology, we’re busy at home. It’s really important to take some time out and think about working on your business and networking is one of the ways to work on your business as opposed to just in your business.”

For women, especially, this is incredibly important, says Shaver. “As women, we wear all these hats, we have all these responsibilities and many times we come last. In the list of priorities of what you have to do every day, we’re last on that list and I think this is an opportunity to put yourself first, to maybe help build a little bit of confidence and to believe in yourself, believe in your dreams and be inspired and motivated to do that.”

The event exceeded the expectations of the two groups that organized it. In her introduction that morning, Marlene Marco of Heart of Networking spoke about how important networking is as a business tool. Networking, says Marco, is about connection, education and finding opportunities for women to help and support one another. It’s important to do social media networking, she pointed out, but it is also important to meet face to face to build strong relationships, to create partnerships and to create projects together. There are many women who have many wonderful skills and talents, but have no idea how to turn those into a profitable career. That’s why networking and learning business skills is extremely beneficial and, in fact, vital for their success.

One Response to “International Women’s Day Celebration in Ajax”

1. Marlene Marco says:

   March 15, 2014 at 8:56 am

   The women of Heart Of Networking are remarkable. It was our pleasure to partner with BACD for this event. Partnerships in business heighten awareness and energy!

   Reply