By Aynsley Wintrip
Nothing unites a nation like a crisis.
Throw a potential trade war at us and we’ll toss our Canadian civility aside and boo our way through the national anthem of the adversary. We’ll dig out our Canada Day flags from the recesses of our basements to show the world we’re in fight mode. We’ll cancel March Break in Florida and go to Mexico instead. We’ll declare a boycott on American brands and shop Canadian. Take that!
This is well and good, but the patriotic signaling alone won’t make a lick of difference if Trump hammers us with 25% tariffs on everything and our government retaliates.
All businesses will be caught in the crossfire but women-owned businesses and the fearless female warriors at their helm have much to lose. According to Statistics Canada, majority women-owned businesses in Canada make up 19.6% of all private sector businesses in the country (as of Q1 2024). Most of them are in service industries such as retail trade, accommodation, food services and tourism. The rally cry to support Canadian-owned may help in the short term, but are Canadians prepared to change their ways for good?
Emefa Kuadey is a Toronto-based, British-born Ghanaian fashion designer. Chances are, you don’t know her (which is a real shame; you should know about her brand, ISRAELLA KOBLA). She mainly sells her collections of feminine, minimalist clothing to Nordstrom in the US. Part of the reason is the nature of the Canadian consumer.
“Canadians will say they like something, but they need to know if others like it too before they make a purchase. Then, they dwell on price,” says Kuadey. “Americans see something they like, and they buy it, no questions asked.”
Kuadey launched her business in 2019. She’s been in crisis mode from the beginning. “Canadians are good at emergency response,” she says, citing the current shop-Canadian sentiment, the push to support local during covid, or to shop black-owned after the murder of George Floyd. “But when the dust settles, we tend to go back to our old patterns, which isn’t helpful to businesses like mine.”
We interviewed Kuadey and four other Canadian women entrepreneurs for a special issue of Genuinely Stellar on the tariff threats. Each woman cited different challenges on top of the ones they deal with every day, such as lack of advanced manufacturing options in Canada; lack of purchasing power for small enterprises; small local market opportunities; shrinking margins. Add in the prospect of Americans having to pay duty at the door when they buy something from a Canadian brand online and the situation feels hopeless.
We launched Genuinely Stellar, a weekly newsletter, to put a spotlight on women-owned brands because we’ve been there ourselves and understand the challenges. We have a tougher time raising capital than men (only about 4% of venture capital dollars go to women-owned businesses); we’re more likely to have domestic responsibilities on top of our business obligations than our male counterparts; we’re more likely than men to fund our businesses from personal savings; and we quite often launch our businesses as side hustles because we need an income to support our ventures.
Our government boasts support for women entrepreneurs. There are programs, funds, meetups and public-private partnerships, but when push comes to shove, are they really there for us when we need it? Kuadey has tapped government resources in the past, but it’s not easy. “I wish the Canadian fashion industry was taken more seriously,” she says. “I’ve taken advantage of government programs, but it’s really hard to find ones that apply to my business.”
Is it ever. Given that most women-owned businesses are in retail, food, accommodation and tourism, there is nary a mention of support for these types of businesses among government programs. Perusing the website of the government’s “Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy,” established in 2018 to provide resources and supports to women starting businesses, we went down several rabbit holes looking for grants or loans for women in fashion and came up empty handed. Part of the challenge is that the initiative falls under the umbrella of Innovation, Science and Technology. If founders can find an angle to portray their fashion or beauty business as innovative with some tie to technology or science, they may unearth some support. If not, they go it alone. Such is life for women launching lifestyle businesses.
In a time of such uncertainty, one thing is for sure. If anyone is going to fight their way through a trade war, it’s women entrepreneurs. We are feisty, determined and clearly capable of navigating rough seas on our own. We’re not asking for handouts from the government. What we need is an environment where we can succeed, on our own turf.
Consumers have a role to play too. If they seek out smaller, homegrown brands, that put quality, craftsmanship and Canadian ingenuity at the forefront and reward them with their business, we will all be better for it. On that note, Emefa Kuadey will soon open her first ISRAELLA KOBLA boutique in Toronto’s Kensington Market. Visit in person or online. Buy something. Choose quality over quantity. And truly back a woman entrepreneur in your country creating a livelihood for herself and the people she employs.
By Aynsley Wintrip, Co-Founder, Genuinely Stellar: A newsletter supporting Female-Led Businesses
