When entrepreneur Sarah Doyle received her first business loan, she finally started calling herself a chief executive officer.
Doyle, a former communications executive, left the corporate world and founded Coach for Success, a coaching practice aimed at cultivating women leaders and entrepreneurs.
Despite dedicating her career—both in corporate roles and now as an entrepreneur—to advancing women in leadership, she quickly realized how she and many of her peers were reluctant to give themselves the CEO title.
She wasn't only shying away from a title. Like many women entrepreneurs in Canada, Doyle was bootstrapping her business. "When you’re self-funded, you always feels like you’re one misstep away from losing a lot of personal assets and investments," she said.
She knew small business owners could access external funding, but self-selected out from pursuing these opportunities.
According to research from the Ted Rogers School of Management and the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub and TD Women in Enterprise, Doyle is not alone. Women entrepreneurs in Canada are resourceful, with 84% surveyed funding their businesses through personal savings, credit cards or family support.
But they don't need to go at it alone.
More than 40% of women business owners in Canada surveyed don't seek financing because they feel they don't need it and almost 20% avoid it because they fear rejection. By self-selecting out of external financing opportunities, women entrepreneurs might be leaving opportunities to scale up on the table.
The TD Women in Enterprise (WE) team is trying to change this narrative.
Supporting women-owned and women-led business
Julie Dimitri is the National Manager, Women in Enterprise at TD. She and her team of regional managers and accredited WE bankers work to support women business owners with banking advice, tools and resources they may need to grow.
Dimitri has heard many stories like Doyle's—women entrepreneurs who are reluctant to take on debt or seek external financing sources, often to the detriment of their bold and ambitious business plans. She wants women to know there's no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to financing.
"The Bank will look at different solutions based on where you are in your entrepreneurship journey," she said.
That could mean a traditional business loan or a product like a revolving line of credit, which could give a business owner access to funds only when they need it. A WE banker can help point business owners to the right products and services—from credit solutions to networking and educational events aimed at building community.
“Many business owners often consider their accountant and lawyer to be part of their core team, but we also encourage them to think about their banker," she said. “By working with a WE banker early, we can provide business owners with the advice and information they need for their business to pursue their next steps, which could taking on debt to grow”.
Getting the funding to give business a boost
Doyle's entrepreneurship journey accelerated after she heard Dimitri speak about the power of taking on debt at a conference for women business owners.
She connected with the WE team and learned about different credit solutions. She battled a lot of self-doubt before even stepping into a branch—was she big enough? Profitable enough? She thought, "they're going to laugh me out the door."
When she finally stopped ruling herself out, she realized what external financing could do for her business—and her family because she could start separating her business from her personal assets.
She and her WE banker put together a credit application. It was approved, and it had an immediate effect, particularly on her personal life and self-perception.
"It took this weight off me and my family because it took the burden off my personal finances and assets," she said.
While she acknowledges that external validation shouldn't be everything, it can be important as a business owner, because it helps show your business has legs.
"The bank invested in me and it validated what I was doing. It made me feel legitimate. Getting the funding gave that boost," she said.
Doyle put her funding to work. She’s running a profitable business and has hired contract support to help her expand. Now, three years into her coaching and leadership development practice, she's helped thousands of women grow in their own careers.
And she's just getting started.