One million Canadian women will run their own small business by 2010 according to Women Entrepreneurs: Leading the Charge, a new report from CIBC.

"Canada is now home to more than 800,000 women entrepreneurs and this figure has been growing at an average annual rate of 3.3% since 1989, which is 60% faster than the growth in the number of small businesses run by men during the same period," said Rob Paterson, Senior Vice President, CIBC Small Business Banking. "Western Canada appears to be the preferred location for women entrepreneurs, with B.C. and Alberta showing the highest rates of growth in the number of self-employed women, followed by Ontario."

Women entrepreneurs are seeing income growth. Fifty per cent of women entrepreneurs are in occupations with above average wages, up from just 33% in 1989. Women Entrepreneurs: Leading the Charge identified two main reasons for this income growth. First, women entreprenuers are highly educated, with 24% being university educated. Secondly, women have gravitated to more lucritive professions such as business, finance and the natural and applied sciences.

Women want equal treatment. When asked about the best way the bank could meet the financing needs of the women surveyed, 89% said that they do not want to be treated differently than their male counterparts. Just 22% of those surveyed said that their business is geared to women clientelle.

What are some of the common characteristics of female entrepreneurs in Canada?

• More than 70% are married.
• Nearly 33% have children under the age of 12.
• For 32% the business income is their sole source of income; 40% have a working spouse whose income supplements their business earnings.
• Between 2001-2004 the revenues for firms run by single women grew three times faster than that of their married counterparts.
• Fewer women (38%) than men (55%) believe they earn more money than they would have if they worked for someone else.
• The fastest pace of small business growth among women who are self-employed is in the over 55 age group, with an annual growth rate of around 4% since 1989, double the pace seen among self-employed men in the same age group.
• Twenty-five per cent of Canada's self-employed women were not born in Canada.

The full report, Women Entrepreneurs: Leading the Charge, is available at www.cibc.com/ca/womenentrepreneurs.

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