Make it count.

The third round of elections in South Australia for 2022 has caused me to think about how women and People with Disability (PwD’s) in business are being represented by our elected officials. Council elections in South Australia are fast approaching and we have the chance to ask what they are planning to do to support women and other marginalised portions of our community that own and operate small businesses in their electorate.

It is worth noting that in Australia, two-thirds of the new businesses started in the last 10 years were started by women (Xero Boss Insights 2021), and the number of women who own their own businesses has grown by 46% in the last 20 years (ABS). Interestingly in 2021, the number of equity funding events that involved start-ups with at least one female founder only went up by one point, to 19%. From 2020 to 2021, the share of total capital invested in start-ups with at least one female founder went down significantly, from 28% to 22%.

Asialink's report, Empowering Women Innovation Leaders in Australia and Southeast Asia: A Regional Blueprint, says that the gap "is expected to grow" because COVID-19 made "pre-existing inequalities" worse, such as the fact that women have always faced more economic and job uncertainty and had to do more unpaid care work. The World Economic Forum currently says it would take 257 years for women to have financial equality around the world.

Estimates predict that in the next ten years, 3.5 million small businesses will be started by people who want to be their own boss. However, this number could go as high as 4.2 million if growth keeps going strong and adequate support is provided to increase the opportunity for success. Sole proprietors remain at the highest risk of business failure. In 2001, only 31% of small business owners were women. Now, 36% of small business owners are women. That’s a lot of voters contributing strongly to the subset of businesses that will add more than $60 billion to the Australian economy each year by 2031 and support up to 1 million jobs, or about 6% of the country's labour market.

Also batting above their average are the 18% of Australians, or 4.4 million voters, who have a disability. The numbers show that People with Disability (PwD) have a much higher rate of self-employment or starting their own business (13.1% vs. 9.2%) [12]. This means that, on average, PwD in Australia are 43% more likely to be self-employed than non-disabled Australians. This backs up similar findings from other countries. Highlighting that this section of our population is also significantly contributing to the $60billion annual contribution to the Australian economy.

No one succeeds in business without a strong team behind them, even solopreneurs need a great network to create success for their business. Women and PwD’s usually have the hardest time getting help: likely they don't have the right connections or need money due to their low-income background or struggle to find appropriate emotional support. They need to be helped along this new path by mentors and sponsors. The support system is often expensive, which makes it hard for women those with lived experience to start their own businesses right away, another consequence of being underrepresented in accessing start-up funding. Fortunately the Entrepreneurship Facilitator program is easily accessible and generously facilitated in South Australia by Wendy at Switch Start Scale.

The City of Charles Sturt council has recognised, acknowledged and embraced the changed face of traditional small business ownership in Australia. Their Western Business Leaders team and Selma Barlow are leading the way in providing accessible services and support to small businesses, not only in their council area but also to others wishing to create networks in business. For PwD looking to start and maintain their small businesses the team at Rapid Enterprise Development are providing invaluable support and training for those with lived experience. Here at Imaginal Coaching, we also provide Business Development Consulting and practical support for those with lived experience that can be funded through your NDIS capacity building funding. Solution focused role models are present in our community.

Can our elected officials continue to ignore women, persons with lived experience, people of cultural difference and Indigenous business owners? Additional to the gender diversity increase in business ownership, the latest wave of entrepreneurs is younger (45 per cent are aged under 35) and more culturally diverse (37 per cent were born overseas). According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, around 12,000-18,000 Australian businesses are Indigenous owned which is 1.8% of our Indigenous population, showing much opportunity for growth and support is possible in this portion of our community.

These are the people in neighborhoods most likely to live in long term poverty, be at increased risk of homelessness and have poor health outcomes as a consequence of their low income. Vulnerable people whose superannuation contributions amount to next to nothing due to their reduced capacity to work, social bias and/or the gender pay gap. Our traditional social support systems are failing many of them. They cannot be shoehorned into a world that is not designed for them. Their participation levels in self-employment strongly suggests they are highly motivated to change their current reality and to contribute positively to their community and their financial security. What could they achieve with appropriate support, funding, and training?

What is appropriate support?

Ask: Nothing about us without us