Women's Enterprise Initiative

Women play an important role in the creation and operation of small businesses across Canada, yet they often face barriers and a lack of support. To help remove these barriers, Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) established the Women's Enterprise Initiative (WEI) to assist women entrepreneurs to start, scale up and grow their businesses.

Contact the WEI organization in your province

There is a Women’s Enterprise Initiative organization in each of the four western provinces. These non-profit organizations provide a variety of unique products for women entrepreneurs, including business advisory services, training, networking opportunities, loans and referrals to complementary services. The WEI organizations support women entrepreneurs to take their businesses to the next level!

Find your local WEI organization by selecting the province of your choice.

British Columbia | Alberta | Saskatchewan | Manitoba

 

4 WEIs across Western Canada
Encouraging the growth of women-owned businesses
Providing loans to women entrepreneurs

    PDF | 206 KB

WEI lending is making a difference!

• Employment Growth Rate
  (annual compounded, 2007-2012)
• WEI-assisted firms: 5.7%
• Non-assisted firms: -0.2%

• Sales Growth Rate
  (annual compounded, 2007-2012)
• WEI-assisted firms: 10.6%
• Non-assisted firms: 1.2%

• Business Longevity Rate
  (5-year survival rate)
• WEI-assisted firms: 60.2%
• Non-assisted firms: 45.2%

2015-2016 Pilot Study
Compares the business performance of WEI loan clients between 2007 and 2012 to similarly-sized women-owned incorporated companies in Western Canada, using Statistics Canada's databases.