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Chances are that you probably know a mompreneur, with 33.8 per cent of small businesses in Canada being solely or partially owned by women. Sage North America and Mompreneurs released today the findings from a recent survey looking into the lifestyles of “mompreneurs,” a term used to identify a female business owner who is actively balancing the role of mom and the role of entrepreneur. Sage, a leading provider of business management software and services to more than 3 million small and midsized businesses in North America, partnered with Mompreneurs® Showcase Group on the survey to better understand business procedures, lifestyles, drive, vision, satisfaction and challenges.
“More women are becoming primary breadwinners, juggling multiple jobs and raising a family,” said Nancy Harris, Sage senior vice president and general manager, Canada. “Mompreneurs do it all. We wanted to understand their challenges and how we can help them to be even more efficient at managing these multiple demands, so they can spend more time on their businesses and with their families.”
Of the women surveyed, 35 per cent work either full or part time in addition to running their own business. The reasons listed for starting their own business are to do what they love (68 per cent), to be their own boss (65 per cent), and to raise their children while being family focused (57 per cent).
With mompreneurs frequently splitting their focus on running their businesses and their households, it’s not unusual that the number-one area of difficulty reported was work/life balance (56 per cent), followed by managing time (53 per cent), stress (35 per cent), and family (31 per cent). However, surprisingly, 22 per cent spend more than 40 hours per week on their business.
Not surprisingly, as master multitaskers, the majority of women surveyed excel at management and identify their business strengths to be dealing with clients (90 per cent) or suppliers (63 per cent) relations, managing sales or marketing (63 per cent), and managing staff (42 per cent).
While many mompreneurs excel at management tasks, financials are a different story. Mompreneurs’ weaknesses are most commonly associated with managing finances (32 per cent) and taxes (40 per cent). Remarkably, 35 per cent of respondents admitted they know enough about tax payments to get by but expressed a need to know more. The same is true when it comes to financial planning for 38 per cent of women.
“Little research on mompreneurs has been done in Canada, and other than making generalizations that they have to balance both their business and family time, it’s been difficult to get a firm understanding of what type of business challenges they face,” said Maria Locker, CEO of Mompreneurs® Showcase Group. “Partnering with Sage on a survey provides invaluable insight into their challenges as a mom and an entrepreneur. In particular is that many mompreneurs aren’t taking advantage of the available tools that will help them be more efficient in managing aspects of their business, which will free up time so they can concentrate on growing their business and raising their families.”
When it comes to how mompreneurs handled accounting or bookkeeping, it is surprising to see that many are still executing these tasks by pen and paper (15 per cent) or with Excel® (26 per cent). Of those who don’t use accounting or bookkeeping software, their biggest complaints include: the amount of time consumed on these activities (49 per cent), insufficient organization (48 per cent), and insufficient tracking (39 per cent). The majority of mompreneurs reported that they take on all aspects of their business, including invoicing/billing (81 per cent), accounting (52 per cent), inventory management (65 per cent), and payroll (37 per cent).
Sage conducted the survey in February 2014 among 404 Mompreneurs® members. The margin of error is +/- 4 per cent with a confidence level of 95 per cent. For the purpose of this survey, a “small business” is defined as a business that employs up to 99 workers, including those with no employees.
See the full findings of the Sage-Mompreneurs® Survey
We provide small and medium-sized organizations with a range of easy-to-use, secure, and efficient business management software and services—from accounting and payroll to enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and payments. Our customers receive continuous advice and support through our global network of local experts to help them solve their business problems, giving them the confidence to achieve their business ambitions. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and entered the FTSE 100 in 1999. Sage has over 6 million customers and more than 12,700 employees in 24 countries covering the UK & Ireland, mainland Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, Asia, and Brazil.
For more information about Sage in North America, please visit the company website at Sage.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, Facebook.com/Sage, and Twitter, Twitter.com/SageNAmerica.
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Yvonne Yuen Sage North America 604-207-3563 Yvonne.Yuen@Sage.com