Building Business, Building Community: What We Heard During Small Business Week

Every entrepreneur’s journey looks a little different.

An idea can become a business. A conversation can open the door to a new resource. Knowledge gained through experience can become encouragement for someone taking their own first steps.

Those moments of learning and connection came together on October 21, when YWCA Calgary’s Economic Prosperity team welcomed entrepreneurs, aspiring business owners, community organizations and industry professionals to the Women’s Entrepreneurial Summit, held in recognition of Small Business Week.

Across an afternoon of workshops and conversations, participants explored everything from design thinking and financial wellbeing to women-led innovation, founder experiences and preparing for market. Each session approached entrepreneurship from a different angle, but together they reflected something much bigger: there is no single way to build a business, and no one has to figure it all out on their own.

“A lot of times, in entrepreneurship, it may feel a little lonely, like you’re not really sure what you’re doing or if what you’re doing is right. And there’s so many other people in the same position. Having events like this for in-person connection is so empowering. It just brings people together.”

Mariya Popova | Alberta Women Entrepreneurs

Courney Boyes and Mariya Popova from AWE spoke about the importance of connecting women with the resources that can support their businesses and with one another. They highlighted the value of gathering in person, exchanging knowledge and discovering new connections and resources along the way.

That spirit of shared learning carried throughout the day.

Seeing what’s possible

For entrepreneur and presenter Melrene Saloy-EagleSpeaker, events like YWCA Calgary’s Small Business Week can play an important role in “exposing women to what’s possible.”

That idea could be felt throughout the afternoon.

Participants heard from entrepreneurs who had followed different paths, built businesses around different goals and adapted as they learned more about themselves, their customers and their ideas.

For Melrene, entrepreneurship wasn’t initially something she imagined for herself. Her own experiences eventually led her to discover opportunities to build businesses around work she was passionate about.

Her story reflects something important: sometimes seeing someone else doing something can make it easier to imagine what might be possible for you.

Knowledge creates new possibilities

Ideas need room to develop, and throughout the Women’s Entrepreneurial Summit, practical learning went hand in hand with inspiration.

Participants explored financial wellbeing, customer needs, business models and ways to bring their products and services to market. Just as importantly, the conversations encouraged curiosity, creating space to ask questions, explore new approaches and consider where an idea could go next.

That opportunity to explore new approaches also included the growing role of technology.

For Rana Hyatt, founder of SOLIS, AI represents one way entrepreneurs can turn ideas into solutions with fewer resources. At SOLIS, her team has used AI to develop technology that compares thousands of beauty products and their ingredients, helping people make more informed decisions based on their individual needs.

“AI is giving smaller businesses the ability to solve complex problems that would have once required much larger teams, budgets and resources.”

Rana Hyatt | Founder, SOLIS

Whether exploring emerging technology or rethinking an existing idea, one message from the day brought the conversation back to where innovation starts: understanding the problem you’re trying to solve.

“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”

Rather than becoming attached to one way of doing something, entrepreneurs were encouraged to understand the people they hope to serve and allow those insights to shape what comes next.

The same idea surfaced in conversations with founders who had adjusted their approaches as their businesses evolved. Growth, they demonstrated, does not have to follow one path.

Defining success for yourself

For some entrepreneurs, growth may mean reaching new customers or expanding a team. For someone else, success might mean greater flexibility, meaningful work or creating something that complements other priorities in their life.

Having the freedom to define success also means recognizing that entrepreneurs start from different circumstances. YWCA Calgary’s Economic Prosperity Program Coordinator, Erika Falcon points to access to funding and flexible supports for women balancing business ownership with caregiving and other responsibilities as areas where continued support matters.

A volunteer during the Summit, described entrepreneurship as “freedom, flexibility,” reflecting on how starting her own business as a single mother allowed her to adjust her schedule and tap into her creativity.

Women founders participating in the event shared similar reflections about making thoughtful decisions, adapting their businesses and staying focused on their own aspirations rather than comparing their journey with someone else’s. Their advice was simple: “Stay in your own lane.”

Together, those perspectives offered an empowering reminder: success can be something each entrepreneur defines for themselves.

Building business through community

Just as success looks different for everyone, support can take many forms.

It might be practical information shared by an experienced entrepreneur. It could be a conversation with someone who knows about financing, a connection with another business owner or simply discovering a resource you didn’t know existed.

Bringing people together was at the heart of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Summit.

For YWCA Calgary, supporting women entrepreneurs is also connected to a bigger picture: economic security, equity and opportunity. As Erika Falcon, explains, entrepreneurship can provide opportunities for women to create financial independence, pursue their goals on their own terms and build something of their own.

“When women-owned businesses succeed, the impact goes far beyond the individual founder. It strengthens families, communities and the local economy,” says Erika Falcon, YWCA Calgary’s Economic Prosperity Program Coordinator.

Knowledge was shared, new connections were made and entrepreneurs at different stages of their journeys had opportunities to learn from one another. The Summit highlighted the value of having a community of people, organizations and resources to draw on as ideas grow.

And that brings the story back to something Melrene Saloy-EagleSpeaker shared: “If they uplift women, that women can uplift communities and economies.”

YWCA Calgary’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Summit celebrated the possibilities that emerge when women have opportunities to share knowledge, discover resources and build connections during Small Business Week.

Because building a business isn’t about following one prescribed path. It’s about having the knowledge, confidence, connections and community to create the path that works for you.