Complaints that bankers are skeptical about women's business savvy or their ability to commit to a business appear to be going the way of the Tyrannosaurus rex and 33 RPM record albums.

An Industry Canada report indicates that female entrepreneurs are slightly more likely to get approved for venture financing than men. Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Financing in Canada reports that 17 per cent of majority-female-owned businesses requested debt financing in 2002, and 82 per cent of those requests were approved. Con- versely, 23 per cent of majority-male-owned businesses requested financing in 2002, and 80 per cent of those requests were approved.

Coast Capital Savings regional manager of business services Bertha Clough stressed that gender plays no role in whether a small business owner will be approved for a loan.

"We look at the individual: their background, education and what they did before they started in their business," she said. "We also do more than discuss financing needs. We help them with advice on how to make a payment to a supplier."

Women entrepreneurs can also take comfort that they are growing as a group far faster than their male counterparts. The 2003 Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs found the number of self-employed women grew eight per cent between 1996 and 2001, compared with a mere 0.6 per cent rise in the number of male entrepreneurs.

That growth translates into 826,000 self-employed women, acc-ording to Stati-stics Canada's 2003 Labour Force Survey, or about one-third of all self-employed Canadians.

Many of those women, such as Line 21 Media Services Ltd. principal Kelly Maxwell, say they have never had trouble getting loans. But then, Maxwell's loans from Prospera Credit Union and Coast Capital Savings were for mortgages and equipment, not to operate or expand her closed-caption-service business.

Her business has also been a success, growing from $95,000 in 1995 revenue to $912,000 in revenue last year.

Other women haven't been as fortunate getting all needs met at traditional lending institutions.

Face the Fu-ture Apropos Cosmetic Artistry Inc. founder Leilani Kopp and her sister Tana McNichol each exhausted a total of about $150,000 in lines of credit with the Cana-dian Imperial Bank of Com-merce and VanCity Credit Union. When they realized that the needed more money to get their Sweet Leilani cosmetic line off the ground, every bank where they sought financing turned them down. They finally found an open door and an additional $50,000 at the Women's Enterprise Society of B.C.

"Like the banks, they want your first born, but at least it was an avenue for us to turn to," said Kopp. "Banks just said, 'you're maxed out. It doesn't matter that you've got new accounts.'"

WESBC CEO Laurel Douglas said her Western Economic Diversification Canada-financed operation looks foremost at potential clients' business plans, not their collateral or assets.

And because women tend to have less business education as a group than men do, WESBC has three female business advisers to provide both a sympathetic ear and a hard-nosed scrutiny to female clients' business plans.

WESBC was founded in 1996 and Douglas said her organization has provided 334 loans worth a total of $6.3 million since 1999.

WESBC advisers' advice helped Kopp and McNichol discover that they should get their products made and packaged in China instead of in Canada because they would save half the cost.

They carefully researched Chinese labs and found some that could make foundation sticks for burn victims using similar formulas to the ones that they had made by Canadian labs, Kopp said.

Kopp's line is now available at 37 Save-On-Foods stores and 16 Pharmasave stores, and they're seeking retailers and angel investors to help them grow their $80,000 annual revenue past the $100,000 threshold.