Through her own experience, Amanda Munday realized that people who work from home — particularly parents with children — needed a space of their own.

That’s why the east-end Toronto resident is about to launch her new venture, The Workaround, a startup that offers parent-friendly working space. As part of the renovation work, she had to personally paint the office’s walls and vault. The site used to be a bank, she said.

Getting to this point wasn’t without challenges. Munday said when she approached people who could help her get her venture off the ground, she was asked questions she doesn’t believe men have to answer.

“They doubted my ability to pull any of this off because I’m a mother ... I’m surprised by how often people said to me, ‘How are you going to do this with your children?’” Munday said.

“It took a level of convincing (to) funders and my landlord that this business would thrive because I’m a parent, not in spite of it,” she said.

“I don’t waste time at all. I believe parents are way more efficient … because we have to be.”

The business idea came from her own experience of trying to work from home during her two maternity leaves.

In order to get things done without the distraction, the child-care advocate had to do her work early before her children got up and later in the evening once they fell asleep.

Combined with the “child-care desert” on this particular strip of Danforth, east of Pape, she wants to make The Workaround a solution for working parents in the neighbourhood.

The place provides ample working desks and a lounge, meeting rooms, kitchen, stroller-friendly lobby, as well as space for children with kids’ programming from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“We’re not all-day, full-time child care. If you need all-day child care to go to work, we’re not the solution for that,” she said, adding that parents have to stay in the facility with their children and that it also welcomes non-parents.

The space at the corner of Woodbine and Danforth Aves. has been a “magnet” for other businesses in the area to “come in and say hello,” many led by young female entrepreneurs.

Still, she’d like to see more women who want to do their own thing and run their own business.

East York entrepreneur Lisa Bragg said women should “toot their horns” louder.

Bragg is the founder and owner of MediaFace, a content creation company she started 11 years ago in her spare room.

For the second year in a row, she landed a spot on the 500 Growth List of the country’s fastest growing companies as compiled by Canadian Business magazine.

She finds it “sad” that only 18 per cent of the businesses on the list are led by women.

“I know lots of women entrepreneurs who are starting businesses,” she said, noting that the businesses just “haven’t had the maturity levels” to make the list — then sharing her optimism that eventually women would “overtake lists like this.”

“I think Canadians often and maybe women (even more so) — we don’t necessarily want to let people know of our success,” Bragg said.

“I think it’s really critical, especially for women, to let people know that they’re doing awesome things in the world.”

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The recognition from the business community inspires her to go further, given that she had to break through the barriers in the “predominantly male-oriented business” of video production — a main part of her business.

Her advice for those who’d like to start a business is to find mentors.

“I really believe that coaching and mentoring is key to success,” she said, adding it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone in the same field but those “who can point you in the right way and connect you to the right networks.”