Each week, Curious Canberra tackles a question from you, the audience. This one is from Elle Genge of O'Connor, who wanted to know how many small businesses in Canberra are owned by women.

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Elle Genge is a uni student from Canberra who makes a point of shopping locally.

Both of her parents have owned their own business, and now some of her friends are starting to establish their own.

She's seen male friends set up businesses with relative ease, and she wanted to know whether the experience was any different for women.

Elle asked Curious Canberra to find out how many women in the city own small businesses.

"It would be really nice to know how many women are in this sort of situation and the struggles they've gone through to get where they are," she said.

How many?

Finding an exact number was tricky.

A report published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2013 found that there were 6,300 businesses owned by women in the ACT, out of 21,100 businesses.

Percentage wise, women own around 30 per cent of businesses in the territory, which is pretty close to the national average.

The Australian Taxation Office gave me different figures, based on registrations for an Australian Business Number (ABN), which is compulsory for all Australian businesses.

What isn't compulsory is stating your gender, and it's only an option for sole traders.

Current data shows that over 16,000 sole traders in ACT are women, making up 39 per cent of the city's sole traders.

Another report released by the Productivity Commission in 2015, found that "while females have lower rates of business ownership, the number owning their own business has steadily increased over the last decade (BankWest2013)."

Setting up shop in Canberra

Sianne Fitzsimons and Tegan Williams co-own a beauty business in Braddon that started as a pop-up. ( Supplied: Lori Cicchini )

Elle's question went beyond the numbers. Being a Canberra local, she wanted to know whether the size of the city meant there were more or less opportunities for business owners.

Together, we interviewed a range of women about their experiences.

"Being in business for anyone anywhere is extraordinarily hard," Loulou Moxom said.

She co-owns a florist in Braddon with her friend Belinda Whitney, which opened in 2013.

"I don't think being in Canberra makes it any easier but it certainly makes us incredibly proud to see what Canberra is emerging into - it's fun and exciting and it's vibrant."

Sianne Fitzsimons and Tegan Williams started a beauty business in the same suburb 18 months ago, and believe that the city has contributed to their success.

"Canberra's going through such an exciting time for entrepreneurs, for small business so we thought, 'This is a great time just to give it a crack, see how we go,' and the support has been amazing," Sianne said.

For Louise Curtis, who owns a three small businesses that range from gift hamper and chocolate bouquet deliveries to party supplies, the economic make up of the city has been one obstacle.

"We can't sell anything in the lines of business that I'm in into the public service," she said.

"A lot of businesses thrive on government work in Canberra, and we don't get any."

Common challenges

Louise Curtis owns three small businesses and established her first in 2001. ( ABC News: Sonya Gee )

Elle also wanted to understand some of the struggles women face as small business owners.

Amy Nerio runs a communications business and is a co-founder of The Women's Collective, an initiative that grew out of a business mentorship with her then-nanny Georgia King, who had just started her own business.

The pair organised a one-day seminar for Canberra women in business in 2015, which grew into an active social media community on Facebook and Instagram.

From what she's seen on social media and learnt from speaking to small business owners on a daily basis, Amy believes there are two common challenges.

"There is the challenge when you have a family... particularly with small children - child-care and getting back into the workforce after a break."

Louise Curtis agrees, "My biggest struggle in business has been juggling my kids, my family life and running three businesses because it's hard."

"For young women in business it's confidence," Amy said.

"People are good at what they have created a business in but they're not necessarily great at business. If you're in your early twenties, you're going through some huge learning curves of how to actually run a business."

Being a woman in business

Amy Nerio runs her own communications business and a collective for Canberra businesswomen. ( ABC News: Sonya Gee )

We asked everyone we spoke to whether there are any extra challenges that come with being a woman in business, and their answers were mixed.

"I don't think there are any challenges for being a woman in business, but I'm particularly lucky to have her," Loulou Moxom said, referring to her business partner Belinda Whitney.

Louise had a different experience, when dealing with banks.

"I was with a bank for 10 years and I went to them and said, 'I've been offered something else from another bank'. They didn't even bother to try and match it, and they let me walk away."

"They never spoke to me about that... But the two managers of the bank rang my husband and asked him why I was leaving."

"I felt like we'd gone back 50 years when that happened."

For Amy Nerio and her co-founder Georgia King, their online collective was always going to be for women in business.

"When there are more female leaders across the board, internationally as well as Australia, when we have respect for our female leaders politically, in the corporate environment and day-to-day, then we won't need as much help," Amy said.

"Until then, I think it is really important that women support women."

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