When it’s approached with clarity and intention, access to capital can unlock growth and possibility. This course helps women entrepreneurs understand how small business lending really works, assess viability, and prepare to work confidently with any lender. Built on 30+ years of WeBC lending experience, it replaces confusion with practical guidance, real‑world examples, and clear decision‑making tools.

Part of the WeBC SMART Programs

Part of our SMART Program series, “Access to Capital” is a self‑paced, on‑demand course designed to help women entrepreneurs access the capital they need to start or grow their business. It provides clarity around lending options and terms, the application process, confirming business viability, and communicating that clearly to lenders.

About the Access to Capital Course

Access to capital can open real opportunities for your business — whether that means launching with confidence, investing in growth, increasing capacity, or preparing for your next stage. For many women entrepreneurs, the goal isn’t just to access financing, but to build a strong, viable business and make informed decisions about when and how capital fits into that journey.

If you’ve ever tried to figure out the lending process on your own, you know how overwhelming it can be. Googling “small business loans” or asking AI often leads to conflicting advice, unclear requirements, and processes that only make sense after you’ve been through them. Different lenders have different criteria, terms vary, and timelines are rarely explained upfront.

This course brings clarity to that complexity. It lays out the small business lending process step by step, using practical tools and real‑world examples to help you understand your options, assess business viability, and clearly communicate your plans to lenders.

Built on more than 30 years of WeBC’s lending experience and insights from thousands of loan applications, this course addresses the most common gaps we see — not a lack of good businesses, but a lack of clarity, evidence, or understanding of lender expectations. Women’s careful approach to money, their desire to plan well and grow sustainably is treated here as a strength, not a barrier.

Whether you’re just starting out, preparing to grow, or deciding if financing is right for you at all, this course helps you move forward with confidence, focus, and a clear path so you can invest your time, energy, and money into a business that can realistically survive and thrive.

This interactive on‑demand course will help you to:

• Understand different types of financing and how they may align with your stage of business
• Assess whether your business is viable and ready for financing
• Recognize what lenders look for when reviewing loan applications
• Strengthen your business plan or growth plan with clear, relevant evidence
• Communicate your business story with clarity and confidence
• Decide when it makes sense to apply — and what to work on if it doesn’t (yet)

This self-paced module is offered in four parts:

• Chapter 1 | Business Financing & How to Reset Your Mindset About Debt
• Chapter 2 – Viability Option A: Startup Focus | Business Viability for Start‑Ups
• Chapter 3 – Viability Option B: Growth Focus | Growth Check for Existing Businesses
• Chapter 4 | Creating a Successful Loan Application

What’s Included

• Access to the Access to Capital Module on our On-Demand Learning Platform
• A step-by-step Business Viability Workbook
• Guidance from a Business Advisor

Chapters Included in the Access to Capital Course

The course is divided into four engaging chapters:

Chapter 1 | Business Financing & How to Reset Your Mindset About Debt

It’s common for business owners to think about repayment before opportunity; to weigh the responsibility of borrowing before imagining what capital could unlock. That instinct reflects a strong sense of responsibility and care for your business, and it’s a valuable starting point. This chapter makes space for both perspectives.

We’ll walk through the real costs and benefits of different financing choices, using practical tools like a cost calculator to compare options side‑by‑side. You’ll look closely at the less visible impacts of self‑funding, credit card use, and personal money, alongside more traditional borrowing, and explore when financing supports your business (and when it doesn’t). Along the way, we’ll share stories of women who have approached borrowing thoughtfully and strategically, based on their business goals and capacity.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to:

• Understand common financing options and when they’re typically used
• Distinguish between good debt and bad debt in a business context
• Compare the true cost of different financing choices, including self‑funding, credit cards, and loans
• Identify types of lenders and what they typically look for when assessing loan applications
• Understand the typical process of applying for financing and what to expect
• Evaluate when financing supports your business, and when it may not be the right fit

Chapter 2 | Viability Option A: Startup Focus | Business Viability for Start‑Ups

This chapter is designed for businesses in the pre-startup or early stages (you’ve been generating revenue for a year or less).

You’ll explore what business viability means from a lender’s perspective and work through a clear viability roadmap that breaks business readiness into manageable sections. This structured approach helps turn uncertainty into clarity, so you’re not carrying unanswered questions or second‑guessing your plans.

Whether you ultimately decide to use your own money or someone else’s, the goal of this chapter is to help you invest in a business that can realistically survive and thrive. By the end of the chapter, you’ll have a stronger foundation, greater confidence in your decisions, and a clearer sense of what your next steps should be.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to:

• Define business viability in practical, measurable terms
• Assess key viability factors such as product‑market fit, financial planning, market research, marketing, and business systems
• Use a simple traffic‑light approach to identify where your business is strong and where more work is needed
• Identify your next steps that can strengthen viability before pursuing financing

Chapter 3 | Viability Option B: Growth Focus | Growth Check for Existing Businesses

This chapter is designed for businesses that are already operating and preparing for their next stage of growth.

If you’ve been in business for a while, you have an important advantage when it comes to accessing financing: you already know your business works. You have real customers, historical revenues and expenses, and a clearer understanding of your margins and capacity.

This chapter helps you turn that experience into a clear Business Growth Plan: a strategic roadmap that outlines where you’ve been, where you’re growing to, and how you’ll get there. A Business Growth Plan builds on your original business plan and focuses on what’s next, using evidence from your actual operations to support your growth goals.

You’ll work through a structured growth‑readiness framework that helps you assess whether your plans are realistic, well‑supported, and ready to share with lenders. Along the way, many business owners find this process reduces stress and uncertainty—replacing vague growth ideas with clarity, confidence, and a focused path forward.

A key strength of this chapter is its use of real‑world examples. You’ll review sample growth plans and common “do’s and don’ts” that reflect what lenders frequently see in applications. You’ll learn how to move beyond showing that you’ve thought about growth, and instead clearly demonstrate, with specific evidence, how your plans will work in practice.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to:

• Understand what lenders look for when assessing growth‑oriented businesses
• Build a clear Business Growth Plan that shows where you’ve been, where you’re growing to, and how you’ll get there
• Use your historical financials, customer data, and operating experience as evidence of viability
• Assess growth readiness using a structured framework that highlights strengths and gaps
• Learn from sample growth plans and real‑world examples of what works (and what doesn’t)
• Strengthen your application by providing specific, relevant evidence rather than general statements or assumptions

Chapter 4 | Creating a Successful Loan Application

This chapter brings everything together. You’ll focus on how to clearly communicate your business story to lenders—connecting your viability, plans, and evidence into a loan application that reflects the reality of your business and where you’re headed next.

You’ll work through what it means to be loan‑ready, using a structured readiness assessment to help you understand your strengths, identify any remaining gaps, and decide whether now is the right time to apply.

This chapter also addresses an important reality of financing: sometimes the answer is “not yet.” You’ll learn what to do if your application is declined, how to interpret lender feedback, and how to regroup productively. In many cases, a decline can be a gift that helps you avoid taking on debt your business isn’t ready to repay and gives you the opportunity to strengthen your plans before moving forward.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll be better prepared not only to submit a strong loan application, but to approach financing as an ongoing relationship with your lender grounded in clarity, readiness, and long‑term success.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to:

• Bring together your business story, viability, and evidence into a clear loan narrative
• Use a loan readiness reflection tool to evaluate whether you’re ready to apply now or should continue preparing
• Understand what lenders look for when reviewing applications and how to communicate that information clearly
• Respond constructively to a declined application and use feedback to strengthen your next steps

Thanks to the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, this course is currently free!

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This program is funded by the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.