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According to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, 9.1 million women owned business firms in the U.S. This represented 38 percent of all business, employing over 27.5 million people, and generating over 3.6 trillion in sales

London Express reports that women are quickly becoming a franchising force in the United Kingdom.

Females represent roughly 25 percent of the entire franchisees in the U.K. and are at the forefront of the franchise profit growth in 2006, reports the International Franchise Association. They say that women are especially adept at running franchises because of their relationship building, consensus building, and listening skills.

The past three years have seen steady revenue increases from women-owned businesses that do $1 million in sales per year. Despite that success, only 56 percent of those businesses use commercial loans or lines of credit. The owners prefer to use business earnings as their primary source of funding.

Though 48 percent of privately held U.S. businesses are female- owned, only 4 percent of venture-backed companies in the first three quarters of 2004 belonged to women, according to studies from the Center for Women's Business Research.

Though the reasons for that disproportion are not fully understood, several factors: the traditionally male-dominated structures of venture capital networks, the proclivity of women to tap personal networks rather than institutional lenders, the lack of prior preparation for consultations with banks or venture-capital firms and the lack of knowledge about capital opportunities.

Women are much more likely to receive capital from individual investors, at 73 percent, than from institutional investors, at 15 percent, according to the Center for Women's Business Research.

Retailers, especially women who want to contain their business growth to suit their family's needs, should be creative in how they approach the investor's participation.

A recent survey in the UK (2005) by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, predicts that women will hold 60% of the countries wealth by 2025, up from a current total of 48%, attributed mainly to being better educated. They also say that the UK in 2005 has more female millionaires than male below the age of 45.

An estimated 360,000 women are now worth an average of £798,000 each according to UK investment service Brewin Dolphin Wealth Management (06/05), and in Florida, Women-owned companies account for a third of all Florida businesses.

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