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Women Business Owners Continue to Thrive

Written by: Gerry Myers

Article Overview: Women Business Owners are impacting the economy as they continue to start twice as many businesses as the overall population.

Women Business Owners Continue to Thrive

Women Business Owners Continue to Thrive
By Gerry Myers

Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men, and have for the past several years. For the last 15 years of the Twentieth Century, the number of women-owned firms increased 103 percent, employment grew at a rate of 320 percent and sales skyrocketed 436 percent. Today, there are 9.1 million women business owners (WBOs) who employ 27.5 million people and generate $3.6 trillion in revenue annually.
Over the last decade, the number of women-owned firms increased two-and-a-half times faster than all U.S. businesses. Employment in women-owned firms grew more than three times the rate for all firms. Payroll in women-owned firms grew at almost twice the rate for all firms. Within a few years, it is projected that women will account for half of all small businesses, as well as a growing number of mega-companies.
Women-owned firms are continuing to diversify into many industries long considered "non-traditional" for women or "male-only" types of businesses. Construction, manufacturing and transportation have experienced the most growth. Based on the number of women-owned firms, number of employees and sales revenues, California, New York, Florida and Texas rank as the top four states for WBOs.
Technology Continues to Play a Major Role in the Growth of Women Owned Businesses
Women business owners’ economic clout and business-related purchases continue to swell. It is estimated that women business owners will spend $33.5 billion this year on telecommunications equipment, enhanced services and Internet access, according to The Insight Research Corporation. By 2005 women business owners, one of the fastest growing segments in the telecommunications customer base, will nearly double their telecommunications purchases.
Did You Know...
Women entrepreneurs' backgrounds are:
Management 25%
Sales 21%
Accounting/finance 18%
Marketing 6%
Engineering/manufacturing 4%
Human Resources 3%
Other 23%
What women like about being entrepreneurs:
Being their own boss 20%
Setting their own hours 17%
Controlling their destiny 17%
Pleasing customers 16%
Having independence 16%
Making decisions 15%
Achieving goals 10%
Sources: Catalyst, National Foundation for Women Business Owners

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Article Tags: 5 million, customer base, economic clout, enhanced services, fastest growing segments, four states, half times, insight research corporation, last decade, new york florida, sales revenues, small businesses, telecommunications equipment, texas rank, trillion, types of businesses, wbos, women business owners, women entrepreneurs, women owned businesses



Related Forum Posts
A ton of Great Women - You might want to profile Teresa Cascioli of LakePort Brewery. She has an amazing story! I met her at at the celebratory luncheon for the Profit/Chatelaine Top 100 Women Business Owners. The Top 100 list is also a great resource for inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs.
New Study - Women prepare better business plans - I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting. [quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women? A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i] What do you guys think?
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Artist vs Biz Owner - I think there is a fine line between "artists" and "business owners". Artists begin with their passion and self expression and try to find a market for it. e.g. I like painting flowers and I think people out there like flowers too so that is what I am going to sell. This is where hard-selling starts and the starving-artist persona. Business Owners (who can be artists too) first find out wants and needs in the market and deliver that. e.g. Ashley may have noticed that MySpace had some real yukky backgrounds and thought I can do better - then filled that need. would love if Ashley were on this site too...
Re: History of Women in Business in the United States - Yes. Women have increasingly made positive economic contributions to society and their position is being recognized more and more as seen on the Forbes List of Executive Women. In general, women can be a bit more practical in their approach as entrepreneurs too.


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