In a 73-page report titled “The State of Women Owned Business,” American Express Open calculated a 71 percent increase in the number of women-owned companies in New York over between 1997 and 2012, ranking the state seventh nationally by that measure.
Georgia led the nation by nearly doubling the number of women-owned businesses over the 15-year period. Among Northeast states, New Jersey had the next best increase after New York, with a 45 percent growth rate, while Connecticut managed a 41 percent increase in women-owned businesses.
Factoring in firm revenue and employment, New York ranked just 24th nationally for the overall clout of its women-owned businesses, with Nevada and Wyoming tops nationally and Connecticut best of its Northeast neighbors at 16th, one slot ahead of New Hampshire.
The report”™s authors said that women-owned businesses appear to generate their biggest “growth pains” at the point where revenue runs between $250,000 and $500,000, or when they have five to 10 employees.
“Those are the points at which firms are more likely to struggle as they put more management systems in place and transition from owner/operator to CEO,” the report stated. “This could indicate that this is the point at which entrepreneurial support organizations could fill a need and render more technical assistance, education, and leadership development support. This is even more important for women-owned firms at this level today than it was 10 years ago, as the ”˜relative growth dip”™ at this stage of business development is steeper now.”
A 2010 study published by the Ewing Marion Kauffmann Foundation said that women are still under-represented among business founders. While women entrepreneurs shared many attributes of their male counterparts, there were some key differences ”“ for instance, more than half of women surveyed were recruited to a company”™s founding team versus less than a third of men; and women were far more likely to view protecting their intellectual property as a business asset.
The report”™s authors said the country has a strong pool of potential high-growth entrepreneurs in the women who now earn nearly half of all doctorates conferred in the United States, yet few are following an entrepreneurial path. By developing programs that support women in creating high-growth businesses, the economic impact could be significant, they said.
Several area resources exist to help business owners find their way to sustainable growth and financing, including the Westport-based Entrepreneurial Women”™s Network, which organizes small “MasterMind” groups of between four to seven women to meet regularly to brainstorm and challenge each other; the Stamford-based Women”™s Business Development Council, which offers workshops and free, walk-in counseling sessions; and the Women”™s Enterprise Development Center in White Plains.
A plethora of national organizations exist as well including Springboard Enterprises in Washington, D.C., and Catalyst and the Women Presidents”™ Organization (WPO), both based in New York City.
“A quick glance at women”™s entrepreneurship statistics can be disheartening,” WPO stated in a July blog. “However, it”™s important to remember that the tides are changing. Women currently earn 60 percent of bachelor”™s and master”™s degrees and the number of women enrolled in MBA programs is five times what it was in the 1970s. These women hold the right tools and knowledge to form and run their own successful businesses.”
