You would think the news was good: Women-owned businesses appear to be the fastest-growing segment in Connecticut”™s economy, including right here in Fairfield County. In Connecticut there are an estimated 123,259 private women-owned firms, generating more than $26 billion in sales and employing 141,267 people.
According to 2010 census numbers, Connecticut is ranked 17th (66.4 percent) in the growth of firm revenue in the past 14 years. However, the state is ranked 32nd in the United States overall with a 35 percent growth in the number of firms during the same period. Though Connecticut is ranked higher than the national average in terms of revenue, the state”™s percentage of growth is lower than the national average.
“What that says to me is that there are not as many new women-owned firms in the state,” says Julie Weeks, American Express OPEN research advisor. “It looks to me as if the existing firms in the state are more robust than average in terms of economic clout.”
Weeks notes a 17 percent growth in employment in the state compared to only 8 percent nationwide.
“Women who already own businesses in Connecticut are growing them faster than in other states,” she explains.
What does this discrepancy mean? Although they are growing in rates exceeding national averages, women-owned businesses still face the challenge of scalability and sustainability beyond the startup phase.
This is a support role that the Women”™s Business Development Council (WBDC) has been playing since its inception in 1997. WBDC, along with more than 105 other federally funded women”™s business centers (WBCs) in the country, provide the training women need to grow their businesses by offering the business training, education and counseling necessary to help businesses start, grow and succeed for every stage of growth.
In the past year, WBCs have helped more than 100,000 women. Yet Congress funds the WBC program with just $14 million, which as of this writing is in great peril with federal budget cuts looming.
Between 2001 and 2003, a federal investment in WBCs of $36.5 million generated $500 million in gross receipts, nearly a 14-to-1 ratio of business revenues to federal dollars. Moreover, in 2011, according to the most recent data, women helped launch more than 13,000 new businesses, creating more than 35,000 new jobs and are leading firms, which contribute more than $1 billion to the U.S. economy.
Right here in Connecticut, WBDC assisted in the creation of nearly 120 new businesses and helped more than 140 existing businesses with current operations, resulting in the creation of more than 240 new jobs in Connecticut. WBDC clients generated an estimated $40 million in gross revenue. Cleary this is one federal program that is working.
To blindly restrict this essential funding is to overlook that women-owned businesses are essential to all economic development. To overcome the documented gap in Connecticut”™s national standing, resources must continue to be made available to these homegrown businesses. We are fortunate that every member of the Connecticut Congressional delegation supports continued and stable funding for WBCs. With three WBCs in Connecticut and one specifically in Fairfield County, they know that WBCs ultimately improve the overall well being of communities around the state ”“ to say nothing of the country by creating jobs and taxpayers nationwide.
“When you educate a woman, you educate a family,” the World Bank has observed. “An economically secure woman means an economically secure family.”
Women”™s access to entrepreneurial and small-business training is not a women”™s issue ”“ it is an economic issue. This threat of budget cuts to WBCs is the biggest problem that we face in Connecticut and beyond, one that will covertly yet directly impact us all.
Fran Pastore is CEO of the Women”™s Business Development Council in Stamford. She can be reached at fpastore@ctwbdc.org.
