It’s October again, which means that it’s time to celebrate women-owned small businesses! COVID-19 has undeniably put a stress on all small businesses, especially those that are women- and minority-owned (1 in 4 women-owned small businesses that applied for the PPP were rejected, and 54% said they feared they would have to shut their doors due to coronavirus).
As with most things, being a woman – in particular, a woman of color – makes owning and operating a small business exponentially more difficult than it would if you were a man. The odds are simply stacked against us. If you know, you know.
In an attempt to honor that struggle during one of the hardest quarters in the history of the U.S. economy, here are some statistical tidbits to inspire those of us who are pushing through during the time – and perhaps encourage those with buying power to support women-owned small business in their area.
We have numbers
For some background, the US has 12.3 million women-owned businesses, which generate $1.8 trillion a year – amazing! Also, can we talk about how 40% of U.S. businesses are women-owned today, when women were just granted the right to have credit cards in the 1970s?
According to the American Express 2019 State of Women-Owned Businesses, Black women make up for 42% of all net new women-owned businesses – that’s three times their share of the female population!
This year Latina women-owned businesses grew more than 87%. Overall, the number of women entrepreneurs has increased by 114% from 20 years ago.
If women-owned businesses are not a growing sector, I do not know what is.
We lead better
How do women-owned businesses perform compared to those owned by men? Well to start, women boast a 69.5% success rate of crowdfunding for their business, while the rate for men is 61.4%. Private tech companies that are women-led achieve 35% higher ROI. Additionally, women-founded companies in First Round Capital’s portfolio outperformed companies founded by men in 63%. The proof is in the pudding.
We make better bosses
Of course, there are the #GirlBoss nightmare types that none of us want to work for. That goes without saying. However, according to a poll done by the Harvard Business Review, women leaders score higher than men on 84% of the qualities required for successful transformational leadership – specifically, honesty and integrity, resilience, bold leadership, building relationships, championing change, and interacting with the world outside of their businesses. Another poll found that women-run companies cultivate better workplace cultures, and tend to uphold the mission of their company to a higher degree.
My intention is not to make an arbitrary binary of women- and men-owned businesses and which is better. Rather, I aim to examine the reasons why women-owned businesses are receiving less support in loans (around $5,000, to be exact) than their male counterparts when, statistically speaking, women-owned businesses tend to be run more efficiently and are simply better companies. If we know something to be true, why don’t we see more of the federal support these businesses deserve? But against all odds, we’re still killing it.
Happy Women-Owned Small Business Month!
Anaïs DerSimonian is a writer, filmmaker, and educator interested in media, culture and the arts. She is Clark University Alumni with a degree in Culture Studies and Screen Studies. She has produced various documentary and narrative projects, including a profile on an NGO in Yerevan, Armenia that provides micro-loans to cottage industries and entrepreneurs based in rural regions to help create jobs, self-sufficiency, and to stimulate the post-Soviet economy. She is currently based in Boston. Besides filmmaking, Anaïs enjoys reading good fiction and watching sketch and stand-up comedy.
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