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The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) recently released their 2015 Annual Report, 10 Million Strong: The Tipping Point for Women’s Entrepreneurship, detailing last year’s developments, the Council’s accomplishments and their insights and suggestions for the new year. In the email announcing the report’s release, NWBC executive director Amanda Brown states that this is “a time for celebration and reflection, and also a call-to-action for continued–and dare I say greater–investment” as women are starting 1,200 new businesses every day and women-owned businesses have grown to 10 million in number.
Progress
As of 2012, women-owned businesses comprised 36.2 percent of all non-farm businesses, a seven percent increase from 2007. Women-owned firms with employees increased by 143,000 during this same period, they employ nine million people and produce receipts totaling $1.4 trillion. The report affirms that women-owned employer firms are growing at three times the pace of men-owned employer firms and the growth rate of all women-owned companies is nearly four times the rate of men-owned firms.
Carla A. Harris, Chair of the NWBC, delineates the favorable business climate facing female entrepreneurs, “It is a ‘perfect storm’ for women entrepreneurs for a few reasons: historically low interest rates, low inflation, record amounts of cash on corporate balance sheets, re-emergence in corporate investment, increasing number and proportion of women earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and an increased appetite of Generation Xers and millennials for risk and entrepreneurship.”
2015 NWBC Accomplishments:
- The Council, given early access to the Survey of Business Owners dataset, analyzed and synthesized the preliminary findings and published new fact sheets on Women-owned Businesses, Gender Differences in U.S. Businesses, Industry Differences by Gender, Veteran Women-owned Businesses, Asian-American Women-owned Businesses, Black Women-owned Businesses, Hispanic Women-owned Businesses, and White Women-owned Businesses.
- The Council continued to urge the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to begin the collection of data on demand for credit.
- The Council advocated for sole source authority, and other strategies — including modernization of the document repository for certification verification and education about the process, and increased outreach and programming for women business owners.
- The Council hosted an event in collaboration with Comcast Corporation, connecting procurement officials and successful women suppliers.
- Council Members worked to strengthen the coordination of Women’s Business Centers, Small Business Development Centers and other SBA resource partners at the regional and local level.
As women continue effecting change and progress in the American professional arena, their capability as leaders, as well as the consequence of leading organizations like the NWBC, becomes evident. With the new year, the momentum of entrepreneurial women and the encouraging conditions presented above, 2016 is expected to be a tremendous year for American businesswomen. NAWRB is excited to witness these accomplishments and continue our work of helping these entrepreneurs on their way.