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With Mother’s Day around the corner, it is important to consider mothers and their businesses. Are you aware that in the U.S., more than 1 in 4 families with children under the age of 18 are headed by a single parent, and more than 3 out of 4 single parent families are headed by a female?
The Census Bureau communicates this trenchant fact and affirms that 30.9 percent of families headed by women with no husband present live below the poverty level and of these families, 40.5 percent have children below 18 years of age and 47 percent have children under five years of age.
This lack of financial means sets an unforgiving cycle in motion, as women are forced to find an elusive balance between being there for their families and working to provide. As business owners, mothers living in poverty are immediately poised in a disadvantageous position. Business conditions are unforgiving for women-owned businesses, whether or not they receive sufficient funding, and the Census estimates that 88 percent of women-owned firms fall short of the $100,000 revenue threshold.
Despite these barriers, women have created business success—with 10 million women-owned firms currently generating $1.4 trillion in receipts—but they don’t always possess the means of other entrepreneurs allowing them to clock 15-hour days or function on little to no sleep.
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) recently-released certification website for the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Program helps women-owned businesses save time by filling out applications and certifying online. The SBA also offers online courses on topics from “Understanding Your Customer” to “Establishing Values for Your Business.” Women entrepreneurs can utilize these resources from the comfort of their home, working to grow their business while caring for their families.
In addition to the SBA, more organizations are recognizing the obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs. Today, the Walker’s Legacy Foundation (WLF) announced that with financial support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), they have launched a program to support single mothers of color through entrepreneurship. The program’s work includes “the development of a financial literacy app, cohort structures, mentorship and programming designed to both increase the financial positioning and entrepreneurial readiness of promising low-income single mothers.”
These tools will help enable women to make successes out of their entrepreneurial endeavors and advance out of poverty. This progress will set its own cycle into motion; as these women succeed they will be able to transition into homeownership and cement their achievements, and through the stable lives they create for their families, they will better situate their children for their own success.