Women’s Newsletter: Entrepreneurial Explosion
I was recently running through some articles and a phrase caught my attention: Women & Entrepreneurial Explosion. I thought what a cool phrase to research and share.
The phrase reminds me of a piece of information that was given to me and the entire group of women at the most recent Raymond James Women’s Symposium: “The investment advisory industry is 15% women advisors, but when compared to men financial advisors, women advisors are growing their business at a faster pace.” Interesting. So, is that true in other industries? According to the 2017 State of the Women-Owned Businesses Report commissioned by American Express it is true. “Over the past 20 years (1997-2017), the number of women-owned businesses has grown 114% compared to the overall national growth rate of 44% for all businesses.” American Express also states that in January 2017 there was an estimated 11.6 million women-owned business in the US that employ roughly 9 million people and generate more than $1.7 trillion in revenue. And, that was two years ago! This article also says that the employment growth rate over the same time-period is higher at 27% versus 13%.
So, what businesses are women running? According to American Express in 2017 2.8 million of women-owned businesses were in the “other services” category including hair salons, nail salons and pet care business. 1.8 million businesses are in the health care and social assistance field and then 1.5 million businesses are in the professional, scientific and technical services industries. These three categories account for roughly half of all women-owned businesses.
Congratulations to Georgia as being one of the top 10 states where women-owned businesses have most increased their economic clout over the last ten years (1997-2017). What an interesting fact! A few of the other top states are Nevada, District of Columbia, South Dakota and North Dakota.
So, why are women becoming business owners? After researching the web more about women and entrepreneurial explosion I came across some articles from women business owners. The main reasons I see women are starting or running their own business are hours, flexibility, pay gap, a life event and a way to get out of the corporate world. Some women I read about started right out of college and always knew they would own their own business.
I have included my sources below along with the websites I used to put together this newsletter. I encourage you read these articles; they are very inspiring especially the Creative Line article interviewing several women business owners.
Thanks for reading!
Christina Jones
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™
Financial Planner, RJFS
Partner, Windsor Wealth
Any opinions are those of Christina Jones and not necessarily those of Raymond James. The information above has been obtained from sources believed reliable, but not necessarily complete and is not guaranteed.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/business/women-entrepreneur-career.html