Spinning eulogies is what we don't want to do. But somehow talking about women entrepreneurs of the business world often ends up taking that tinge. Why is that so? Is it lack of enterprising talent or simply a case of lack of opportunities?
Well the glass is never half empty, it's all a case of perspective. In a word, the gender quotient of a particular society matters. Its not a War of Genders we want to start here, but begin a positive dialogue for issues that need highlighting.
As a commemorative initiative, recognizing the contribution of women to the fraternity, the National Woman’s Small Business Month in November 2012 was but a small effort to publicly address the challenges that women entrepreneurs face- from gender discrimination at the hands of vendors, employers and investors to the balancing act between the home-office turf they do.
Quoting fancy numbers and stats doesn't really help when it comes to women. It all goes down as a petty gesture after the 'Oohs-n-Ahhs' phish out. To give a real push to enterprising women, the need to be a gender sensitive society besides handing out the much needed logistical tools is what will be a truly stand out move.
Here are some some interesting tidbits and insights about Women Business Enterprises(WBE), listed by American Express Open report that is sure to make us appreciate their role play.
1. The number of women-owned businesses has grown by 54% in the last 15 years, with 8.3 million such enterprises in the United States exclusively.
2. When it comes to employment generation, like all Small Businesses, the share of WBE's is 7.7 million. Taking a top of the head view, its more than McDonald’s, IBM and Walmart's total employment ratio put together. Coming onto some hardcore revenue generation- such enterprises have managed to generate $ 1.3 trillion alone in the past 15 years. This almost matches upto the US public debt owed to the foreign investors like China and Japan ($ 1.1 trillion as of July 2012). That's some economic sarcasm for sure!
3. In terms of sectoral break up, 7 out of 13 most populous industries such as educational services, healthcare, social assistance and entertainment, the growth rates by WBE are extremely high. This should be a sure wake up call for the guys at Capitol Hill to take heed of some shenanigans, that have been nicely brushed under the carpet for so long.
4. Spatially, the American states of Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming and North Dakota while cities like Sacramento, Riverside, San Antonio, Houston, Baltimore and certainly Washington D.C seem to favor WBE's to get going. For every 1 man there are 3 enterprising women venturing out to establish themselves.
What do we take out of all this?
For one, women do not lack an enterprising spirit. The numbers testify to that. The real hard part of the story, according to most women, is to start off their business with sufficient financial back up from investors. Once they begin, there's really no stopping. "Reliability, Responsibility and Multi-tasking" come naturally to women that they carry onto every domain they touch. Despite not being a political interest group per say, organisationally they are coming together to address the common challenges via business mentoring and counselling forums at all levels to create the much needed visibility.
As suggested before, we certainly do not want to do a comparitive act here between who's better and who's not, the idea is to show our support to the score of 'Women of Substance' who concertedly work behind the scenes.
Here's wishing all the women entreprenuers around the globe best of luck for their endeavours.
Do check out this interesting infographic, compiled by the American Express Open and and profiles of successful women entreprenuers.
You can share with us your interesting stories and experiences in the comments section below.
Do follow us on our Facebook page, Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feeds.
Post a Comment