Big Wisdom From Small Companies: 10 Women Biz Owners Share Their Keys To Success
Sage Ke’alohilani Quiamno, CEO and co-founder of Future For Us, offers advice for women small business owners.
October is Women’s Small Business Month, and Take The Lead honors the 11.6 million women small business owners in this country who are earning $1.9 trillion in revenue and employing 9.1 million people. Every day 825 women launch small businesses in the United States.
“October is #WomensSmallBusinessMonth, so @Takeleadwomen honors the 11.6 million women small business owners in this country. #womeninbusiness #smallbusiness #womenleaders”
Yes, the numbers tell a story of perseverance and success. One quarter, or 20% of all companies with $1 million in revenue are women-owned, with 39 % of all small businesses owned by women. The fastest growth areas are Florida, Georgia, Texas, Michigan and South Carolina.
The numbers also tell another story, complicated by COVID-19, bias, historic patterns and systems of gender and racial discrimination.
Skewed representation is ongoing. Half, or 52 percent are owned by white women, with 19% of these small businesses owned by Black Women, 17 % by Latinas, 9% by Asian American women and 2% Native American women.
Catherine Berman of CNote writes in Technical, “Consider this: Less than 5% of small business lending goes to women, despite the fact that about 1,800 new women-owned businesses join the United States economy each and every day. That’s roughly $1 for every $23 of lending available to small business owners. Women-owned businesses make up almost a third of all businesses in the country, but they receive just 16% of all conventional small business loans. More so, when low credit risk women-owned companies are approved for a business loan, the amount is roughly 10% lower than the approved loans for a male-owned business. In the world of venture funding, women and mixed-gender founding teams receive just a tiny fraction of the pie.”
Read more in Take The Lead on Catherine Berman
With the Wisdom Fund, Berman is trying to change all that. She writes, “That means not only removing funding barriers but also experimenting with new ways to serve women and minority small business owners. That’s a daunting task, but it’s also an opportunity: to be intentional, innovative and inclusive about how we want our investment products to enable individuals to invest in the future of women.”
“Underrepresented founders learn how to secure the bag, take a business idea and turn it into a profitable venture. It is a mission of redistribution of wealth.”—Mandela SH Dixon, CEO and founder of Founder Gym that since 2018 has helped 400 founders in six continents.
““Underrepresented founders learn how to secure the bag, take a business idea and turn it into a profitable venture.”—@MandelaSH, CEO and founder of @FounderGym. #womeninbusiness #womenleaders”
“Do not give up, keep dreaming. You may create the product that somebody will see and say, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’” —Zeynep Ekemen, the creator of Silver Defender, a stretchable film that protects any and all surfaces from germs and viruses.
““Do not give up, keep dreaming. You may create the product that somebody will see and say, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’” —@Z_ekemen the creator of #SilverDefender. #femaleentrepreneur #womeninbusiness”
“As painful as it is now, the focus is now on meaning. This is a permanent innovative change. There are fewer of these crazy promises and more of the importance of creating real value. These startups are having to clean house, put the right people in place and have real strategy. They have to do something that adds real value to the world, not something fluffy. There is a leveling going on. People are struggling with dire, immediate consequences.” —Jocelyn Kung, CEO of The Kung Group.
““As painful as it is now, the focus is now on meaning. This is a permanent innovative change.”—Jocelyn Kung, CEO of The Kung Group. #startup #womenentrepreneurs #covid19”
“Jump and learn how to fly. You can choose to resist and be in a position of struggle with the unknown or you can become comfortable with uncertainty.”—Sarah Saffari, founder of CEOwned, an online business consultancy.
““You can choose to resist and be in a position of struggle with the unknown or you can become comfortable with uncertainty.”—Sarah Saffari, founder of CEOwned. #carpethechaos #keytosuccess ”
“As women of color we specialize in degrees of making it work. Maybe our dreams do not have to be deferred because of someone’s lack of courageous leadership. Courageous leaders make decisions based on the bottom line of future generations. I want to make sure no woman of color is left behind.”—Minda Harts, CEO and founder of The Memo.
““As #WOC we specialize in degrees of making it work. Maybe our dreams do not have to be deferred because of someone’s lack of courageous #leadership.”—@MindaHarts, CEO and founder of @Myweeklymemo.”
“I was usually the only woman in the room and the only woman in the deal. I was nervous and felt the pressure as the only one. English is not my first language so I was not comfortable. Now I see it as an opportunity.” —Amy Yu, co-founder of Chicago-based Antlia Systems.
““I was usually the only woman in the room and the only woman in the deal. Now I see it as an opportunity.” —Amy Yu, co-founder of Chicago-based Antlia Systems. #womeninbusiness #womenleaders”
“At every place in leadership, I was always the only woman at the table. I was the exception to the rule, I wanted to reach other women to lead transformation and innovation. I bring in my program experiences and my leadership skills to design huge transformation experiences.”— Vidhi Data, founder of Lead with Impact.
““At every place in leadership, I was always the only woman at the table.”— @Vidhidata, founder of Lead with Impact. #womeninleadership #womeninbusiness”
“We’ve accomplished visibility, and shown our resilience, strength, ambition to create a better workplace and society for ourselves by creating solutions together. We are experiencing a crisis as a collective. We want to be visible in this pandemic.”—Sage Ke’alohilani Quiamno, CEO and co-founder of Future For Us, a community platform of more than 10,000 women of color professionals.
““We’ve accomplished #visibility, and shown our resilience, strength, ambition....”—@SageQuiamno, CEO and co-founder of @FutureFor_Us, a community platform of more than 10,000 #WOC professionals.”
“This is our challenge and call to action. The old normal did not work for us. We have to build this new normal. I don’t want us to just survive the pandemic. I want us to come out thriving.”— Aparna Rae, co-founder of Future For Us.
““The old normal did not work for us. We have to build this #newnormal. I don’t want us to just survive the #pandemic. I want us to come out thriving.”— @Appyrae, co-founder of @Futurefor_Us.”
“In a room of guys who are all know-it-alls, you have to be clear, succinct and outrun them. I have done that my entire career.”— Jeannette McClennan, co-founder and CEO of McClennan Masson.
““In a room of guys who are all know-it-alls, you have to be clear, succinct and outrun them. I have done that my entire career.”— @Jjmac199, co-founder and CEO of McClennan Masson. #femaleentrepreneur ”
As COVID-19 continues to take a toll on the revenues and outlook of women small business owners, a Special Report on Women-Owned Small Businesses During COVID-19 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found women are less optimistic about the future, compared to male small business owners.
“A Special Report on Women-Owned Small Businesses During #COVID19 from the @USChamber found #womenbusinessowners are less optimistic about the future than their male counterparts. ”
According to the report, “Before the coronavirus pandemic began 67% of male-owned businesses ranked the overall health of their business as ‘good,’ while fewer (60%) women-owned businesses said the same.”
The report continues, “But by July 2020, 62% of male-owned small businesses said their businesses was ‘good,’ but just 47% (15 points less compared to male-owned) of female-owned businesses ranked the overall health of their business as ‘good.’”
Melissa Thomas, CFO of Groupon, that released a study by OnePoll on how women small business owners are meeting the challenges COVID-19 presents, told the New York Post, “This year, Women’s Small Business Month comes at a time when many women-owned businesses are facing even greater challenges than usual due to the pandemic and they need our help now more than ever.”
