Women Find Opportunities on Entrepreneurial Path
Report Notes Dramatic Increase in Women-Owned Businesses
BY SUSAN HOWELL TEN EYCK and JEANINE L. JACOBSON
Special to the Business Journal
Entrepreneurship is the mechanism by which the economy takes advantage of wealth-creating opportunities that arise from constant change.
This phenomenon , creating opportunity from change , has been part of the American culture since the 19th century industrial revolution.
Entrepreneurship is responsible for about one-third of the difference between economic growth in the United States and other nations, according to the National Commission on Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs have created some of the 20th century’s most revolutionary industries: the airplane, the heart valve, the helicopter, the high capacity computer, soft contact lenses and prefabricated housing. The United States is among the world’s most entrepreneurial nations.
Americans truly believe they have opportunities to start businesses and live in a culture that respects entrepreneurship as an occupation. American ingenuity continues to create new businesses and jobs at an incredible rate. In the United States about 600,000 to 800,000 businesses are started each year.
More and more women have discovered the opportunities brought about by this entrepreneurial spirit.
UCSD Athena, an organization of executive and entrepreneurial women, has found that the pipeline of women with scientific and technical backgrounds, a business education and management experience has improved dramatically over the last decade, resulting in more women-owned businesses. Other organizations agree.
– Report Finds National Increase in Ownership
According to the recently released report “Women-Owned Businesses in 2002: Trends in the U.S. and the 50 States,” published by the Center for Women’s Business Research (founded as the National Foundation for Women Business Owners), women are making great strides in entrepreneurship:
& #149; Between 1997 and 2002, the center estimates that the number of majority-owned, privately held women-owned firms in the U.S. will have grown by 14 percent (compared with 7 percent nationwide).
& #149; The number of women-owned firms continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms and will stand at 6.2 million in 2002.
& #149; Sales generated by women-owned firms increased by 40 percent nationwide from 1997 to 2002, nearing $1.15 trillion.
& #149; Women-owned firms will employ nearly 9.2 million workers in 2002, up 30 percent from 1997, which reflects a growth rate that is one-and-one half times the national average.
The report also shows that the number of women who own larger businesses has reached a higher level. At present growth rates, there will be 112,700 women-owned businesses with revenues of $1 million or more, and about 8,500 with 100 or more employees in 2002.
There may be greater opportunity for women in different regions of the country. According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, the share of women-owned firms is particularly strong in the West and Northwest. Portland, Ore., leads the category with the greatest share of women-owned firms with almost 35 percent, and the Seattle area has 32.5 percent women-owned businesses. The Sacramento-San Francisco-Oakland corridor is among the top 10 metropolitan areas in the country, ranging from 32.5 percent in Oakland to 30.8 percent in Sacramento and San Francisco.
As women’s influence on business continues to grow, regions such as San Diego need to look at the obstacles for growth of women-owned businesses. What are regions such as Portland and Oakland doing to support women entrepreneurs that the San Diego region is not?
One reason some women-owned businesses fail, regardless of what area of the country they may do business, is lack of capital. Despite the measurable success of women in business throughout the country, a disproportionately small percentage of venture money goes to women-founded businesses.
According to recent statistics, only 5 percent of venture investing went to companies with women CEOs in 1999, 2000 and the first half of 2001. According to the National Commission on Entrepreneurship, the percentage of companies that are funded with women founders also remains small, 6.3 percent in 1999, 7.4 percent in 2000 and 8.5 percent in the first half of 2001.
– Women Building Financing Networks
A study released by the Diana Project this month, which surveyed a group of 150 women who participated in Springboard 2000, an all-female venture capital fair in Silicon Valley and Boston, found female entrepreneurs may experience challenges in raising capital because they are not hooked into the same powerful networks as their male counterparts. However, the report shows that women are instead forming their own networks.
UCSD Athena is a San Diego-based member organization that assists executive and entrepreneurial women to set up these networks in order to achieve their professional and business objectives. Athena also provides mentoring, educational programming and vital resources.
To respond to the growing number of San Diego women in high-tech and biotech starting their own businesses, Athena will be launching a new division called Athena Entrepreneurs. The division’s mission is to provide women who are starting technology companies with a venue for assistance with their business plan and in raising capital. Athena will also facilitate connections to high-caliber entrepreneurs, investors and service providers.
Women will continue to look at business ownership as a way to achieve their personal and professional goals. As more women enter the enterprise arena, they must work to fuse their technical, business and management skills with strong networks, ongoing education and solid support from member organizations such as Athena in order to achieve the American dream of successful entrepreneurship.
Howell Ten Eyck is senior vice president and manager of City National Bank’s San Diego Commercial Banking Center and president of UCSD Athena. Jacobson is the executive director for UCSD Athena.
