WASHINGTON DC – Entrepreneurship among women is booming. The latest evidence comes from two sources: the Center for Women’s Business Research and from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. The reports differ in their final numbers but they do agree on one basic point: women continue to start new businesses at higher rates than the general population.
According the Center?s Key Facts about Women-Owned Business-Overall, there are 7.7 million majority women-owned businesses in the US. This number has grown at a rate of 42 percent over the past five years, while the overall US business start rate has been 24 percent. These firms are expected to generate nearly $1 trillion in revenue during 2006.
SBA?s Office of Advocacy makes somewhat less expansive claims for the overall impact of women owned firms. Their research finds that women own 6.5 million non-farm US firms, accounting for about 28.2 percent of all such firms in the US and 6.5 percent of total US employment.
To access the Center for Women?s Business Research report. Key Facts about Women-Owned Business-2006 Update, click on WomensBusinessResearch.Org
To access the 2006 US Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy Research Report, Women in Business: A Demographic Review of Women?s Business Ownership (No. 280), by Ying Lowrey, click on SBA.Gov
