Women business owners can face difficulties finding funding for smaller ventures, but is that changing on a national scale? American Express OPEN recently released its 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report.
The report, subtitled “A Summary of Important Trends,” takes in information from a nine-year period, from 2007 to 2016. From this, we can see some important statistics related to business growth. This latest effort from the company expanded on previous, similar reports, doubling the number of cities included and taking in a wider time frame to allow for clearer comparisons.
These are some of the highlights:
Ohio one of the top states for women-owned businesses
The Buckeye State made the list of the ten states with the most women-owned businesses of any size, alongside New York, Texas and California. There’s more good news in the report from 2015, which said Ohio had doubled the number of women-owned firms it had between 2002 and 2007 over the following eight years. This is part of the spreading economic clout across the country.
Women-owned companies showing higher revenue
Businesses owned by women seem to have grown their revenue faster than the mean. The report said that the rate of improvement has been “30 percent higher than the national average” since 2007.
“The Buckeye State made the list of the ten states with the most women-owned businesses of any size.”
What’s more, the number of businesses majority-owned by women has also grown recently, reaching 38 percent, and these companies have been responsible for 4 percent of the business revenue since 1996. Women-owned ventures grew by five times as much as that of the national average between 2007 and 2016.
More than 840 businesses launched by minority women owners every day
The exact number is 842, and takes into account figures dating back to 2007. Latina-owned firms made up the majority of these businesses, the source said, with 327, while firms owned by African American women counted for 311.
Of the 3.5 million firms owned by women that have emerged in the last nine years, the report said that 78 percent were owned by women of color.
A different source shows additional statistics supporting the idea of women owned-business communities rising. Vistaprint polled women in the U.S. and U.K. and found that 72 percent of the “micro business” owners believe that there are more opportunities now for them. Among all of the 1,200-plus respondents, 78 percent said they would recommend others to start their own business.
Vistaprint President Trynka Shineman explained the important takeaways from these findings.
“The results of our survey reaffirmed the many benefits achieved by women-owned micro businesses today, but they also underscored the importance of having the proper tools and business support to keep these entrepreneurs ahead of the competition,” she said.
Growth Capital can help women business owners find the capital finance solutions needed to keep their company thriving. Learn more on our homepage and register today.