Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development

New research indicates that women are leaving the corporate world at twice the rate of men. Many of these women are choosing to go into business for themselves. The Center for Women’s Business Research estimates that there are about 10.1 million privately-held women-owned firms in the United States, accounting for two out of every five businesses in the country. These firms generate $1.9 trillion in annual sales and employ 13 million people nationwide. In 1994, legislation was passed requiring the federal government to award a minimum of 5 percent of its contracts to women-owned businesses, a target that has never been met. There are currently no incentives, government departments or agencies tasked with enforcement and no consequences for failing to meet designated targets. Researchers in our network are working to improve guidelines and compliance to benefit women-run businesses.

Intellectual Property and Women Entrepreneurs

Submitted by asklar on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 11:54pm

The number of women awarded patents has soared over the last several decades far beyond previously reported figures, and the percentage of trademarks granted to women has more than doubled, a new study commissioned by the National Women’s Business Council found.

The study found that women had a higher representation among trademark holders than patent owners; in 2010, 18 percent of all patents granted went to women while 33 percent of all trademarks granted to individuals and sole proprietorships went to women.

[...]

URL:

http://nwbc.gov/research/intelletual-property-women-entrepreneurs

International Women’s Day: The real reason women get fewer patents than men do

Teaser:

Men file far more patents than women do, but women are securing an increasing number of patents and trademarks, according to a recent study by the National Women’s Business Council, a government advisory panel.

Editorial:

From The Washington Post:

In 2010, 22,984 patents were granted to women, a 35 percent jump over the previous year. The increase for men was only 28 percent.

“Overall, women held 18 percent of all patents granted in 2010, compared to the 14 percent they had a decade earlier. In 1990, they earned only 9 percent,” the study found.

Interestingly, the NWBC paper found that the highest rate of increase in the grant of patents to women was in the 1986-1993 period, and the slowest rate was in the 1999-2006 period, during the dot-com bubble.

The picture for trademarks was even better. Women nearly doubled their share of trademarks within a 30-year span.

[...]

Source:

The Washington Post

URL:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-small-business/post/international-womens-day-the-real-reason-women-get-fewer-patents-than-men-do/2012/03/08/gIQAWw1szR_blog.html

Date:

March 11, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The Kauffman Firm Survey Report: Who Are User Entrepreneurs?

Submitted by asklar on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 12:54am

A study released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation shows that "user entrepreneurs" have founded more than 46 percent of innovative startups that have lasted five years or more, even though this group creates only 10.7 percent of U.S. startups overall.

URL:

http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/nearly-half-of-innovative-startups-are-founded-by-user-entrepreneurs.aspx

Gilt Groupe CEO: Make More Noise!

Teaser:

Women now control more than half the spending power in the U.S. So why is venture capital—the engine that powers innovation—so cold to their ideas? A panel of women entrepreneurs addressed the problem at the summit.

Editorial:

From The Daily Beast:

“One of the biggest problems is that there are just no women in the rooms where the decisions are being made,” said Susan Lyne, CEO of Gilt Groupe. “It’s simple calculus," said Lyne, who formerly ran Martha Stewart's OmniLiving Media and is now readying Gilt, a flash sale intenet site, for an IPO. “If you have a room filled with men, the ideas they’re going to want to finance are the ideas that appeal to men.”

Candace Browning, head of global research for Bank of America, called such thinking “completely out of touch with the reality.” A report she recently released advised clients to invest in businesses that harness the purchasing power of the 30- to 39-year-old women and women in the 60-plus age bracket. “That is where the growth really is."

Amanda Steinberg, CEO of DailyWorth, a firm that aims to be a Kiplinger's for women, said she had raised $3 million to finance her efforts, $2 million of which came from women who had never before invested in a start-up.

Source:

The Daily Beast

URL:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/09/gilt-groupe-ceo-susan-lyne-there-are-not-enough-women-in-the-boardroom.html

Date:

March 10, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Catalyzing Growth in the Women-Run Small and Medium Enterprises Sector (SMEs) Evaluating the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:56am

ICRW conducted an evaluation of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative in India to identify early results of the program on women entrepreneurs’ business skills, practices and growth. 10,000 Women, launched in 2008, aims to provide 10,000 women who run small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high-quality business and management skills training. Research shows that these women are often underserved, in terms of access to business or management training and entrepreneurial networks, despite the enormous potential they have to help grow economies in developing countries.

This brief presents a summary of ICRW’s initial evaluation of the India program, which shows how the 10,000 Women program — in combination with a number of other factors — is making a difference in graduates’ businesses and lives.

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/catalyzing-growth-women-run-small-and-medium-enterprises-sector-smes

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

Connectivity: How Mobile Phones, Computers and the Internet Can Catalyze Women's Entrepreneurship India: A Case Study

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 1:50am

This study examines how access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are transforming the economic opportunities available to poor and low-income women in India by promoting their entrepreneurial activity. What types of initiatives support small and medium enterprises for women, and through which ICTs? What factors shape a positive connection between ICTs and women’s business success? What barriers have been lifted and what opportunities realized? What types of impact are ICT-based initiatives having on women, their businesses and beyond? What promising pathways are being shaped, and what channels have yet to be explored?

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/connectivity-how-mobile-phones-computers-and-internet-can-catalyze-womens-entrepreneurs

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

Investing in Female Entrepreneurs: The Impact of Goldman Sachs’ “10,000 Women”

Teaser:

In 2008, Goldman Sachs launched 10,000 Women, a $100 million philanthropic initiative, which at the time, was the largest in Goldman’s history. The goal of the five year program is to provide business and management training to 10,000 underserved female entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Editorial:

From the Council on Foreign Relations:

Four years ago this month, Goldman Sachs invited me to attend the launch of 10,000 Women, a $100 million philanthropic initiative, which at the time, was the largest in Goldman’s history. The goal of the five year program is to provide business and management training to 10,000 underserved female entrepreneurs in developing countries. Why? Goldman’s own research (and that of many others) shows that female education is a driver of macroeconomic growth. Moreover, there was (and still very much is) a stark need to expand access to business education for women in emerging markets. When Goldman launched 10,000 Women, there were only 2,600 women attending MBA programs in all of Africa, a continent of 900 million people. Calestous Juma, a professor of international development at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, has estimated that if African women were given equal access as men to vocational training and technology, the continent’s economy would expand by at least 40 percent.

10,000 Women’s focus is very much on nurturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a sector of the economy with significant economic growth and employment potential. Aninteresting report from the International Finance Corporation notes that while there are roughly “8 to 10 million formal women-owned SMEs in emerging markets (representing 31 to 38 percent of all SMEs in emerging markets), the average growth rate of women’s enterprises is significantly lower than the average growth rate for SMEs run by men.” The report identifies several factors that have hindered the growth of women-owned businesses, including: institutional and regulatory issues, lack of access to finance, relatively low rates of business education, risk aversion, concentration of women’s businesses in slower growth sectors, and the burden of household management responsibilities. 10,000 Women addresses each of these issues, teaching its graduates how to recognize and navigate their legal environment, how better to access loans, prepare business plans geared for higher growth, and juggle a business with their family life. While the program does not provide credit directly, it has formed several public-private partnerships to do so. In Liberia, it is working with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; in Tanzania with the Government of Denmark, CRDB Bank, and the U.S. State Department; in Peru with the Inter-American Development Bank and Mibanco.

[...]

Source:

Council on Foreign Relations

URL:

http://blogs.cfr.org/coleman/2012/03/01/investing-in-female-entrepreneurs-the-impact-of-goldman-sachs-10000-women/

Date:

March 2, 2012

Affiliate:

Q&A: Women entrepreneurs fear failure more than men: study

Teaser:

Reuters asked Donna J. Kelley, a Babson associate professor of entrepreneurship and one of the GEM Women's 2010 report's lead authors, for a bit of insight about U.S. women and small business.

Editorial:

From Reuters:

The 2010 Women's Report examined the attitudes of women in 59 economies.

In 2010, 104 million women representing more than half the world's population and 84 percent of world gross domestic product started and managed new business ventures. Reuters asked Donna J. Kelley, a Babson associate professor of entrepreneurship and one of the report's lead authors, for a bit of insight about U.S. women and small business.

[...]

Source:

Reuters

URL:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-women-entrepreneurs-idUSTRE81127D20120202

Date:

February 4, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Do Women Have a Unique Genome for Startup Success?

Teaser:

What if there’s a method to our madness and our avoidance of funding that is worthy of mining and duplicating? A female genome to startup success?

Editorial:

From Forbes:

This is what start up coach Pemo Theodore of EZBiz and Pitch Perfect wants to know, and what entrepreneur and executive coach Katherine Philips-Kaiser of Get Pitch demonstrates.

“For over a year,” writes Theodore in her recent post,Defining the X Chromosome: The DNA of Women Led Startups:

I have been video interviewing venture capitalists, angel investors and women founders trying to investigate the apparent shortfall in funding for women led technology startups. My goal has been to listen to as many people as I could from both sides of the table, in order to get a diversity of opinions on this controversial subject.

Whilst I have been doing these interviews, many people have said to me that no problem exists and that women can be as easily funded as men if they have a great idea, team, plan and advisors. However the statistics show another story. The percentages of women in technology, female entrepreneurs and female venture capitalists are extremely low compared to men. But the reasons are multifold and complex and cannot be resolved quickly or easily.

Theodore recently teamed up with Startup Genometo help get a critical mass of women to participate in the Startup Genome Compass in order to add the dimension of quantitative data to the discovery of the DNA of women led startups.

[...]

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2012/01/13/do-women-have-a-unique-genome-for-startup-success/

Date:

January 18, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

How Women Are Getting Left Out of the Venture Capital Game

Teaser:

Alisha Ramos, a senior at Harvard University, shares information about her current thesis project: Where Are The Ladies?

Editorial:

From Forbes:

A flurry of articles have been written on the “women and startups” problem. The same issues are brought up again and again, but one issue that hasn’t been given much attention and scrutiny is the significance of the fact that there are practically no female VC’s.

The fact that females are underrepresented in finance is a given, but the venture capital industry specifically is an egregious perpetrator of maintaining a well-balanced gender ratio. Let me provide you with some statistics. Only 2 females were listed on the 2011 Midas List, an annual list of the top tech investors. A quick-and-dirty analysis of the gender ratios of the most active VC firms of 2011 as well as some of the most visible VC firms out there today reveals that almost half of the firms have no female investment professionals within the firm, and the average percentage of females in these firms falls at 8%. [See here for my data.] On top of this is the fact that the most visible investors out there — the Fred Wilsons of the world — are male.

...

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliebradshaw/2012/01/10/how-women-are-getting-left-out-of-the-venture-capital-game/

Date:

January 11, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

GET INVOLVED

What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

NCRW Blog

Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development

Search NCRW