|
This week I attended the 8th annual WIPP’s – Women Impacting Public Policy – annual conference. Women business owners from around the country took time away from their firms and families to meet in our nation’s capital to voice their concerns to lawmakers about what it will take to get our economy back on track. Health care costs, access to capital, taxes and procurement opportunities continue to be major concerns for this major constituency group.
What do I mean by major constituency group? Well, ground-breaking new research commissioned and underwritten by the National Women’s Business Council, Center for Women’s Business Research and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. confirms that women business owners are having a major impact on our country’s economy. The numbers are nothing short of incredible. Women-owned firms have an economic impact of $3 trillion that translates into the creation and maintenance of 23 million jobs, 16 percent of all U.S. jobs!
As a woman business owner I am excited to share these are new numbers, based not on Census data, but methodology from the Center for Women’s Business Research to give us a better picture of the power and potential of women in business. Here are a few other new research points on the power of women in business:
· Approximately 8% of the total labor force works directly for a woman-owned firm.
· There are 175 countries with less population than the number women-owned firms employ (directly and indirectly); there are 150 countries with less population than the number of people women-owned firms employ directly!
· If U.S.-based women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 5th largest GDP in the world, trailing closely behind Germany, and ahead of countries including France, United Kingdom and Italy.
· If U.S.-based women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have a greater GDP than Canada, India and Vietnam combined
This new research also reveals the untapped potential of the nation’s women business owners too! Currently 80% of women-owned firms are non-employer companies. Think about it -- with If we could help more women-owned businesses expand and grow to become employer firms, the overall economic impact would grow, possibly exceeding ten trillion dollars! As I network, meet and learn from these dynamic women in business I am encouraged and empowered to help expand this business reality for more women entrepreneurs. And I applaud organizations such as WIPP, the NWBC and the Center for Women’s Business Research for their excellent efforts on behalf of all women enterprises.
|