As an entrepreneur, you can never have enough resources to help you out. In the New York Times, Adriana Gardella writes a short piece, Women and Growing Companies that provides a variety of resources to help out women entrepreneurs who are interested in growing their businesses. Besides the resources listed in the article, continue down through the reader comments and you’ll find other resources of interest.
Being an entrepreneur is a very lonely journey, and getting help, contacts or support from organizations like those mentioned in the article can make the difference between success…and well, that other thing.
Showing posts with label women entrepreneurship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women entrepreneurship. Show all posts
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
SBA and Women Entrepreneurs
From today’s NY Times, and the article S.B.A. Readies Remedy for Bias Against Women in Federal Contracting.
The Small Business Administration on Tuesday unveiled a proposed rule that would finally implement a law intended to increase the share of federal contracts to women-owned firms. The law, originally passed by Congress in 2000, allows federal agencies to set aside contracts for small businesses owned by women in industries that the S.B.A. determines “are underrepresented with respect to Federal procurement contracting.”
According to the S.B.A. (pdf), the agency has found 83 industries (pdf) where women-owned small businesses are “under-represented or substantially under-represented.” In those industries (defined by the North American Industrial Classification System, or NAICS, which comprises 313 broad industrial categories), a federal contract officer can restrict competition for contracts worth less than $3 million, or $5 million for manufacturers, to women-owned firms. Generally speaking, women must control and own at least 51 percent of the company and be United States citizens as well as “economically disadvantaged.” In industries where women are substantially under-represented, however, the S.B.A. can waive the disadvantaged requirement.
“We’re very pleased to see the S.B.A. finally moving,” said Margot Dorfman, chief executive of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, which says it has 500,000 members, mostly small-business owners. “Women own nearly one-third of all businesses in the United States, but we only receive 3 percent of federal contracts.” Or more precisely: not more than 3.4 percent in 2008.
Federal law sets a goal — not a requirement — that 5 percent of all government contracts go to women-owned firms. Last fall, the U.S. Women’s Chamber concluded that the $12 billion difference between the goal and reality in 2008 amounted to the “largest shortfall ever.” The 5 percent goal has never been met since it became law in 1994, which is what prompted Congress to create contract set-asides 10 years ago.
However, by some accounts, the Bush administration had little interest in the law. Ms. Dorfman said that in 2004, then-S.B.A. Administrator Hector Barreto told her that “the S.B.A. had no intention of implementing the program.” (Mr. Barreto, now chairman of the Latino Coalition, a Hispanic small-business advocacy organization, did not return a phone call seeking comment.)
After Mr. Barreto resigned in 2006, his successor, Steven Preston, moved to establish the Women’s Procurement Program, as it was known — but with limitations. For one thing, federal agencies were put in the awkward position of having to individually certify that they had discriminated against women-owned businesses in the past before the program would apply to them. Moreover, the S.B.A.’s proposed rule initially determined that women were under-represented — and set-asides could occur — in just four industries. The Bush administration’s final proposed rule (subsequently withdrawn by the incoming Obama administration) expanded this to 31 industries.
The rule proposed by the Obama administration this week further expands the field to 83 industries, and removes the department-by-department certification. Backers of the program in Congress greeted the S.B.A.’s proposed rule with guarded optimism. “After three Congressional reports, numerous Congressional hearings, two proposed rules, one highly deficient final rule, and nearly a decade of delay, today’s announcement is long overdue,” said Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Small Business Committee, in a statement released by her office. The Democratic chair of the committee, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, described the announcement as “a step in the right direction.”
The Small Business Administration on Tuesday unveiled a proposed rule that would finally implement a law intended to increase the share of federal contracts to women-owned firms. The law, originally passed by Congress in 2000, allows federal agencies to set aside contracts for small businesses owned by women in industries that the S.B.A. determines “are underrepresented with respect to Federal procurement contracting.”
According to the S.B.A. (pdf), the agency has found 83 industries (pdf) where women-owned small businesses are “under-represented or substantially under-represented.” In those industries (defined by the North American Industrial Classification System, or NAICS, which comprises 313 broad industrial categories), a federal contract officer can restrict competition for contracts worth less than $3 million, or $5 million for manufacturers, to women-owned firms. Generally speaking, women must control and own at least 51 percent of the company and be United States citizens as well as “economically disadvantaged.” In industries where women are substantially under-represented, however, the S.B.A. can waive the disadvantaged requirement.
“We’re very pleased to see the S.B.A. finally moving,” said Margot Dorfman, chief executive of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, which says it has 500,000 members, mostly small-business owners. “Women own nearly one-third of all businesses in the United States, but we only receive 3 percent of federal contracts.” Or more precisely: not more than 3.4 percent in 2008.
Federal law sets a goal — not a requirement — that 5 percent of all government contracts go to women-owned firms. Last fall, the U.S. Women’s Chamber concluded that the $12 billion difference between the goal and reality in 2008 amounted to the “largest shortfall ever.” The 5 percent goal has never been met since it became law in 1994, which is what prompted Congress to create contract set-asides 10 years ago.
However, by some accounts, the Bush administration had little interest in the law. Ms. Dorfman said that in 2004, then-S.B.A. Administrator Hector Barreto told her that “the S.B.A. had no intention of implementing the program.” (Mr. Barreto, now chairman of the Latino Coalition, a Hispanic small-business advocacy organization, did not return a phone call seeking comment.)
After Mr. Barreto resigned in 2006, his successor, Steven Preston, moved to establish the Women’s Procurement Program, as it was known — but with limitations. For one thing, federal agencies were put in the awkward position of having to individually certify that they had discriminated against women-owned businesses in the past before the program would apply to them. Moreover, the S.B.A.’s proposed rule initially determined that women were under-represented — and set-asides could occur — in just four industries. The Bush administration’s final proposed rule (subsequently withdrawn by the incoming Obama administration) expanded this to 31 industries.
The rule proposed by the Obama administration this week further expands the field to 83 industries, and removes the department-by-department certification. Backers of the program in Congress greeted the S.B.A.’s proposed rule with guarded optimism. “After three Congressional reports, numerous Congressional hearings, two proposed rules, one highly deficient final rule, and nearly a decade of delay, today’s announcement is long overdue,” said Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Small Business Committee, in a statement released by her office. The Democratic chair of the committee, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, described the announcement as “a step in the right direction.”
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Invisible Entrepreneurs
Joanne Lenweaver, our director of the Women Inspiring the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (WISE) Center, gave me a great article by Nan Langowitz, Associate Professor of Management and the Director and Cofounder, Center for Women's Leadership at Babson College. The article is Myths and Realities of Women Entrepreneurs, and here are the opening two paragraphs:
Quick, think of an entrepreneur! Did you think of Michael Dell or Sam Walton or Ben and Jerry? But what about Anita Roddick (The Body Shop) or Sandy Lerner (Cisco) or Kay Koplovitz (USA Networks)? In three separate studies of women entrepreneurs I’ve conducted over the past few years, we’ve learned a good deal more than what the business press imparts. In a research study completed last year, we studied the coverage of women entrepreneurs in the business press. The most immediate finding was that coverage is extremely low. Indeed, other scholars have coined the phrase "the invisible entrepreneurs" to describe media coverage of women business founders and their companies.
The number of women entrepreneurs is increasing at an extraordinary rate, growing at four times the national pace of business formation between 1997 and 2002. Women owned firms now account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. businesses. But just what do we know about women entrepreneurs, and where do we learn it from? For most business people, what they know about women entrepreneurs tends to be what they learned in business school or what they read in the business press
Right after talking about the article with Joanne, I went through my office to find all of the popular business press publications I could find…and guess what, out of 22 publications, only four had a woman on the cover. As I read through Professor Langowitz’s article, I thought about all the fantastic women entrepreneurs that I know…they are in a variety of fields from time share to air conditioning and heating from the head of an ad agency to the head of a modeling agency and everything in between. I know women who run restaurateurs, manufacturing businesses, technology companies, a company that deals with helping you scrapbook your trip and an awesome woman who runs a company helping plastic surgeons do a better job of marketing their services. If I could find these entrepreneurs, I wonder why the popular press can’t.
Quick, think of an entrepreneur! Did you think of Michael Dell or Sam Walton or Ben and Jerry? But what about Anita Roddick (The Body Shop) or Sandy Lerner (Cisco) or Kay Koplovitz (USA Networks)? In three separate studies of women entrepreneurs I’ve conducted over the past few years, we’ve learned a good deal more than what the business press imparts. In a research study completed last year, we studied the coverage of women entrepreneurs in the business press. The most immediate finding was that coverage is extremely low. Indeed, other scholars have coined the phrase "the invisible entrepreneurs" to describe media coverage of women business founders and their companies.
The number of women entrepreneurs is increasing at an extraordinary rate, growing at four times the national pace of business formation between 1997 and 2002. Women owned firms now account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. businesses. But just what do we know about women entrepreneurs, and where do we learn it from? For most business people, what they know about women entrepreneurs tends to be what they learned in business school or what they read in the business press
Right after talking about the article with Joanne, I went through my office to find all of the popular business press publications I could find…and guess what, out of 22 publications, only four had a woman on the cover. As I read through Professor Langowitz’s article, I thought about all the fantastic women entrepreneurs that I know…they are in a variety of fields from time share to air conditioning and heating from the head of an ad agency to the head of a modeling agency and everything in between. I know women who run restaurateurs, manufacturing businesses, technology companies, a company that deals with helping you scrapbook your trip and an awesome woman who runs a company helping plastic surgeons do a better job of marketing their services. If I could find these entrepreneurs, I wonder why the popular press can’t.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Women Owned Businesses
In case you haven’t heard, the number of women owned businesses are on the rise. The Center for Women’s Business Research released their latest report and as reported in a story by Mickey Meese of the NY Times, the report estimates that “eight million businesses — or 28 percent of all businesses — were owned by women, and that those businesses created or maintained 16 percent of all jobs in a range of industries like business services, personal services, retail, health care, communications and real estate.” Here is the link to the rest of the story, One in Four Businesses Calls the Owner ‘Ma’am’. You might also want to visit the Center’s website for more information on this growing sector of business.
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