In its latest infographic, ‘Women in Business: 2007 – 2010’, the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) builds off its previous analysis in the 2012 annual report to track the performance outcomes of approximately 98% of employer establishments identified in the 2007 Survey of Business Owners. Using the data sources available to the Census Bureau, NWBC and the Census Bureau have tracked the expansions and contractions in employment, as well as the closing or sale of businesses, through 2010. This is the most recent government data available on women business owners.
Resource Category: Women
2012 NWBC Annual Report
By all measures 2012 has been a year of opportunity and challenge, both abroad and on our shores. It was a year that brought with it many important issues: uncertainty in the world economy, volatility in financial markets, unrest in multiple areas of the world, a much anticipated election cycle here in the United States, and a potential fiscal cliff that remains daunting for many business owners and entrepreneurs.
For the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC), this environment was one from which to learn, and in which to take a leadership role to help increase the economic participation of women entrepreneurs.
IP and Women Entrepreneurs Part II
This second part to the NWBC research project, Intellectual Property and Women Entrepreneurs, covers the qualitative research from the original report and centers on six focus groups with women entrepreneurs and business women. The focus groups were conducted in different parts of the nation. Two of these focus groups were with women who had successfully obtained a patent or trademark, two were with women who had applied for but did not receive a patent or trademark and the remaining two groups were with women who had never applied for a patent or trademark.
The State of Women-Owned Businesses
American Express OPEN provides stakeholders in the women’s enterprise development community with an up-to-date accounting of the state of women-owned businesses in the United States in 2012, building upon the great interest and success of its inaugural effort in 2011.
IP and Women Entrepreneurs Part I
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.
Impact of the Recession on California’s Women
A report from the California Budget Project on the effect of the Great Recession on Californian women.
Women-Owned Firms in the U.S.
The 2007 data was fully released in June 2011, so the NWBC commissioned a private research company to study this data in-depth. The data was analyzed by different characteristics to further expand the current understanding of women-owned businesses and to search for any interesting or unique findings that bear further study.
Earnings of Female Hispanic Entrepreneurs
Using microdata from the 2001-2009 American Community Surveys, the 2000 U.S. decennial census, and the 2001-2011 Current Population Surveys, this paper analyzes the earnings and employment patterns of Hispanic entrepreneurs in the first decade of the 2000s. In light of this population’s heterogeneity, our analyses also consider gender- and immigrant-related outcomes. The findings indicate a rising presence of Hispanics in the entrepreneurial sector during the 2000s, especially for immigrants. This increase resulted from the overall growth in the Hispanic population in the U.S. as well as from rising self-employment rates within the Hispanic workforce. Analyses of earnings further indicate that the most recent recession offset some (but not all) of the progress Hispanic women had made with respect to reducing their self-employment “penalties” in the decade, but this was not the case for Hispanic men. Moreover, the recession led to higher rates of microentrepreneurship (defined as having fewer than ten employees) among the self-employed, particularly for foreign-born Hispanic women. These findings indicate Hispanic entrepreneurial growth appeared to have a positive impact on job creation in the 2000s, but mostly at the scale of smaller firms, especially near the end of the decade. The paper concludes with a set of policy implications.
Survey of High-Performing Small Businesses
The Gazelle Index is a new national quarterly survey of the current conditions, optimism and future hiring plans of high-performing minority, women and nonminority small firms. Over time, we believe the results will indicate that the views and expectations of small business owners are leading indicators of economic activity. The CEOs of small firms, unlike those of large corporations, are more closely connected to their sales force and as such, are more attuned to turning points in the economy. The Gazelle Index emphasizes businesses owned by minorities and women because they represent 50% of the nation’s 27 million small businesses. In fact, the Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Business Owners found that, between 2002 and 2007, the growth of minority- and women-owned businesses exceeded that of nonminority-owned firms in number, earnings, and employment. Despite their high representation, there is no official market sensitive indicator of the performance of minority and women-owned businesses — and remarkably few indicators of small business activity in general.
Women in Green
On behalf of the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC), Hart Research
conducted two focus groups on August 31, 2011, among 13 self-described
“established” or “aspiring” female entrepreneurs attending the “Women in
Green” Forum in Santa Monica, California. It should be noted that the
findings presented here reflect the fact that nearly all of the participants are
in the early stages of establishing new business ventures. It also is important
to remember that our participants made a conscious choice to attend (and
pay for) the Forum, a fact that may differentiate them significantly from
other entrepreneurs in the green sector (or other sectors).