American Express released its second annual State of Women-Owned Businesses report that provides insights into the state of women-owned businesses in the United States. The study shows that the growth of women-owned businesses has exceeded any other group over the past 15 years — 1.5 times greater than any other business counterpart.
The growth rates are impressive. As American Express reports. “As of 2012, it is estimated that there are more than 8.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States, generating nearly $1.3 trillion in revenue and employing nearly 7.7 million people. The growth in the number (up 54 percent), employment (up 9 percent) and revenues (up 58 percent) of women-owned firms over the past 15 years exceeds the growth rates of all but the largest, publicly-traded firms.”
As you’ll see from the infographic below, however, the news isn’t all good. Women-owned businesses struggle with growth pains at the 5 to 9 employees and $250,000 to $499,999 levels. Nate C. Hindman of The Huffington Post offers an explanation: “Part of the reason women entrepreneurs in particular struggle to expand their businesses may be a dearth of venture capital. Despite owning nearly 30 percent of U.S. businesses, women attract only 5 percent of the nation’s equity capital, a book recently released by the Kauffman Foundation found. And when it came to first-year funding, Kauffman’s data showed, women received 80 percent less capital than men. ”
What do you think? Check out the infographic below and share your opinion in the comments at the end of this article.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 20-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored ten books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics.
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