Spotlight on Women-Owned Businesses

With Mother’s Day this weekend, we’ve spent the past week focusing in on women entrepreneurs and business owners. The business world has long been dominated by men but, in the last ten years, women (and moms) have been making remarkable headway filling the chair at the head of the conference table and bringing innovative ideas to life.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, “the number of women-owned [businesses] with $10 million or more in annual sales has increased 57 percent over the past decade.” That’s an encouraging statistic.

Geography also offers some interesting insight into the growth of women-owned businesses. Forbes recently shared some statistics regarding the states with the most women-owned businesses. Coming out ahead, in terms of states with the highest percentage of businesses owned by women, are: Washington DC (34.5%), Maryland (32.6%), New Mexico (31.7%), Hawaii (31%) and Georgia (30.9%). You might be wondering which states have seen the biggest increase in women-owned businesses…in that case: Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Nevada and Mississippi. Georgia and Texas saw the biggest jumps with 117.9% and 98% increases, respectively.

As enthusiastic supporters of the small business community, we’re excited about what the future holds for women who own – or want to own – small businesses. If you’re a woman entrepreneur, remember there are great loans out there with the interests of small businesses in mind. While there’s still room for improvement, we’re optimistic about the outlook for women-owned businesses and excited by the opportunity to play a positive role in further increasing their numbers.