SCORE just announced the results of a report on female entrepreneurs. “The Megaphone of Main Street: Women’s Entrepreneurship” features a number of interesting stats on the state of business ownership among women.
SCORE’s Director of Communications Betsy Dougert said in an email to Small Business Trends:
“20,000 small business owners spoke up to share their experiences with us, and the high-level summary is that women-owned businesses are just as successful as men-owned businesses (as measured by business starts, revenue growth, job creation, and number of years in business), despite facing greater financing challenges.”
Women Entrepreneurs Statistics
Here are some of the most interesting insights from the report.
Women Are Slightly More Likely Than Men to Start Businesses
The SCORE report found that 47% of female respondents started businesses within the last year, compared to 44% of male respondents.
Women Are More Likely to Launch Businesses in Healthcare
Specifically, 10% of female respondents launched businesses in the healthcare industry, compared to 5% of male respondents.
Women Are More Likely to Launch Education Businesses
Similarly, 9% of female respondents launched education businesses, compared to 5% of male respondents.
57% of Women Business Owners Expect Their Revenues to Increase in 2018
This suggests that women owned businesses are just about as likely to grow as male owned businesses, in which 59% said they expect revenue growth.
Just 2% of Women Expect Revenues to Decrease by More than 20%
Not many business owners, either male or female, expect their revenues to decrease dramatically in the next year. But women were actually slightly less likely to have this expectation, as 3% of males said they expect a 20% decrease or more in the next year.
13% of Women Owned Companies Have Been in Business More Than 20 Years
Women are starting businesses at a slightly faster rate now, but they don’t have quite as much longevity as male owned businesses just yet, though it’s fairly close. Of male respondents, 17% have been in business for more than 20 years.
27% of Women Owned Businesses Hired Employees Last Year
Women owned businesses are also growing in terms of team members. 27% of them saw their team increase in the last year, compared to 30% of male entrepreneurs.
29% of Female Entrepreneurs Say Their Business Is Expanding Moderately
Among males, 28 percent said their businesses are growing moderately.
5% of Female Entrepreneurs Say Their Business Is Expanding Aggressively
However, male respondents were a bit more likely to say their business is expanding aggressively than female respondents; 7% selected this option.
34% of Female Entrepreneurs Say Their Business Is Struggling
On the other end of the spectrum, just over a third of women said their business is struggling to stay afloat, compared to 33% of males.
62% of Women Entrepreneurs Say Their Business Is Their Primary Income Source
Dougert says, “One interesting finding was that 62% of women entrepreneurs depend on their business as their primary source of income. This challenges old assumption that women entrepreneurs are more likely to run lifestyle businesses that provide supplemental income, as opposed to serving as a primary source of revenue. While this figure is lower than the 69% of male entrepreneurs who reported depending on their business as their primary source of income, it nonetheless suggests that women-owned businesses are much more than casual hobbies.”
Just 25% of Women Seek Financing for Their Business
This is significantly less than the 34% of men who seek funding for their businesses.
Dougert explains, “Financing is a challenge for all entrepreneurs, but our data shows that women are much less likely than men to both seek and obtain financing for their small businesses.”
31% of Women Who Do Seek Funding Are Successful
Men were again more likely than women to be successful in their quest for funding. By contrast, 34% of men who applied said they received their funding request.
59% of Women Would Like Funding for Business Growth
There are plenty of different reasons to seek business funding. But the most prevalent for both women and men was growth. Specifically, 59% of women said they sought out funding to grow their business, compared to 58% of males.
22% of Women Sought Funding to Launch a New Product
The reasons for seeking out funding were fairly consistent among women and men. However, slightly more make entrepreneurs — 26% — said they sought funding to launch a new product.
46% of Women Use Credit Cards for Their Business
While other types of loans tend to be more popular with men than women, nearly half of female respondents said they’ve used credit cards for their business, compared to 39% of males.
11% of Women Used Equity Raised from Investors
However, women were significantly less likely than males to use equity from investors. Specifically, 19% of males said they had taken this route.
Entrepreneurs with a Mentor Are Five Times More Likely to Actually Launch Businesses
Of both female and male entrepreneurs, 10% of those who have access to a mentor actually launch businesses, compared to just 2% of those without access to a mentor.
80% of Entrepreneurs with a Mentor Were Still in Business After a Year
It seems that mentorship can actually help businesses stay afloat for longer, since of those who did not have a mentor, just 75% were still in business after a year.
Female Entrepreneurs Find Both Male and Female Mentors Equally as Helpful
Specifically, 80% of female business owners with a female mentor said their mentor was helpful to them. And 80% of female business owners with a male mentor also said their mentor was helpful to them.
Dougert says, “A particularly surprising finding was that women entrepreneurs do not necessarily have better success in working with female mentors (as opposed to male mentors). Rather, the most successful entrepreneurs work with business mentors who are helpful, respectful and open-minded, and that they accurately assess an entrepreneur’s business situation and provide relevant advice.”
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