HistoryMost of the following is taken from an article which appeared in Enterprising Women Magazine, Summer 2005, written by Sarah Priestman.
"Women-owned businesses employ more people than the Fortune 500," trumpeted the first major press release from the Center for Women's Business Research in 1992. It was the sound bite heard around the world, and it resulted in headlines across the United States, Germany, China, Japan, and many other European and South American countries. Thus began an 18 year journey to transform the perception of women-owned businesses from small, economically insignificant hobbies, into the reality of substantial, growing contributors to the U.S. economy.
Just three years prior to that release, the Center for Women's Business Research, founded as the National Foundation for Women Business Owners (NFWBO), was created by a group of women entrepreneurs who were frustrated by the common belief that women ran very trivial, immaterial businesses. These women knew that they and many others were running sizeable, emerging businesses; and they realized that if women-owned businesses were to be taken seriously, there needed to be the same kind of serious data about women's entrepreneurship as that which existed for other parts of the economy. The result was a new non-profit research institute dedicated to producing the intelligence that would unleash the economic and social impact of women's entrepreneurship. The organization's beginnings were humble its first "office" tucked away in a corner of founder Gillian Rudd's office suite with a desk, but no chair; a computer, but no printer! Rudd was a visionary whose charisma and ideals brought together women and men entrepreneurs and leading corporate executives to pursue a mission to change the world for women's entrepreneurship.
Rudd, a former national president of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), brought together a group of NAWBO leaders to form the Center. Although the new organization had its own bylaws, Board of Directors, and budget, the mission was consistent with NAWBO's vision and many of its leaders came from NAWBO leadership.
The Center's first study, Women-Owned Businesses: The New Economic Force, forever changed the perception of women-owned businesses and put the organization on the map. Working with the help of David Birch at Cognetics, Inc., the Center expanded the definition of a woman-owned business to include full corporations as well as the sole proprietorships, partnerships and Sub Chapter S corporations, which already were included in the U.S. Census. The goal in doing so was to capture the full impact of women on business ownership and on the economy. Today, the Census data includes full corporations.
"We felt the definition used at that time by the Census Bureau understated the impact of women-owned businesses and limited women's access to credit," remembers Laura Henderson, one of the founding Board members, and founder and CEO of a $17 million health research and communications company. "[The definition] also helped to maintain age-old barriers for women-owned businesses into public and private markets, and undermined efforts to create the legislative policies needed to expand economic opportunities."
From the start, the Center recognized that having the best research in the world could not make a difference unless it was broadly communicated with meaning. So, with the help of volunteer and professional public relations experts, that first report garnered headlines in every major media outlet, including a segment on Good Morning America featuring Henderson and Sharon Hadary, the Center's founding Executive Director.
"When we got off the air," remembers Hadary, "I called the office and they said we were inundated with calls to buy the report. How much were we charging? Well, we had never thought about that so we decided to charge $29.99. Although we thought this was an outrageous price for the publication, we figured it was easier to discount than to increase the price. We sold out!"
The Momentum Continued
Henderson recalls a conversation she had after presenting the research at a Treasury Department banker's conference not long thereafter. She received a call from an attendee who assumed the numbers he'd jotted down during her speech were incorrect.
When she assured him that his figures were accurate, he paused and said, "Do you understand that this data is going to change the way my bank loans money?"
"We started the Center to open people's eyes to the real contribution and potential of women-owned firms," Henderson recalls. "His call convinced me that we were on the right path."
Questioning the Research
"Decisions are driven by hard data," says Hadary, who joined the Center at its inception in 1989 on an interim basis after a successful career at IBM. Rudd, Henderson and Hadary believed that opportunities for women would expand if they could use research to demonstrate the economic viability and strength of women-owned businesses when trying to gain access to technical expertise, capital, and markets.
Today, the Center's corporate partner list includes this nation's most prestigious corporations.
The Center has benefited from a dedicated group of leading women business owners who generously contributed not only their dollars, but also their expertise, contacts, and their companies' resources. Just a list of the chairs of the Board of Directors reads like a who's who in women's entrepreneurship.
(Board chairs: Gillian Rudd, 1989 1992; Laura Henderson, 1992 1995; Susan Peterson, 1996 1997; Lois Haber, 1998 1999; Nina McLemore, 2000 -2001; Myra Hart, 2002 2004; Marjorie Alfus, 2005 2006; Margaret Smith, 2007 2009; Beverly A. Holmes, 2009 - 2011).
Knowledge That Means Business
Since 1992, the Center has used its research to create the environment in which women worldwide fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams. The Center's signature report the biennial update on women's entrepreneurship includes the numbers, employment, revenues, industry distribution, and growth rates for the nation, all 50 states and the top 50 metropolitan areas.
For over a decade, the Center has been the only organization to consistently track access to capital for women business owners. Ten years ago, tracking access to capital meant simply focusing on banking relationships and credit. Nowadays, the Center studies access to equity for women business owners reflecting the maturation of women's entrepreneurship in just that short period.
The Center also is the only organization to provide data and trends on businesses owned by women of color. As part of the signature biennial updates, there is a special report on the numbers, growth, and employment of businesses owned by women of color, segmented by ethnicity. In 2007, the Center launched a landmark study on barriers faced by women business owners of color Accelerating the Growth of Businesses Owned by Women of Color which included policy recommendations for the public and private sectors.
Also included in the Center's rich body of research studies are comparisons of women and men business owners' leadership and decision making styles, uses of technology and capital, benefits offered, philanthropic activity, and access to markets. Recent research focuses on growth and the characteristics of the women business owners whose businesses have achieved high and fast growth, as a role model for women who strive for these same goals. In 2008, the Center unveiled its study of firms generating at least $1 million in annual revenues. By the Numbers is an analysis of data available for the first time which segments the "more than a million" group into meaningful sub-groups, i.e., $1-2 million; $3-5 million, $5-10 million, and so forth. Lessons from the Trenches looks into what women who have built companies into multi-million dollar revenue generators think about what took them to where they are today.
Disseminating the Message
The Center's research findings are disseminated directly to policy makers, financial institutions, corporate decision-makers, women's business advocates and non profits, educators, and most importantly, to women business owners through research alerts, press releases and newsletters.
All research projects also include a comprehensive public relations plan for outreach to the media, in order to build support and awareness for women. The Center's work is often cited in hundreds of media outlets, including The New York Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Redbook Magazine, Worth Magazine, Fast Company Magazine, and on "The NBC Nightly News."
Research in Action
Why is it important even now, 20 years after the Center's first report to continually get the word out? Though research has helped to fuel the tremendous strides that have been made in women's entrepreneurship, barriers to markets and capital still remain. The Center's research means business for women entrepreneurs, for corporations, and for this nation's economy and through the insightful, timely data it publishes about women-owned firms, the Center helps all women unleash their full economic potential and power. Through the data and statistics, women entrepreneurs are able to reinforce their quests to obtain capital and enter markets meaning business for banks and corporations, as well.
The Center has provided the incentive for many public and private sector programs, including loan funds targeted to women entrepreneurs, the Small Business Administration's women business center program, and Springboard Enterprises, which has helped women open the door to venture capital.
"I use the Center's research to get any new project off the ground, and in everything I do," says Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises.
The research also is utilized by individuals meeting with lenders or other potential supporters. Nina McLemore, a long-time Center board member, founder of Liz Claiborne Accessories, and currently president of Nina McLemore, LLC, credits the Center's data with paving the way, in part, for her successes. "I learned early on that no matter how enthusiastically I spoke about my merchandise and business ideas to potential lenders, light bulbs did not go off until I talked about numbers and data," she explains. "The information from the Center was critical to getting the ball rolling."
The Center's research has provided the rationale for national, regional and community banks' business plans to specifically serve women entrepreneurs. Advocates for women and business rely on the data, as well. They use the Center's studies and findings to leverage support for projects that expand economic opportunities for women.
Looking Toward the Future
"Data not only tells us the way things are," says Margaret Smith, former chair of the Center's Board of Directors, "it also portends the way things will be."
"The indirect result of growth may be greater capability and interest in policy-making and politics," she says. "Also consider the trend toward increased levels of financial sophistication, and the willingness if not the demand for a broad use of equity and debt strategies for women business owners to grow their businesses."
This is a far cry from the early goals when the Center first opened its doors. Then, the goal was to document the numbers and earnings of women business owners, and to begin to track trends in their continuing growth. Now, the research delves beyond the questions of "how many" and "how much." Today's studies reflect the maturity of the women business owner sector by exploring expansion, transition and succession, and entrepreneurial retirement.
"Our research stresses that women are operating firms of all sizes, including million-dollar firms, and these companies are growing," adds McLemore.
We all have seen changes since 1992. For many women, the biggest change has been the success of their businesses. While many acknowledge that the tipping point for realizing their business dream was a critical loan or line of credit, a corporate or government contract, or business skills training, few may have known that this support was available in large part due to the data supplied by the Center for Women's Business Research. The Center will continue to open doors for women by providing leading edge, in-depth research and knowledge in the years ahead.
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