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How Women-Owned Businesses Can Support One Another
This post was originally featured on ScoreNYC
As a business veteran, I understand the entrepreneurial calling. And yes, for many women, it is a calling. Why else would you put yourself through the countless hours of worrying and planning, as an increasing number of women continue to do?
In fact, it’s estimated that women-owned businesses will yield about 5 million jobs this year. And though this means there are a lot more women to come to each other’s aid, it doesn’t mean that we can shirk our obligations to one another. More than ever, female business owners are worth seeking out and lifting up.
Here’s how to support them — and why it’s important.
Share your (her)story
The trade secret. The best-kept secret. The secret sauce. What do those words mean? The opposite of sharing. As fellow female business owners, we can’t afford to do that. Supporting other women is good for business; the rise of women-owned businesses corresponds to the rise of the economy. “The economic landscape is shifting,” stated Jonathan Bowles, Executive Director of CUF and author. “At a time when large companies are decentralizing their operations or moving overseas or going to cheaper locales, what’s driving the growth in cities? Small-business entrepreneurs. And many of them are women.”
Educate the men in your life
This doesn’t often come to mind when we think of supporting women, but it should. Considering that men make up about 51 percent of the world population, preaching to the female choir is only half the battle — literally. If we’re going to shift attitudes from its current environment towards true equality for women, we have to attack inequality from all fronts. For me, someone in a position to hire, manage and work alongside men, I try to educate them on the importance of supporting women in business. I believe this education will trickle down to their employees and their children when or if the time comes.
Frequent women-owned businesses
This sounds like a given, but we forget that what women-owned businesses are tasked with most is to generate revenue. It’s not enough to espouse “leaning in” through mere words, we have to put our money where our feminist mouths are, unless it’s to get the word out about up-and-coming, struggling or existing women-owned establishments. Using social media as a bullhorn is a good way to do that. Free and effective, social media is also a great marketing tool for female entrepreneurs to show their (and their business’) personalities, and create an online presence for themselves.
Refer them to a connection
The adage isn’t wrong. In business, it really can be about who you know. If you can connect women who own businesses to other female business owners for a mutually rewarding partnership, do it. In the forty years I’ve spent growing my career, I have made pivotal connections — many with other business women — and many that went beyond just the professional. After all, no one knows the struggles a woman in business faces more than another woman in business.
Reach out personally
Nothing says I support you more than a personal note (or email). Because of social media, exposure to burgeoning women-owned businesses is easier to generate, which I do on a daily basis. You’d be surprised how responding or proactively reaching out to other women can mean to businesswomen just starting out. More than anything, a link to like-minded women helps remind me how much we can offer one another — through something as simple as an old-fashioned (or digital) thank you note.
The business landscape is not for the faint-hearted. For women, it can be even more daunting. Though at times it seemed like the cards were stacked against me, especially when I first entered the business world four decades ago, times are changing. Today, I think we recognize that as women-owned businesses increase in number, the need to support one another is more important than ever.
What Today’s Leaders Can Teach the Next Generation About Entrepreneurship (and Vice Versa)
This post was originally featured on ScoreNYC
With the average age of a CEO at 58 years of age, it’s clear that baby boomers possess decades of lessons to pass along to up-and-coming entrepreneurs. This knowledge share can prove invaluable to younger players that are navigating business ownership for the first time. But the instruction need not flow in only one direction. Young entreprepreneurs have wisdom of their own to share, approaches that could reinvigorate established businesses with a jolt of inventive spirit and drive. Here are just a few lessons older and younger generations can teach one another:
CEOs Know How to Play by the Rules
Every industry is riddled with complexities and roadblocks that the businesses thriving within it have learned to maneuver. Whether it’s a knotty regulatory landscape, rapid digitization, escalating prices, or market uncertainty, CEOs have figured out how to run flourishing businesses within the current milieu and position those businesses to weather future storms. They’re trained not only to capitalize on growth opportunities, but anticipate the obstacles that might hinder success, and effectively maneuver them. This precautionary problem-solving is acquired over the long-term, insights that newer players rarely grasp at the outset of their endeavors.
While entrepreneurs often function as change agents, successful CEOs create sustainable businesses. CEOs are experts at figuring out the long-term trajectory of a company and putting an organizational structure in place to support that growth. Effective corporate infrastructures, streamlined processes, and long-term business plans are all within a CEO’s wheelhouse.
CEOs Know How to Run an Established Business
Some CEOs have been with their companies long-term, helping to grow them from infancy. Many have likely been there long enough to have weathered a few major reorganizations, technology implementations and process improvements. These CEOs possess volumes of knowledge on what worked for them at each stage of growth and how the company needed to adapt over time.
Even in instances where a CEO is running a billion-dollar behemoth and a fellow entrepreneur is still struggling to make rent, the former’s experience and lessons learned can give shape and focus to the latter’s business plan. The CEO can help the entrepreneur see where she wants to go and establish a clearer vision for how to get there. With more access to the failures and successes of others, the entrepreneur can avoid common mistakes and efficiently establish a platform for growth. And that’s not to mention the many ways new business owners can benefit from networking within the same universe as their more established counterparts.
Entrepreneurs Successfully Manage Their Time
Jennifer Hobson Gormer recently compiled a book called kidCEO, where she helped successful child entrepreneurs share the secrets of their success. There were no shortage of tips from these small sages, but one common theme united their stories: how vital it is to effectively manage your time and prioritize. After all, these business owners are juggling all the pressures of entrepreneurship while simultaneously scheduling time for schoolwork and regular kid stuff.
Regardless of age, entrepreneurs learn quickly to navigate common time drains like email, meeting overload, and non-stop firefighting. Because they’ve needed to thrive in an amorphous environment with few resources and a scant organizational structure, the most common trap for an entrepreneur to fall prey to is allowing oneself to take an unstructured approach to time management. As such, many entrepreneurs can speak at length about inbox tools and services that help organize the influx and assist in managing tasks. They know how to avoid inessential meetings and structure others toward actionable outcomes and decision-making. They also know how to document processes and create playbooks for repeatable tasks, which aids with delegation and focuses all team members on execution.
This is not to say that CEOs have zero time management and prioritization skills, which would be patently false. But given the pre-existing structure and resources of their established corporate environments, they may not have needed to become productivity gurus to survive. In fact, studies show that while most senior executives should be following the 80/20 rule (80 percent of time allocated to important things and only 20 percent on the small stuff), many are actually closer to 30/70. If CEOs took up this charge, they’d execute significantly more high-impact, strategic work that could move the needle for their businesses.
Entrepreneurs Do Things Differently
Sometimes, different is good. Entrepreneurs can remind their corporate counterparts to stay nimble, always looking for holes or inconsistencies in the marketplace and seeking to fill them. Entrepreneurs are masters at creating new products, taking products from one industry and applying them elsewhere, and integrating two seemingly unrelated concepts to form something new. By absorbing a bit of this playfulness and creativity, CEOs can maneuver their larger organizations into new lines of business, products or other initiatives. Younger entrepreneurs have also been more unconventional in their leadership styles, yielding some approaches that have more effectively motivated their workforces and established a positive corporate culture. Some Millennial leaders have rejected hierarchical models or championed constant employee feedback. Plenty of atypical models are being tested by young leaders, approaches that might prove inspirational to CEOs hoping to better connect with their workforces.
Whether you’re a struggling entrepreneur or a Fortune 100 CEO, never underestimate what you can bring to the table or learn from others. Sometimes the best advice comes from someone whose challenges exactly match your own, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it comes from someone who dealt with that problem 10 years ago, or someone who’s yet to cross that bridge.
Redirecting Rejection: Three Ways to Use Business Setbacks as Springboards
This post was originally featured on ScoreNYC
No matter your industry or aspirations, some days you probably feel like you’re swimming upstream against a river of rejection. Maybe a prospective client hired someone else. Or you didn’t land that speaking engagement. Or you didn’t receive the loan for your latest business venture. Everyone faces rejection, and for small business owners, the “no’s” commonly outweigh the “yeses,” especially in the beginning. While it’s hard to accept this fact when you’re fuming over the injustice of it all, it’s not the “no” that matters. It’s your reaction that truly carves your path.
We all know the stories. Oprah Winfrey was fired as a reporter for being “unfit for TV.” Now she owns her own network. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter was rejected by dozens of publishers. Seven books, eight movies and one play later, she’s a billionaire. Look up any enormously successful person and you’ll find that their past is littered with setbacks. This is the norm, not the exception. Success is a direct function of grit, lots of hard work and copious perseverance.
Easier said than done, I know. But there are several strategies you can use to reframe rejection and ensure that you regroup and chase that vision of yours more fiercely than ever.
Rejection is a Rite of Passage: Own it, Live it, Love it
First, reshape your relationship to rejection. Every “no” is a gift because it moves you closer to a “yes.” Gatekeepers will always deny a visionary at first. Always. So if your business initiatives haven’t been rebuffed yet, you’re probably playing it safe. While the fallout from your latest repudiation may make the growth and future success of your business seem impossible, don’t surrender to the fear.
Look at each refusal as a necessary step in your success journey. Invite them. Collect them. Catalogue them. Stack them into a file that you can look back on later with smug indifference. Use them as fuel, as your motivator. They’re integral to your business’s evolving story.
And remember, a no is never final. Persistence has driven all of my entrepreneurial wins, and I rarely take “no” for an answer. It’s always okay to go back to someone about your idea multiple times, even if their initial answer is supposed to be final. And if that avenue never opens, find another. There’s always an alternate way to solve a problem, and a different person just waiting to help shepherd a business like yours.
Feedback is Like Ambrosia From the Gods
Inherent in every rejection is at least one reason for the pass. Cull the explanations you’ve received for actionable feedback. If any of them ring true to you, or if you receive the same criticism multiple times from different sources, consider honing your plan by implementing the suggested changes. Perhaps what you’re attempting is too broad or too narrow and these “tweaks” can help you develop something more saleable.
The people rejecting you are likely seasoned players with a strong grasp of industry and market conditions. Their insights can prove invaluable and possibly serve as stepping stones toward achieving your end-game. The trick is knowing the difference between a “no” stemming from short-sightedness, versus a flawed strategy that needs to be fixed.
Supportive Networks Are Everything
This is where a team of trusted peers and colleagues can really help. Solicit their advice. People who understand your vision and support your goals can help you see the forest from the trees when things heat up. Rely on them and ensure that, in turn, you do your best to support them in their careers.
This caring exchange will prove a source of strength and perspective. It will also help you better identify the opportunities within each challenge. At the same time, try to distance yourself from naysayers. Negative people who approach your ambition with skepticism are stuck in their own fear spirals, and it may be best to avoid that energy while you’re feeling vulnerable. If that person happens to be someone you can’t ignore, like a family member, attempt to overwhelm them with your own positivity. Even if it’s partially manufactured, your confidence and assurance will neutralize their fear and make the relationship more tenable.
And most importantly, don’t quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.
Keep promoting yourself and your idea. You may not control the market or the money, but you control the future of your company. And if you stay positive and agile, your long-awaited “yes” will find you.
Women: Don’t Go it Alone, Find a Mentor
This post was originally featured on ScoreNYC
Mentors are important because they see things we can’t — whether it be a friend of theirs that we really must meet, the pitfalls of a particular organizational structure, or our own strengths and weaknesses. There is no more efficient avenue to learn, problem-solve, generate ideas or expand your network (and thus grow your revenue) than by clinching a great mentor. It’s like having a MBA, best friend, and publicity director all rolled into one fantastic package.
Female entrepreneurs can benefit even more by partnering up with someone who has faced similar challenges or experiences in the past. This is especially true if the mentor is also a female. After all, women business owners face a unique set of challenges.
Yes, several studies have concluded that gender diversity has a positive impact on profitability. And yes, the report finding that the number of women entrepreneurs in New York City has increased 43% since 2002, nearly double the growth rate for men. But despite the fact that the city has nearly 359,000 women entrepreneurs who generate about $50 billion in sales annually, it’s not an easy road for us. A gender gap still has New York men owning 1.5 times the number of businesses, employing 3.5 times more people and raking in 4.5 times more revenue. We still face so many challenges, like access to capital and valuable business networks.
Whether your business has been around for 10 minutes or 10 years, a mentor can encourage you to take risks, help you see the things that elude you and give you the necessary edge to compete on an uneven playing field. The good news is, finding a mentor isn’t nearly as daunting as it used to be. Fortunately, New York City (and the internet) have loads of programs and resources available. Here are some top picks:
1. SCORE Mentors NYC
SCORE NYC offers both male and female mentors across a number of industries and business functions. Mentors are available in-person or remotely for free, confidential consultations to help solve specific problems or to simply explore new ways to grow your business.
With a volunteer team of 70+ experienced business mentors and advisors in a range of industries, finding a mentor has never been easier. There are also dozens of workshops available to learn concepts, strategies, and practical actions for starting a new business and for growing an existing business.
2. National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) NYC
NAWBO is a national organization that represents the interests of women entrepreneurs across all industries, and offers a one-on-one mentorship program for those who want an intense, immersive experience. This program offers long-term support and is completely tailored towards your individual business needs.
3. Women Entrepreneurs NYC (WE NYC)
Launched by the City in conjunction with Citigroup, WE NYC treats women as the key economic drivers they are, and offers small group discussions and brainstorming sessions with female mentors who are subject matter experts on entrepreneurship and everything from talent management to branding to raising capital. The initiative’s Connect Mentor Sessions are free, two-hour coaching sessions with plenty of allocated networking time.
4. MicroMentor
For those of you that want to pursue your mentorship remotely, curtailing the time spent relationship-building without losing a the benefits of support and accountability, try a service like MicroMentor. You can join a virtual community of entrepreneurs for free and connect with seasoned executives by searching their volunteer database by the desired area of expertise, the industry and your business stage.
If a formal mentorship arrangement seems like too much, at least consider joining a local organization that can connect you to other women entrepreneurs and offer less structured educational and networking opportunities. You may naturally form a bond with another successful business owner who can offer support more organically. And whatever you do, never discount your peers! Form as many friendships as possible with other business owners. The camaraderie helps, as will the opportunity to share lessons learned. And when one small business friend makes big strides, chances are she’ll do all she can to take you with her.
Why it’s More Important to Invest in Your Business than to Pocket the Profits
This post was originally featured on ScoreNYC
After launching the website Penny Hoarder in 2010, Kyle Taylor quickly came to believe in an age-old adage: the best way to make money is to spend money. Every year, as a result, he began reinvesting 50 percent of his profits back into his burgeoning business.
While there are those who would dispute whether it is necessary to make that much of a commitment — and still others who would question whether it’s wise to put a preplanned percentage on the amount that should be reinvested — the consensus is that it is smart to engage in this practice, as opposed to squirreling away all the profits.
Here are the benefits of reinvesting, as exemplified by my own experience as well as Kyle Taylor’s personal account.
1. Reinvesting allows for growth
Taylor writes that his decision to reinvest enabled his site to take off. At the end of its first year (2011), it netted $55,000. Three years later he made $3.2 million, with the expectation that he would bring in $10 million the following year.
I have reached the same conclusion with my business. No sooner did I begin making money than I reinvested it — hiring great talent, upgrading office space and purchasing new equipment. Months and years of reinvestment led in turn to even greater growth and profit, so I can recommend this strategy to any business owner, founder, or CFO.
2. The opportunity to learn and team-build
Besides the aforementioned growth, reinvestment also offers an opportunity to learn, and reinforces the idea that a single entrepreneur cannot go it alone. For instance, Taylor didn’t hire his first employee until 2015, and did so then because he understood his own strengths and weaknesses, and where he would need the most help.
Before reinvesting, Taylor often worked with freelancers and contractors, but was constantly re-evaluating and adjusting. Writers were jettisoned if they did not craft content in the site’s distinctive voice. A $20,000 site redesign was scrapped when he determined it did not work for him. He wasted money and failed to learn by forgoing investment in a solid team.
3. Reducing income-tax expenses
Another obvious advantage to reinvestment is the reduction in income-tax expenses. One report summarized it as follows: If a company generates a $20,000 profit and is in a 20-percent tax bracket, it would pay $4,000 in taxes. But if $3,000 of that profit is earmarked for freelancers, only $17,000 is taxable.
4. Successful investments in marketing and infrastructure
It is generally agreed that the best use of reinvestment is in marketing, as that will show the surest return. Taylor, once again, is a good example. He writes that in his first year he invested in affiliate ads, Adsense and sponsored posts and links. In his second year, his outlays went toward advertising on Facebook and Outbrain. Further down the line he made the decision to almost exclusively advertise on Facebook.
Another sound use for reinvestment is on infrastructure. Taylor did two redesigns of his site, and Gretchen Peterson, founder of the geoanalytics and map-making firm PetersonGIS, committed to mapping software, despite the considerable expense involved with doing so.
5. Hiring a great team (not just a good one)
People, of course, are a mandatory investment that cannot be ignored. When I ran my own firm, I was careful to make sure I assembled the best team possible, and that the freelancers and contractors who came aboard were assets to the company as well. Anything less, and you’re looking to take a financial hit of some consequence.
6. There’s ample room for profit
After reinvestment the question then becomes this: How much should a CEO pay him- or herself? One report concluded that performance-based compensation should account for 20 to 30 percent of profits, and that those at the top should earn half of that, along with a bonus of two to three percent. Clearly, there’s still room for bountiful profit when you reinvest. In fact, the growth caused by reinvestment should compound your profits significantly.
All in all, reinvesting is not only a less selfish move than hoarding profits; it’s good for your bottom line and the health of your business. I haven’t been disappointed by the results and believe your business will experience stellar outcomes, too.
Fake Male Co-Founders Aren’t a Cure-All for Female Entrepreneurs
This post was originally featured on HuffingtonPost.com
In 1972 the record album and illustrated book, Free to Be You and Me, was released to the U.S. market. The major theme of the songs and stories was that anyone, boy or girl, could be or do anything. The values of individuality, comfort in one’s-own-skin and tolerance wove threads through the theme.
I was working as a secretary at the time.
The television special, by the same name, aired in 1974. I was still working, and also attending college in environments that were at times less-than-kind to my gender.
By 1980, the suite of Free to Be You and Me materials had garnered an Emmy and a Peabody and the book had spent months on the New York Times bestseller list. I had graduated from college and opened my own all-female real estate brokerage.
We were here: we’d arrived and equality in the business world was ours to be had!
Or was it? Were we then, and are we now, truly “free to be” women, equal to men, in the world of business?
Recent reports about lack of access to venture capital funds (VC), which I’ve written about before, and inability to secure business loans, not to mention the ongoing wage gap, suggest that we are not — not yet.
Especially if that business is starting your own business.
In fact, the biases against female founders are so prevalent, and frustrating, that some women are relying on the oldest trick in the book: fake men. Specifically, a fake male co-founder.
When Witchsy founders Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer introduced the fictional “Keith Mann” to their business, they found the response to, and respect for, their business was like night and day.
This tactic might be effective in the short term, and has certainly drawn attention to the VC and startup culture of inequality, but from a big picture perspective it’s not the game changer we need.
Yes, it’s true that, based on the basic statistics, it’s easier to start a business if there’s some man, real or fictitious, on the founding team.
For instance, Ethan Mollick, a professor of management at Wharton, said that while 38 percent of new business are started by women only two percent to six percent of those businesses receive venture capital (VC) funds. In 2016, men had a 25 percent greater chance of having a business loan approved, and those loans were generally larger than those granted to women.
Anecdotes about the difficulties facing women who are seeking VC funding, like those related to Entrepreneur by Kathryn Minshew, co-founder of The Muse (which, by 2015, had sales numbers in the tens of millions, according to Minshew) permeate the media.
According to the article:
“While trying to raise capital for The Muse, Minshew repeatedly encountered closed doors, as numerous VC firms claimed they weren’t in the market to hear her pitch. When she pushed further, she received hateful responses — tones mirroring the likes of saying, “Don’t get too big for your britches.” Even when her pitch was heard, she felt most mistook her leadership and confidence as charm, rather than signs she could effectively grow a business. Eventually, Minshew did obtain funding, only after contacting more than 200 capital firms.” (Emphasis mine.)
Bloomberg did a study, in 2016, of the 890 U.S. startups that were founded from 2009-2015 and received at least $20 million in VC and other equity funding. The results?
“The vast majority of venture capital goes to companies founded by men. Just 7% of the 2,005 founders on our list are women. Companies founded by women also get less money—an average of $77 million compared with $100 million for male-led startups.”
So, clearly, while women have made great strides, we still don’t have equal access to the tools needed, particularly funds, to reach our full potential in the business world.
Does that mean we all need to make up fake male co-founders to succeed? No, it doesn’t. Because even if it’s easier, it’s not necessary — and the numbers on women’s efficacy in business don’t lie.
My first business, Bach Realty, which I founded in 1980, had an all-women sales team. Based on my prior work experience I made sure that the basics, like, getting paid on time, happened. So, they had my back and I had theirs in the face of a male-dominated culture. As in, people would call or come in and ask, “Where’s your husband?” Equally popular was, “Where’s your father?”
It was unfathomable, at the time, that there was no man involved. Yet, the brokerage was a financial success. It wasn’t easy, but we did it, purposefully. Much of what I was trying to do at the time was teach women how to be independent, how to make their own money, and not rely on someone else.
Fortunately, the numbers prove that women are, in fact, very good at making money. They don’t need men, real or fake, to be successful.
In March, 2017, CNBC released a story based on The 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, (commissioned by American Express Open). Women entrepreneurs, the report found, have been at the forefront of the economic recovery. Female-owned companies grew at a rate five times the national average over the last nine years. (Emphasis mine.)
Numbers don’t lie. Not only do businesses started by women outpace those started by men, businesses that have women in leadership positions also show higher profits than those that don’t.
A 2016 study of nearly 22,000 publicly traded companies in 91 countries, by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and EY (the audit firm), demonstrated that an increase in the share of women in leadership positions from zero to 30% was associated with a 15% increase in profitability.
Armed with this information, women can prove that they deserve funding and respect. But there are still cultural barriers. Venture capitalists tend to be white men, and funding tends to flow most freely toward like demographics.
Fortunately, female entrepreneurs are less and less in need of dollars from male funders. The women who’ve already made it are stepping up. Female Founders Fund and BBG Ventures lead the way with stated missions of supporting female-led startups. More recently, there’s XFactor Ventures, whose investment team is made up of women who are, themselves, VC-funded entrepreneurs, and the Toronto-based SheEO (which expanded to the United States.) SheEO brings together 500 women who each put $1,100 toward the fund.
So, with the numbers on our side and a growing community of women-helping-women, why shouldn’t we be be free to be female founders? We may not be there yet, completely “free to be you and me” but that doesn’t mean we give up, turn back the clock and say, “my husband’s not available, can I help you?”
At the end of the day, the fake male co-founder is good for one thing: exposing sexism in business world. But if we hide behind male monikers, we blunt our power to demand the credibility and respect we deserve as we are. It’s an opportunity and responsibility we owe ourselves in 2018 more than ever.
5 Eye-Opening Facts About Female Founders
Of the ten women featured in Forbes magazine’s list of America’s richest self-made women, only one is not an entrepreneur or founder of a company.
Think about that. With all that’s stacked against female entrepreneurs, it’s still the best path to becoming a multi-billionaire.
But, drill down into the details and we learn that only two of the women, Oprah Gail Winfrey, Founder and Chairman of Harpo, Inc. and Judy Faulkner, Founder and CEO of Epic, did it on their own.
The rest, from Marian Ilitch ($5.1 billion) of Little Caesars to Diane Hendricks ($4.9 billion) who chairs ABC Supply and Johnelle Hunt (2.4 billion), J.B. Hunt Transport Services, are all co-founders who partnered with their husbands.
This fact isn’t surprising if we look at statistic number one: less than half of start up companies that successfully raised more than $10 million have solo founders.
History explains the husband-wife partnership model of success in the Forbes article. Until quite recently (if you consider the 70s recent) there were laws in place the actively disallowed women from truly launching large, successful, companies. For instance, in many states women couldn’t secure a line of credit unless their husband would co-sign. There were barriers to education (forget the Columbia School of Business; Columbia didn’t accept women until 1971) and employment, and pregnancy was a fireable offense. So, if you wanted to be in business? Partner with your husband.
Fortunately, we no longer have to deal with those particular legal barriers. But the take-away is still true: it’s better to have a partner if you truly want to raise the money to launch a successful business.
Unfortunately, statistic number two shows, clearly, that it’s still better to partner with a man. In 2016, 5,839 male-founded companies got venture capital (VC) funding, compared to just 359 female-founded companies. But, companies with both male and female founders fared slightly better with 1,067 receiving funding. Women who partner with men, therefore, are almost three-times more likely to receive VC funds.
Our third statistic is really interesting. Women are more likely to secure VC funds in one of the least funded areas: consumer goods and recreation.
In 2016, startups with female founders in the consumer goods and recreation industry represented more than 28 percent of the business that were funded. Yet, consumer products and services generally have less than 4 percent of the venture capital “market.”
Those billionaires on the Forbes list actively demonstrate that there is money to be made in this underfunded industry. Take Lynda Resnick ($2 billion) who, along with her husband, Stewart, own thousands of acres of citrus fruit, pistachio, almond and pomegranate orchards. They founded the Wonderful Company in 1979 and now have brands including POM Wonderful, Figi Water and mandarin Halos.
A more current success story is Carolyn Rafaelian, the founder of popular bangle brand Alex and Ani. She’s now America’s richest jeweler.
Often, it seems, successful women started out trying to come up with better products to use themselves. Spanx, Vera Bradley and IT Cosmetics, all started that way.
That said, women are definitely making inroads in other industries. Eren Ozmen, co-founder of aerospace and defense contractor Sierra Nevada, had sales rise 15% in 2016 and its Dream Chaser spacecraft has secured a partnership with the United Nations and a contract with NASA.
Then, there’s the fact that women-owned businesses are outperforming the overall business market in terms of growth. According to The 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, there are now nearly 11.3 million woman-owned businesses in the U.S., employing nearly 9 million people and generating over $1.6 trillion in revenue.
“Representing a 45% increase between 2007 and 2016, compared to a 9% increase among all businesses, women are going into business and doing it very successfully.” (Forbes.)
Stats and facts don’t tell the whole story, naturally.
Partnering with a man won’t change the fact that women-founded business are still, statistically, less likely to secure VC. As I’ve written about before, there’s no magic bullet.
We also need to gain access to more than “seed money”; women still self-fund their startups more than 60 percent of the time.
A huge part of overcoming these barriers is linked to the ideas we have (believe in them!), our perceptions of ourselves (we can do it!), and our ability to form business plans and relationships.
So, a final, positive, statistic. With women heading up at least 36 percent of businesses in the country (as of 2012) we now have mentors, guides, leaders and role models that will help their sisters-in-innovation do great things.
Helping Female Entrepreneurs Succeed in the Developing World
As a woman and lifelong entrepreneur, it’s heartening to hear the statistics that, between 2007 and 2015, the number of businesses owned by women in the U.S. increased by 68 percent.
No such statistics are easily available for the developing world, yet reports from organizations like the United Nations repeatedly point to the need for more women-owned businesses and female entrepreneurs if poverty is going to be eradicated at the global level.
As with other career paths, female entrepreneurs in the U.S. face significantly more challenges than their male counterparts. They often start with less capital, it’s harder to secure loans, and profit margins can be significantly lower.
But the difficulties here pale in comparison to those faced by women in developing nations. Social and cultural norms that exclude women and girls from school and work-outside-the-home are a huge barrier, as are basic infrastructure issues like access to clean water.
So, while we have still have our own significant hurdles, I firmly believe that helping female entrepreneurs in developing countries will truly make the world a better place for all.
How?
It starts with education. Basic skills like reading, writing and arithmetic are mandatory if girls are going to be able to do anything more than the most menial of labor. In order have the vision and access to business resources necessary to start a business, advanced (secondary) education is a must.
Yet, according to Unicef, an estimated 31 million girls of primary school age and 32 million girls of lower secondary school age were not in school in 2013.
While not all of us have the skills and ability to leap on an airplane and build schools for girls like Katie Meyer did in Liberia, there are a variety of large and small nonprofits that need financial support.
The Malala Fund, founded Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, provides resources for girls in multiple developing nations to receive 12 full years of education, in a safe environment.
Smaller organizations, like Rafiki Africa, concentrate on one village or city hoping to change the lives of the entire community.
But, beyond basic education, women need practical help: money, supplies, and business training.
One of the simplest ways to help a woman become self-sufficient is to support an organization that provides “starter kits,” that is, all the supplies a woman needs to do the work she’s chosen.
By supplies, I mean everything from the goat, to the goat feed, to training in caring for a goat, to networking women with other women so they can engage and mutually support and grow their efforts. One woman, working with other women, can go from having a single goat to becoming part of a collective that produces goat cheese to sell at markets.
Heifer International has focused on agriculture and sustainable farming initiatives for over 70 years. Recognizing the “beyond one goat” need, they also have a Women’s Empowerment campaign that provides training and assistance (including bill paying classes!) to women.
Again, there are also country-specific options. My foundation supports WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) which helps women in Israel in a variety of ways. There’s legal assistance, leadership training and even day care, which allows women to focus on their business knowing their children are in a safe place.
Another organization, Women for Women International, works specifically in war-torn countries. They have programs that that equip women with life, vocational and business skills. They even connect women with supportive financial institutions.
Finally, there are ways to give direct financial support that can either be seed money, or emergency need money. Microloans are a popular financial device and have been semi-effective in helping women start businesses.
But they are even more effective, according to this article on NPR, at meeting emergency needs—like a new roof.
If you want to expand beyond donating to, or volunteering for, nonprofits, you don’t have to look farther than your local mall or online for ways to mindfully purchase everything from cosmetics to jewelry from socially conscious companies.
Teen Vogue recently highlighted the jewelry line Órama, “whose proceeds micro-finance entrepreneurial projects by women in marginalized communities.”
Ten Thousand Villages is committed to providing fair and sustainable income to its artisans, many of them women, in developing countries.
Another great way to potentially support female entrepreneurs around the world is to ask your local store owners where they source their goods and frequent those that purchase from international women’s collectives.
Once you apply an entrepreneurial, get-it-done attitude to supporting female entrepreneurs in developing countries, the options and opportunities are endless.
So, Your Adult Child Wants to Be an Entrepreneur
This post was originally featured on HuffingtonPost.com
Most kids want to be a variety of things when they grew up. Think about it: for boys (and some girls), there’s the superhero phase, the astronaut phase and, of course, the cowboy phase.
But, as the Ed and Patsy Bruce song says: “Momma, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” To which I agree, with the addendum, why not let them grow up to be entrepreneurs instead?
Cowboy dreams fizzle quickly, and when adult kids take on new quests, it can be difficult for parents to be a source of inspiration. We’re all more insecure at 22 than at 12 when everything still seems possible. But 22 is the time to be brave. It’s the time, if the situation calls, to follow entrepreneurial instincts instead of burying them.
Your child is a responsible adult now, so there’s no sugarcoating the tough road ahead. But that doesn’t mean you can’t guide them and foster a spirit of entrepreneurship in this critical stage of life.
As an entrepreneur myself, I know that creativity is a big part of building a thriving business. I’m proud to say my son has become a real estate entrepreneur in his own right, much like I did as a young woman in the 80s. For those with adult children still looking for direction, here’s how to encourage their entrepreneurial pursuits with both realism and support.
Tell them you’ll love them, even if they fail.
The proverb, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again” was popularized in the mid-1800s by W.E. Hickson, but its truth has been proven over and over again by countless entrepreneurs.
According to this fun infographic from Entrepreneur James Dyson created 5126 prototypes of his vacuum cleaner before he had a model that really did the job. He is now worth $4.2 billion.
The same applies to your children as they grow into young adults. Taking risks means failing sometimes, but without failure (or the possibility of it), the reward won’t be nearly as satisfying. According to Bloomberg, a shocking 8 in 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within their first 18 months. If your graduate wants to start their own business, they should know the odds are against them, and be prepared to go the extra mile to beat them.
It’s your job to let them know that their failure will not disappoint you, though you do expect them to handle the consequences like an adult.
Encourage visionary thinking.
Visionary thinkers innovate, but it’s hard to visualize when a bulk of your time is spent playing video games, drinking, or sleeping. Post-college, it’s natural for young adults to get lethargic. They did work hard in school for 16+ years, after all.
You can’t force your child to be productive and try new things when they are adult — so don’t try to. Having deep conversations with them, often, but not too often, can encourage them to get out there and experience things before launching a business endeavor. Pique their curiosity about the world, different cultures, age groups, talents, and possibilities. With luck, they will take this into consideration when starting a business, and embrace the multifaceted perspective needed to be truly visionary.
Don’t shoot down “out of the box” ideas.
There is rarely only one, right, way to solve a problem and there is no such thing as a problem-free life. Certainly not in the real world of either having a job or building a business.
A lot has been said about the need for critical thinking in the workplace. But, as pointed out in this article from U.S. News and World Report, critical thinking “is only one component of this higher order skill: the creation of new solutions. It is far easier to be the art critic than the artist.”
New solutions require the ability to think about a problem differently, approach it from a new angle. For some problems, ignoring the box entirely is required! Help your child be the artist, not the art critic, by stepping out of their comfort zone in their approach to new endeavors and ideas. Parents and older generations are notorious for shutting down impractical or untraditional ideas; we should resist this urge if we want the next generation of leaders to create lasting impact.
This isn’t the same as allowing (or worse, enabling) a permanent “starving artist” lifestyle… Which leads us to:
Emphasize the importance of financial responsibility.
Forbes has an excellent article about which lessons to teach at what age. But, the basic notion that money is to earned, saved and spent, invested or donated can permeate almost any conversation.
This is a lesson, I’ll admit, that best starts at a young age. Your child still wants to be a cowboy? Okay, how much does it cost to own a horse? ($2,500 annually, on average, according to the American Quarter Horse Association.) How can that money be earned? How long will it take to save up to buy the horse and stable it for a year?
But the reality is that many young people graduate college without a sense of financial literacy; in fact, financial literacy in America is low across the board. When education ends, financial responsibility begins, so it’s imperative that this knowledge is imparted as soon as possible. Starting a company, or building a prototype, takes money as well as time, energy and the desire to do it in the first place! Have this conversation about money early on so they’ll know what it can do when handled properly.
Ultimately, young adults need to know they can follow their passions and still be smart about it.
Forbes magazine cites a Deloitte University Press study that found “up to 87.7 percent of America’s workforce is not able to contribute to their full potential because they don’t have passion for their work.”
Parents often instinctively urge their adult children to play it safe, ignoring their passions in favor of realistic goals, an understandable (if flawed) attitude to have in times of uncertainty. But know that entrepreneurial success is not impossible, so don’t shoot down the notion: build it up by asking the right questions. For a chance at success, they will need to have a plan — and a plan B. What sort of education is needed? What resources are available? Who can help, either through mentoring or emotional support?
As a daughter of Jewish immigrants, I wasn’t afforded the most substantial resources as a young adult, but I’m happy that my hard work has allowed me to be a support system and role model especially as my son entered the workforce. Allowing your children the professional and parental guidance they seek is incredibly rewarding, so long as they can stand on their own two feet at the end of the day.
The Troubling Clash Between VCs and Female Founders
This post was originally featured on CFO.com
We know the facts: women are still being paid less for doing the same job(although not as much less) and the number of female CEOs is on the rise (even if they’re still dwarfed by the number of men). It’s a catch-22: we’re stuck in our ways even though there’s been a significant amount of progress.
When I founded Bach Realty more than 30 years ago, it was an assuredly less progressive time. The perception of women in the workplace today is dramatically, improved. Still, there is much ground yet to cover.
When women entrepreneurs look at the divide in venture capital funding between the genders, they might get frustrated — and rightfully so. The truth is that women simply aren’t getting VC funding to the same degree as men, and when it comes to building a business, funding is fundamental.
Is this a case of institutionalized sexism, or is it a complex combination of different factors? Looking at the numbers can give us a clearer idea of why this gap exists, and what female entrepreneurs can do about it.
Consider this: in the Bay Area, more than 200 startups reached “Series A Funding” of between $3 and $15 million in the past year. Of those, fewer than 1 in 12 had a female CEO at the helm.
We know that there are more male CEOs than female CEOs, so does this explain the discrepancy? Not even close. Despite the fact that women make up 38% of new business owners in the United States, only about 4% get any sort of VC funding. Given such data, it may seem like a cut-and-dried case of sexism.
But the situation isn’t quite that simple. While the sexism characterization carries some truth, the irony is that the opposite is also true: Many female entrepreneurs may lack confidence in VCs, preferring to build businesses on their own savings. When The Kauffman Foundation surveyed 350 female tech startup leaders, four in five said they used personal savings to fund their operations.
One possibility is that women, whether by nature or nurture, are more prone to self-reliance and realistic thinking. We’re often better at creating lean, efficient organizations that are productive with few resources. We build small organizations that show both resourcefulness and ingenuity, the ability to do a lot with a little. And the numbers show it:Organizations with more female leaders are more profitable than those with mostly male leaders.
In this light, one reason women may be less likely to seek out VC funding is that we are less likely to need or want it. In turn, we’re less likely to receive it.
More likely it comes down to the industries where women are able to get their feet in the door. Silicon Valley, where there are many science and tech startups, is male-dominated, as are the VC firms that fund them. For a woman, this environment can be stifling, as the recent viral Google Memomade clear. This reality can alienate female would-be rising stars and jeopardize the relationship between female founders and their financial backers.
There is evidence to support this hypothesis. Studies have shown that when a VC has female partners, as opposed to males only, the success gap between male-led and female-led startups that such VCs fund virtually vanishes. Therefore, it’s safe to conclude that gender diversity matters on both ends if women are truly to be on equal footing.
Even worse, VCs can get turned off from the tight, efficient businesses women tend to create, and profitability alone, a focus of female leaders, doesn’t necessarily scream “growth” to investors. Additionally, just 6% of VCs are female, a disparity that creates a cultural divide between female founders and funding.
The Future of the Relationship
In the words of Jory des Jardins, cofounder of BlogHer, “VCs love founders whose aspirations are stratospheric,” according to the Forbes article linked to directly above. Female CEOs have been proven to be adept at creating and preserving something strong, but men appear more willing to take bold risks (and more likely to fail).
As women, we are conditioned to be less confident in our professional abilities. VCs favor confidence over competence, which men tend to exude with abandon.
So what’s the answer?
Women might consider taking a more growth-oriented (versus profit-oriented) mindset and taking more risks. Alternatively, they may want to find a VC firm willing to work with a company that’s focused on profits, or that has more women at the helm. Most importantly, promoting gender diversity should lead to gains for all.
I have a sneaky feeling that as women continue to push boundaries in Silicon Valley, finance, and the general business world, more gains will be made organically. If this is true, our answer has already been set in motion, and the VC gap is destined to grow smaller with each passing year.
Debrah Charatan’s blog
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