Welcome back to the Women in Small Business blog! My research into American women in small businesses is underway. I wanted to center this week’s focus on women’s impact on the small business forefront. I also wanted to focus on what drives women to owning a business and possible set-backs they face along the way.

First, I’ve found that 90% of women-owned small businesses in the U.S. have no other employees other than the owner. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation , n.d.) This speaks volumes to me because I fall within this statistic. Furthermore, only 2% of women-owned firms employ 10 or more employees. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation , n.d.) If women-owned businesses are to have greater impact on the economy and create jobs, these percentages must change.

Women have fundamentally different reasons for becoming entrepreneurs compared to men. Entrepreneurship is often seen as an ideal balance of career and family among women. Narrowed down, most women start a business for a sense of achievement, a traumatic event such as a divorce, pregnancy discrimination or the corporate glass ceiling. Most men become entrepreneurs for growth opportunities and profit potential. (Enclycopedia of Small Business, 2007)

One of the biggest set-backs for women entrepreneurs is the lack of financing. There is a definite gender gap between the traditional financing opportunities of men and women. (Enclycopedia of Small Business, 2007) This difference leads most women to use credit cards and savings to fund their start-up businesses. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation , n.d.)

The research gained this week provides great insight into the broad topic of women in business.

The research for this week’s great information was not easy to come by. It took some digging to find credible, accurate information. I used the e-books section located within the Brandman University online library. I was given a list of reference libraries that contained e-books. From there I had 18 different titles related to my topic. I strategically combed through the subject headers to find statistical data about women entrepreneurs. I then researched for successful women in business on Google. The task of finding credible, accurate information on Google was surprisingly difficult and I had to revise my search topic several times. I used the advanced Google search link and tried to narrow down my search by location (United States), language (English) and domain (.edu or .org). I finally prevailed in finding current, relevant, authoritative, accurate and purposeful information.    

This week’s research makes me more inclined to dig further into what has helped women become successful entrepreneurs. I aim to focus on what women, specifically, have been successful and what helped them reach their level of achievement. On the contrast I want to investigate more possible set-backs women are faced with, when they venture out to becoming American small business owners.