In today’s society, especially in Atlanta, there is a growing number of female entrepreneurs, which is a promising trend. Fortune recently published an article stating that African American women, in particular, have become the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S.
According to the “2015 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report”:
1.) The overall number of women-owned businesses has grown by approximately 74% between 1997 and 2015, which is 1.5 times greater than the national average.
2.) In the same time frame, businesses owned by African American women has grown 322%.
To put this in to perspective, today women own 30% of all businesses in the U.S., which accounts for about 9.4 million businesses. Of that percentage, African American women run 14% of these or about 1.3 million businesses. In addition, the highest concentration of those business are in Georgia, Maryland and Illinois.
Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, was not surprised by those statistics. Her organization has seen an uptick in membership from black women entrepreneurs over the years. She stated, “We attribute the growth in women-owned firms to the lack of fair pay, fair promotion, and family-friendly policies found in corporate America,” she said. “Women of color, when you look at the statistics, are impacted more significantly by all of the negative factors that women face. It’s not surprising that they have chosen to invest in themselves.”
City leaders as well as President Obama are promoting entrepreneurship as an economic development tool. The formation of foundations such as the Build Institute are teaching entrepreneurs how to market and brand their services, which can help the business grow, thus positively contributing back to our immediate community.
After reading through this article, it has become apparent that female entrepreneurs, specifically women of color, will continue to trend upwards. The success of these entrepreneurial businesses will help to create jobs in every industry segment in the U.S.
You can find the article in its entirety here: http://fortune.com/2015/06/29/black-women-entrepreneurs/