National Women’s Small Business Month

October is National Women’s Small Business Month, a time to celebrate female job creators and entrepreneurs who are taking risks, creating new enterprises and job opportunities for others, and driving overall economic growth.

In fact, according to the American Express 2019 Annual State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, the sheconomy is a force to be reckoned with, now comprising approximately 42% of all American businesses and growing at a rate two times faster than all businesses.  The 13 million women-owned businesses in the U.S. support over 9 million jobs and generate $1.9 trillion in revenue annually!

This good news is tempered, however, because as any woman business owner will tell you, myself included, we often face great odds.  A new survey out this month conducted by OnePoll in conjunction with Groupon showed the women entrepreneurs rank the following as their greatest challenges:

• Balancing business and family (54%)
• Struggling to be taken seriously (48%0
• Accessing capital (24%) – with 34% indicating they’ve had to tap into personal savings or retirement accounts to finance their business.

This same study also looked at which states are best for women to open a business with the following five topping the rankings – Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Tennessee.  Rounding out the Top 10 are Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, South Carolina, and Ohio.  While many of these states have tax advantages and lower costs of living, it’s interesting that few are home to major metropolitan cities including New York and Los Angeles, or Washington, DC, where I’m based.

At meixu.com, we’re building a community where women empower women by sharing our successes and solutions.  We’re also championing the idea of using the power of our purse to support women makers, creators and business owners.  Imagine the change we can bring if we use our global purchasing power which is upwards of $18 trillion to make informed, conscientious buying decisions to support causes we believe in – including women’s entrepreneurship. Just as #MadeinAmerica became a movement, we can make women-buy-from-women our crusade.

Join the #YESSHEMAY campaign to help support women businesses by signing up for our newsletter and sharing your comments on www.meixu.com