Women business owners optimistic despite economic woes

The Center for Women’s Business Research and KeyBank, a financial services company, conducted a business confidence survey to gauge the experiences and opinions of women business owners. In the survey, half of the women business owners who responded said their businesses had been “significantly or considerably negatively impacted by the current recession.”

The survey is considered to be the first extensive and groundbreaking study of women business owners across the U.S. to quantify the economic impact of women entrepreneurs. The impact goes beyond gross or net receipts to other impacted areas such as hired business services, child care, transportation, insurance, and other outsourced services.

Over half (56%) reported lower net earnings and 18% decreased employment levels in the first quarter of this year. 90% do not think the economy will worsen the rest of 2009, 48% expect the economy to improve and 42% think it will stay the same.

“These first results from the pilot of the Key4Women Confidence Survey, elicited from the W-Biz Insight panel, provide an interesting snapshot of how a varied group of women business owners are responding to the challenging economic climate,” said Gwen Martin, PhD, director of research and interim executive director of the Center for Women’s Research.

The W-Biz Insight panel is a diverse group of women business owners from a range of industries with annual revenue from $25,000 to $15 million or more. It includes companies that are sole proprietorships to those with more than 100 employees.

“By getting a better sense of what women business owners are thinking and doing, we can better identify, track and respond to emerging trends, and provide information to support programs and policies that benefit women business owners,” said Beverly Holmes, chair of the Center for Women’s Business Research.

The survey showed that the recession is making women business owners refocus on business basics. Two-thirds are watching their cash flow more carefully and 42% said they are collecting receivables more aggressively.

During the first quarter of 2009, 25% of women business owners decreased the average selling price of their goods and services, and only 11% increased their prices. The majority (73%) plan to keep their prices the same during the next three months. Nearly 18% had decreased their employees while 13% had actually added staff. More than half of the women business owners had not applied for credit since September 2008. As many as 17% were able to get the credit they needed in the last seven months, while 20 % were unable to get any credit.

The Center for Women’s Business Research says it “provides data-driven knowledge that advances the economic, social and political impact of women business owners.” The results of the study will be presented at the Economic Summit hosted by Women Impacting Public Policy and WalMart in Washington D.C. in October, 2009. For more information see womensbusinessresearch.org.

(The Banner, July 9, 2009)