The National Women's Business Council will host a Web Cast on September 12 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern time to discuss the policy priorities of women business owners.  During the event, Council members and other policy leaders will address public policies affecting women-owned businesses and the outlook in Congress.  This event, being held in Washington, DC, will also be broadcast live over the Internet.  NWBC Tami Longaberger will moderate the event, and panelists will include:  Rebecca Boenigk, Neutral Posture, Inc.; Anne Crews, Mary Kay Inc.; Kathryn Eshelman, Grade A Notes; and Patricia Soldano, Cymric Family Offices Services.

Visit the NWBC web site for additional information, including time, location and log-in instructions.  Please contact the National Women's Business Council at 202-205-3850 or info@nwbc.gov with any questions about the upcoming Web Cast.

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NWBC Chair Tami Longaberger and Executive Director Margaret Barton have met with new SBA Administrator Steven Preston in recent weeks to provide information on trends in women’s business ownership.  In particular, Longaberger and Barton have engaged Administrator Preston in discussions of the priorities of and challenges faced by women business owners.  The National Women’s Business Council, along with partners such as the SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership and the Center for Women’s Business Research, will continue its dialogue with the SBA administrator to keep him fully informed of the needs of the women’s business community.

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In July, the National Women’s Business Council released a new study, which indicates that the success of women-owned businesses is impacted by particular state-level factors, such as the availability of technology infrastructure and an educated workforce.  Using the U.S. Census Bureau’s special tabulations of 1997-2001 data on women-owned businesses’ (WOB) performance, the research is one of the first attempts to evaluate systematically the influence of factors that underlie state differences in WOB performance.

This new study, Explaining State-Level Differences in Women-Owned Business Performance, indicates that state-level discrepancies in WOB performance can be partially explained by differences in the woman business owner’s education level, the size of the business, and a state’s “knowledge economy level,” which this research describes as the combined effect of venture capital dollars invested per business, educational level of workforce, and degree of broadband penetration across a state.   

In announcing the new research, NWBC Executive Director Margaret Barton highlighted the importance of providing women entrepreneurs access to education, mentoring, financial and technological resources, stating “creating an environment in which women-owned businesses can thrive should be a priority in every state and community nationwide.”  Visit www.nwbc.gov to download a full copy of the study. 

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The National Women’s Business Council has become a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Month Coalition.  National Preparedness Month 2006, taking place in September, is a nationwide effort to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools.  Throughout September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will work with a wide variety of organizations to highlight the importance of emergency preparedness and promote community involvement through events and activities across the nation. 

One of the simplest things any family or business can do is have an emergency plan.  To assist women-owned and other small businesses in being prepared for disasters, the National Women’s Business Council has prepared a new Issue in Brief: Disaster Planning for Small Businesses.  This new resource offers information on what your business should consider when making a disaster plan as well as simple and cost-effective steps you can take immediately to prepare for disasters. 

NWBC’s Disaster Planning Issue Brief is now available online.  To find additional resources or to learn more about National Preparedness Month, visit www.ready.gov.

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The National Women's Business Council, represented by Executive Director Margaret Barton, recently participated in a roundtable discussion with a delegation from the United Kingdom.  The group was visiting Washington, D.C. to learn more about the resources available to women entrepreneurs in the United States when starting and building their businesses. Also in attendance were Council member Anne Marie Almeida on behalf of the Association of Women’s Business Centers, Council member and current President of the Women’s President Organization, Marsha Firestone, and former NWBC executive director and current President and CEO of Womenable, Julie Weeks.  

The event was hosted by Quantum Leaps, Inc., a Washington-based non-profit organization founded by Virginia Littlejohn that promotes women in business globally. The U.K. delegation was organized by Prowess, the U.K. gateway to women-friendly business support, and included representatives from U.K. regional economic development agencies, policy makers, business support and finance providers, researchers and educators, and non-profit sector professionals.

The theme of the visit was “Business Growth and How to Make It Happen.” During the event, the U.K. delegation also met with representatives from the Center for Women’s Business Research, the Direct Selling Education Foundation, National Association of Women Business Owners, and the Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership.

During an open discussion, the U.K. representatives learned about the history of women’s entrepreneurship in the U.S. and were introduced to the U.S. Strategic Framework created by Quantum Leaps, Inc. (For a copy of the strategic framework, go to the Quantum Leaps, Inc. website.)  The U.K. delegation also came seeking guidance from the U.S. women’s business network on how to increase the number of women entrepreneurs in the U.K where, as of 2003, only 12-14% of businesses were majority-owned by women. (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)

The roundtable served as a learning opportunity not only for the U.K. delegation, but also for the U.S. women’s business organizations as well.  While the United Kingdom still lags far behind the United States in the development and support of women's enterprises, U.S. women’s business organizations can learn from their U.K. counterparts, particularly in programs designed to inspire young women to become entrepreneurs, such as Make Your Mark, a campaign aimed to help create an enterprise culture among people in their teens and twenties. 

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