The National Women’s Business Council held two town hall meetings for women entrepreneurs on April 3 in Houston, Texas and on May 14 in Boca Raton, Florida. These free events, which attracted more than 300 total participants, provided an opportunity for the Council to hear from a diverse population of women business owners who may not be involved regularly in the public policy process.
Breakout sessions focused on specific policy areas, such as affordable health care, access to capital, procurement, and taxes, allowed participants to discuss the challenges and priorities they face running their businesses. The Council plans to bring the results of the day-long discussions directly to policymakers to ensure that the voices of women business owners are being heard on Capitol Hill.
Participants also heard from local business owners and civic leaders in their community. In Houston, State Representative Ellen Cohen discussed the latest small business initiatives being discussed in the Texas legislature and Pamela O’Rourke, President and CEO of Icon Information Consultants, served on the closing woman business owner panel inspiring attendees with her business insights and answering questions from the Town Hall participants.
In Boca Raton, attendees heard from a variety of community leaders including former Lt. Governor and current Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan, the Honorable Leslie Waters (former pro-tem of the Florida House of Representatives), and the Honorable Ellyn Bogdanoff, majority whip for the Florida House of Representatives.
Recommendations gathered during the meeting, in addition to a previous event held in Columbus, Ohio on March 12, will be compiled later this year in a report that will help the Council formulate policy recommendations. Visit www.nwbc.gov for more information.
Return to Top
In late April, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) celebrated National Small Business Week 2008 with events in Washington, DC and New York City. Small Business Week recognizes small business owners from across the country, as well as men and women involved in disaster recovery, government procurement, small business champions, and SBA partners in financial and entrepreneurial development.
Shawn Boyer, Virginia-based founder of online job search company SnagAJob.com, was named National Small Business Person of the Year. Supporters of women’s business ownership also were recognized during the week, including the Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, Inc., which was named a Women’s Business Center of Excellence, and Julann Jatczak of the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation, who was awarded the 2008 Women in Business Champion Award.
This year’s events culminated on April 24 with a closing bell ceremony at NASDAQ and a reception, co-hosted by NWBC, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Women’s Business Ownership Act (HR. 5050), which established NWBC and the Women’s Business Center program. The reception included remarks by Council members Sandy Bartow and Kathryn Eshelman, Dee Mahoney, Senior Vice President/General Manager of Pfizer's Specialty Markets business unit, as well as SBA Administrator Steven Preston and Deputy Administrator Jovita Carranza, who spoke about women entrepreneurs’ contributions to the U.S. economy.
Return to Top
NWBC Executive Director Margaret Barton will serve as a panelist on an upcoming web cast sponsored by the Women's Entrepreneurship Institute, entitled Do Women and Men Still Differ as Entrepreneurs? Why We Still Care. The online panel discussion, scheduled for June 25 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, speakers will share some of the latest research on gender and entrepreneurship, discuss what these statistics mean for female entrepreneurs and attempt to debunk myths and clarify challenges faced by women who own businesses. In addition to Barton, panelists will include Andrew Ross Sorkin, business reporter for The New York Times, and Rebecca White, Ph.D., professor of business and entrepreneurship at Northern Kentucky University.
Click here to learn more or to register.
Return to Top
On April 24, the Council once again participated in the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization’s (OSDBU) 18th Annual Procurement Conference at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The event, which featured seminars, procurement matchmaking and exhibits, aimed to foster business partnerships between the Federal government, prime contractors, and small, minority, veteran-owned, HubZone, and women-owned businesses. Nearly 3,000 people attended this year’s event, representing 43 states, 2 Canadian Provinces, and 1 US territory.
During the conference, the Council presented a seminar on accessing capital, moderated by former NWBC member and President and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Karen Kerrigan and included panelists Andrew Sherman, Founder, Grow Fast Grow Right and Partner, Dickstein Shapiro LLP; Rich Bradshaw, Senior Managing Director, Small Business Lending, UPS Capital Corporation; and Sloan Coleman, Regulatory Specialist, Office of Financial Assistance, U.S. Small Business Administration. This panel addressed capital access issues in current economic conditions, including what is available in the marketplace, how to access these resources, as well as the capital challenges and opportunities for small to mid-size firms.
For more information about this conference, please visit www.osdbu.gov.
Return to Top
On May 6 and 7, the Center for Women’s Business Research hosted a national symposium in Washington, DC to explore the impact of race and gender on the growth of businesses owned by African-American, Asian and Latina women. The symposium, Research to Roadmap: Accelerating the Growth of Businesses Owned by Women of Color, focused on the results of the Center’s multi-year study, partially sponsored by the National Women’s Business Council, on businesses owned by women of color.
The research highlighted the business challenges faced by women of color, including lessened access to capital for business growth, balancing the expectations and demands of running a business and being part of a diverse culture, attracting top talent, and working to give back to their communities while also focusing on profits. Identifying the economic impact of businesses owned by women of color in 2008, the Center’s research estimates that there are 1.9 million of these businesses, employing 1.2 million workers and generating $165 billion in revenues. The final report including a performance evaluation for these plans will be released in early 2009.
For more information on the study, including its public policy implications, visit the Center’s web site.
Return to Top
On April 18, President Bush announced the nomination of SBA Administrator Steven Preston as the next Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Preston has served as Administrator of the SBA since July 2006. During that time, he has revamped the SBA’s disaster loan program and attempted to make the agency more efficient and customer-focused. Prior to leading the SBA, Preston served as an executive with ServiceMaster Co. and First Data Corp. Preston’s confirmation hearing before the Senate’s Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee is scheduled for May 20.
Return to Top
A new study released in April by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy identifies the human capital areas in which self-employed women differ from their wage and salary earning counterparts. According to the report, self- employed women tend to be older, better educated, and have more managerial experience than wage and salary earners.
The report, entitled Human Capital and Women’s Business Ownership, shows that women entrepreneurs are among the fastest growing groups of business owners, yet there rates of self-employment are still low among women in industries such as transportation, wholesale trade, manufacturing and construction. The study also finds that self-employed women were more likely to branch out of industries traditionally associated with women (e.g., social services and educational services) and into so-called “non-traditional” industries (e.g., financial services, construction, agriculture, etc.).
To read the full report, visit the Office of Advocacy’s web site.
Return to Top
Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) recently co-sponsored a bill, Independent Office of Advocacy and Small Business Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 (S.2902), that would give the SBA Office of Advocacy a separate line item in the federal budget. Such a line item would guarantee the long-term independence of the Office of Advocacy as the voice for small business in government, bolstering the government’s responsiveness to small business concerns and increasing transparency during the rulemaking process.
The legislation would ensure that federal agencies are more directly responsive to the views and concerns of small business, by requiring them to directly address comments by the Office of Advocacy on proposed regulations. Currently, the Office of Advocacy is a financial subsidy of the SBA, which can limit research studies depending on the amount of funding available each year.
Click here to learn more about the legislation and here for more information on the Office of Advocacy.
Return to Top
In coordination with Small Business Week activities, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has launched a campaign to help educate new self-employed small business owners about their federal tax responsibilities. The campaign will provide new Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business, filers with improved and updated educational materials through a variety of channels, including IRS.gov, small business workshops and other outreach events.
According to the IRS, nearly one in seven federal income tax returns includes a Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ. Taxpayers filed over 21 million Schedules C for tax year 2006, reporting overall net profits from sole proprietorships totaling more than $269 billion. To learn more about this campaign and how you can meet your federal tax responsibilities, please visit the IRS web site.
Return to Top
|
