2019 Roundtable Report
In March of 2019, the Council launched its signature Women in Small Business Roundtable Series across the country to convene women business owners and entrepreneurs and connect their voices to policymakers in Washington, DC. NWBC traveled to states in which Council Members live and grow their businesses and tapped into their local networks of female founders, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem stakeholders. The Council also engaged federal policymakers and local government officials, particularly those from the Small Business Administration and its resource partners, to join the discussion. Each roundtable was open to the public. In order to facilitate candid and insightful conversations, the names and companies of roundtable participants were not disclosed. While members of the press were also invited to attend, the personal information of the participants remained embargoed unless the individual participants offered express consent to release.
Each roundtable discussion focused on one of the Council’s three main policy priorities:
Access to Capital & Opportunity – NWBC recognizes that access to capital remains the largest barrier to market entry and success for female founders and women-owned firms. The Council strives to propose solutions pertaining to credit access, federal procurement, and venture capital funding for women entrepreneurs.
Women in STEM – NWBC is dedicated to encouraging women to start and grow their businesses in STEM, an industry with proven high-growth potential. Efforts to spur entrepreneurship in these underrepresented fields center on education and capital.
Rural Women’s Entrepreneurship – NWBC remains committed to gaining further insight on the unique challenges faced by rural women entrepreneurs and identifying untapped opportunities for growth.
Rural Women Entrepreneurs: Challenges and Opportunities Report
The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) has released the ‘Rural Women Entrepreneurs: Challenges and Opportunities’ report which offers a profile of rural women entrepreneurs and will serve as the springboard for the work and policy considerations of the Council.
“By understanding the exclusive challenges facing women entrepreneurs in rural communities, NWBC is in a better position to advocate for programs and policies that will help to reduce or eliminate those hurdles,” says Liz Sara, NWBC Chair. “Since entrepreneurship is central to rural job creation and economic growth, NWBC has made rural entrepreneurship a priority for this year”.
Profile of Millennial Women: The Future of Entrepreneurship in America
The National Women’s Business Council has released the ‘Profile of Millennial Women: The Future of Entrepreneurship in America’ identifying the characteristics of millennial women entrepreneurs and crafted a set of policy recommendations to foster business growth among this demographic.
Understanding the Landscape: Access to Markets for Women Entrepreneurs
The National Women’s Business Council has released a report under their Access to Markets pillar titled: Understanding the Landscape: Access to Markets for Women Entrepreneurs.
Crowdfunding as a Capital Source for Women Entrepreneurs
Download Kickstarter Report Here
Crowdfunding as a Capital Source for Women Entrepreneurs: Case Study of Kickstarter, a Reward- Based Crowdfunding Platform analyzes the role of an entrepreneur’s online social network and examine additional factors that may affect success rates in crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding as a Capital Source for Women Entrepreneurs: Case Study of Kiva, a Non-profit Lending Crowdfunding Platform analyzes the role of an entrepreneur’s online social network and examine additional factors that may affect success rates in crowdfunding.
Understanding the Landscape: Access to Capital for Women Entrepreneurs
In conjunction with Women’s History Month, the National Women’s Business Council has released a report under their Access to Capital pillar titled Understanding the Landscape: Access to Capital for Women Entrepreneurs.
Veteran Women & Business: A Data Resource
NWBC’s latest report, Veteran Women & Business: A Data Resource, develops a profile of veteran women-owned firms through an analysis of the U.S. Census Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons and the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs.
Necessity as a Driver of Women’s Entrepreneurship: Her Stories
NWBC’s latest report, Necessity as a Driver of Women’s Entrepreneurship: Her Stories, explores and expands upon NWBC’s July report on necessity as a driver of women’s entrepreneurship in the United States.
Executive Summary: Hispanic Women Entrepreneurship: Understanding Diversity Among Hispanic Women Entrepreneurs
This executive summary offers a synopsis of our report, Hispanic Women Entrepreneurship: Understanding Diversity Among Hispanic Women Entrepreneurs. For the full report, please refer to it on our website here under “Issues & Research”.
Hispanic Women Entrepreneurship: Understanding Diversity Among Hispanic Women Entrepreneurs
It was estimated that there were 1.9 million Hispanic women-owned firms in the United States in 2016, employing 550,400 workers and generating $97 billion in revenues.[1] The number of Hispanic women entrepreneurs grew at a faster rate than any other group – 137 percent between 2007 and 2016. [2] With the United States Census Bureau projecting the number of Hispanic women to nearly double by 2050 and for Hispanic people to become the number-one minority group in the United States, the growth rate in the number of Hispanic women-owned businesses is expected to continue to surge.[3]