Women Need Higher Levels of Capital at Startup

Women own more than 7.8 million businesses, or nearly 29 percent of the total in the U.S. But their firms generate only 3.95 percent of all revenue. This disparity in number of firms versus revenue speaks to a profound opportunity loss and unrewarded risk.

Further, newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that, even though the number of women-owned businesses grew 44 percent between 1997 and 2007, our already small market share, as measured by revenue, declined more than 10 percent, dropping from 4.41 percent in 1997 to 3.95 percent in 2007.

What's the solution?

One key to improved performance by women-owned firms is starting with higher levels of capital. A Kauffman Foundation study this year found that women-owned firms typically start with less capital and therefore underperform in terms of revenue, assets, and profitability. The banking community can be particularly helpful in overcoming this shortfall. By providing greater energy and engagement with current and potential women business owners, and assisting them to establish better business models, plans, and resources so as to secure larger pools of capital and credit, bankers can help push the growth, market position, opportunities, and revenue of women-owned firms more quickly. Business revenue will rise, and everyone will win.

Read the entire article here.

How to Meter and Increase Your ROSE

Here's my latest contribution over at Verio, a world-class web-hosting company for SMBs around the globe.

How to Calculate and Increase Your ROSE

Introduction here:

What does Return on Social Effort (ROSE) online mean? It is a new performance measure (we just coined it!) used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of an online social effort based on achieving desired results over a specified time period. The idea is to monitor and measure the profitability of that effort, so there’s really no right or wrong way of calculating it. What’s crucial is to first determine what you want to get out of your social media effort before analyzing or measuring it. The reason for this exercise is to justify your company’s social media marketing or listening (after all, it all starts with listening!) program.

I hope you find the article useful to effectively growing your business.

Posted by: Laurel Delaney, Escape From Corporate America blog

Fix the Women?

The real question becomes: Does hiring and promoting women make your company diverse?

Find out here.

P.A.M.F. = Power, Ambition, Money and Failure

What does P.A.M.F. mean to women? According to Barnard College, these four areas -- power, ambition, money, and failure -- represent a stunt to climb into leadership positions, whether it be through Corporate America or launching a business (as I see it).

To treat this impediment to reaching one's potential, Barnard College has launched the Athena Leadership Lab that will teach women the practical elements of leadership.

What makes the Athena Leadership Lab so unique?

It marks the first time that a college or university anywhere in the country will make practical skills-based leadership training available to individuals of all ages, experiences and skill sets, throughout the year – without having to enroll as a full-time student. Anyone in the area – including men – can enroll and take workshops and classes on the Barnard campus.

Learn more about this wonderful development here. Course catalog can be found here.

Posted by: Laurel Delaney for the official Escape From Corporate America blog

Unleash Your Creativity

True Female Leadership

While in Border's this past weekend, I discovered the July/August 2010 edition of Ode Magazine and caught, "The Female Way of Leadership" (shown below).
Really interesting commentary and it's based on the book (as featured at the top), "Female Leadership," by the same author: Karin Jironet. For me, I always think of female leadership as a bent for entrepreneurship.

Karin is a theologian and Jungian psychoanalyst working with executive leadership development, both individually and in groups. She offers psycho-spiritual retreats in The Hague, Rome, Zurich and New Delhi.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Ode magazine is making Karin's excellent contribution available to everybody. You have to subscribe to the magazine first to read it (or go out and pick up a copy at your local bookstore). You might also consider ordering her book and paying a visit to the Jung Arena that features her work.

Women Business Owners Spend BIG Bucks

The 2010 Buying Behavior Survey from the Women Presidents’ Organization -- a global peer advisory organization connecting top women entrepreneurs who own multimillion dollar companies -- show women business owners will spend more than half a million U.S. dollars each on business expenses this year.

The survey reflects the power of women-owned businesses through their buying behavior. The majority of respondents obtained all of the credit they wanted last year and indicated that the amount of credit currently available to them is about the same as was available before the recession.

Read more here.

Full disclosure: I serve as the Chicago Chapter Chair for the Women Presidents' Organization.