The traditional image of women-owned businesses as small,
slow-growing and consumer-directed is being annihilated. They start
small but grow faster than the overall business expansion rate,
selling not just to consumers, but, overwhelmingly, to other
businesses. And they sell services just as much as stuff.
Between 1997 and 2002-the most recent figures compiled by the
Washington, DC-based Center for Women's Business Research
(CWBR)-the number of privately-held businesses owned by women grew
11 percent, compared to an overall rate of 6 percent. Women-owned
businesses saw their revenues grow by 32 percent in the same
period, compared to an overall rate of 24 percent.
"Women are creating jobs. Their expansion rate in hiring is
faster than in the creation of new businesses," points out
CWBR executive director Sharon Hadary. This breakneck growth means
nearly half of all privately held U.S. businesses are at least 50
percent women-owned. One of every seven U.S. workers is employed at
a woman-owned business, and over half of those employees are
women.
Content Continues Below
Finally, women business owners are being taken seriously when it
comes to getting bank loans and investments from VC firms. The CWBR
reported in 2003 that 40 percent of women-owned businesses with
external equity investment received it from corporate investors or
VC firms.
That women have continued to expand their companies through a
recession and lackluster recovery underscores their drive and
experience, says Connie Duckworth, a former managing director at
Goldman Sachs & Co. and co-author of The Old Girls' Network: Insider Advice for
Women Building Businesses in a Man's World. "Often
the best time to start a business is at the bottom of the
cycle," she says. "If you can [get] traction, you can
ride that positive wave up as the cycle improves."
Of the women who have launched their companies in the past 10
years, 65 percent have managerial or professional experience, and
45 percent have earned at least a bachelor's degree, reports
the CWBR. Duckworth says that combination of on-the-job and book
learning has positioned women to push their companies harder and
faster than women entrepreneurs have done in the past. -Joanne
Cleaver
Winner's Circle
Meet the winner of our Woman of the Year contest, and learn
what sets her apart from the competition.
The power to create has always been a woman's prerogative.
And for Liz Elting, the winner of OPEN: The Small Business Network
From American Express and Entrepreneur magazine's Woman of the
Year Contest, that means creating a life and a business that anyone
would want to emulate.
Selected as the woman entrepreneur who best exemplifies
competitiveness, compassion and clarity of vision, the president
and CEO of TransPerfect Translations Inc. in New York City does
not measure success in sales alone. Although she expects 2004 gross
sales for her company-which provides translation, interpreting,
typesetting and multicultural marketing to companies worldwide-to
hit $35 million, for Elting, 38, success is wrapped up in the goals
she meets for her business as well as the company culture she
offers her more than 160 employees. "We are very
entrepreneurial, very much a group of people building a company
together," says Elting. "They're part of a
professional organization with goals and a vision. It's a great
place for overachievers."
People who want to control their own destinies flourish in the
meritocracy that Elting has created. She prides herself on offering
not only raises and opportunities for advancement (typically faster
than other companies), but also benefits programs that include
comprehensive medical coverage, a Caribbean vacation incentive, and
company-wide celebrations that include networking and training
exercises twice a year. Employees even get their birthdays off.
Though they work hard, long hours are not as painful with the free
dinners and car service that anyone from vice presidents to interns
can use when working late nights.
Starting in 1992 out of her dorm room at New York University
(NYU) with $5,000 in startup funding from credit cards, Elting set
a goal: In six months, the company would move into office space. It
did. She continues to set specific goals with her team each year,
detailing the cities they want to expand into, the sales they want
to reach, and the milestones needed to get there. "[It's
good] to have a business plan," she says, "but you need
annual goals."
This focus on goal setting and an employee-friendly corporate
culture have helped Elting achieve her competitive advantage. To
gain the customer service edge, she says, she and her employees
listen and go above and beyond their clients' needs: "You
don't need a novel idea-you [just] need to do it
better."
Elting rounds out her business/life strategy with charity and
community service-from involvement at NYU, where she speaks to
student groups and does seminars to encourage the next generation
of business leaders, to her company's contributions to
charities that help children, support cancer research, fight for
human rights and more. This entrepreneur, philanthropist and mother
says, "I haven't found [that running a business is] more
difficult being a woman. It's more about what you do than
whether you're a woman or a man." -Nichole L.
Torres
How to Win at Business
Want to emulate Liz Elting, President and CEO of New York
City-based TransPerfect Translations Inc.? Try her tips for
success:
1. Check your ego at
the door. "[There's an] old saying: 'Hire
people who are smarter than you.' Throughout TransPerfect's
growth, I've sought out people whose strengths complement
mine."
2. The harder you
work, the luckier you get. "Year in and year out,
I've watched hard work pay off for employees who have
accomplished great things for us and [have] grown to be leaders at
the company."
3. Keep your eye on
the prize. "I set very specific goals for myself and
TransPerfect. I communicate those goals and expect
results."
4. Think
positive. "Attitude really is everything. An upbeat,
can-do attitude makes a world of difference in both how we feel and
how we're perceived."
5. Proactivity
prevails. "[For both entrepreneurs and employees],
anticipating what your clients, your supervisor, your co-workers or
your company needs, and acting on it without being asked, are key
to being a success." -N.L.T.
Page 1 |
2 |
3 