Local Organizations Helping Female Entrepreneurs Own It

Women are fueling the engine of entrepreneurship across the U.S. Here’s a look at how local organizations are helping female business owners chart their destinies.

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This feature was written by Studio MSP writers. While some of our advertisers were sourced, no advertiser paid to be included.

Despite being quite the rollercoaster ride, this year holds plenty of reason for celebration. On August 18, we tipped our hats to the centennial of women’s voting rights. Those voting stickers opened up a world of economic growth and freedom for women—who now earn more college degrees than men, are the primary breadwinners in nearly half of U.S. households, typically make 80 percent of household purchasing decisions, and contribute $7.6 trillion in economic activity annually.

“Women have made tremendous economic contributions since suffrage, which I think gets overlooked,” says Angie O’Leary, head of wealth planning at RBC Wealth Management-U.S. “You can argue that women joining the workforce is the single biggest growth driver of the U.S. economy in the last one hundred years.”

Today, about half of women graduate college with degrees in business, a rate that’s doubled since 1980. “These days, entrepreneurship is something that’s highly valued, publicized, and role modeled by tech titans, celebrities, and influencers—even the Girl Scouts now have a badge for it,” says Teresa Thomas, director of Women in Networking (WIN). 

Female entrepreneurs are everywhere, and they can no longer go unnoticed. In this National Women’s Small Business Month, read up on the local landscape of female entrepreneurship and where these leading ladies are taking us. 

The Starting Line

Women are starting businesses at about twice the rate men are. This stat raises the question: Why?

“Some women are disillusioned by the rigors of corporate life and see an opportunity to forge their own path on their own terms,” says Anita Nelson, president and CEO of WeMN, a local nonprofit centered on networking and resources for female entrepreneurs and women-owned small businesses. 

Women step into entrepreneurship seeking flexibility they haven’t found in a traditional corporate setting, dominated by men in leadership positions. They want more control over their schedules and freedom to balance their occupational and personal demands. 

“Women are still expected in 2020 to juggle more than most of their male counterparts,” Thomas says. “Entrepreneurship is a creative solution while we continue to work on a cultural shift of more shared caretaking responsibilities and more flexible work cultures.” 

But it’s more than just stepping off the corporate ladder. “For women, these businesses are personal and allow them to showcase their strengths, passions, and talents,” Thomas says.

Those passions and talents, often illustrated through side hustles, are becoming viable business opportunities. And thanks to modern technology, the cost of entry is relatively low. “You’re not expected to have a brick-and-mortar space to be seen as a legit business, and advertising can be done inexpensively through blogging, social media, and email,” Nelson says.

Even with a low cost of entry and lots of passion, women are bound to encounter some problems along the way—maybe more than their fair share.

“I often see some common themes with women entrepreneurs undervaluing their time and talent and often underpricing their services.”

—Anita Nelson, WeMN

But … Barriers

“The fact that there are still women’s organizations addressing entrepreneurship says that there are still hurdles and barriers in the journey to starting, growing, and sustaining a business,” Thomas says. She leads one of those organizations, WIN, which helps Twin Cities female business owners connect and grow their operations. 

Starting out, women still have more trouble than men getting access to funds, whether via bank loans or investors. This is in part because men tend to control investing. Only about 2.8 percent of venture capital went to all-female founding teams in 2019, Nelson says. Meaning the other 97 percent went to teams that were mixed gender or all male—all while women are launching twice as many businesses. 

In the not-so-distant past, remnants of historical discrimination practices were still in play. Just 32 years ago, Minnesota entrepreneuristas helped get the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988 passed, giving more viability to women-owned businesses across the nation in numerous ways, Thomas says. “We are making progress when you realize that law did away with the need to have a ‘male relative’ cosign the loan on the business the woman built. Really!”

The Twin Cities is a stellar hub for small businesses and startups. “Colleagues across the country have commented on the industriousness and work ethic of us Minnesotans, along with our pioneering spirit,” Thomas says. “In the Twin Cities, we have a culture that nurtures our businesses and many successful role models and mentors who inspire us.” 

He Said, She Said

Though women are fully qualified, their leadership and business skills continue to be underestimated and stereotyped. “I often see some common themes with women entrepreneurs undervaluing their time and talent and often underpricing their services,” Nelson says. These feelings of self-doubt can lead to a phenomenon called imposter syndrome, making us downplay our own accomplishments and worth. “Men also experience this, but I think it’s much more pervasive for women,” she says. 

Even though women commonly control household spending, manage family wealth, and take on equal breadwinning duties, financial risk-taking is not  always in our DNA. O’Leary of RBC Wealth Management-U.S. says that women, especially older generations like Baby Boomers, frequently have to be encouraged to take on more financial risk. “For example, when women business owners go to get financing, they will ask for a lot less than a man would in a comparable opportunity,” she says. “And sometimes it means that they aren’t thinking big enough.”

Despite these limitations, we have a rack of skills and characteristics that serve us well at the helm. “We know that women-owned businesses deliver great customer service and have great work cultures,” Thomas says. Though women are just as competitive as men and have the same drive to succeed, women often take different paths to get there. Where men might be more independent, women value teamwork. “Women excel in the areas of collaboration, innovation, flexibility, empathy, and ability to adapt to change,” Thomas says. 

“Colleagues across the country have commented on the industriousness and work ethic of us Minnesotans, along with our pioneering spirit. In the Twin Cities, we have a culture that nurtures our businesses and many successful role models and mentors who inspire us.” 

—Teresa Thomas, Women in Networking (WIN)

The Road Ahead 

The last eight months have been nothing short of demoralizing for businesses large and small around the globe. Good thing women are characteristically adaptable and practiced multitaskers. Amid the chaos that has become our reality, these local small-biz boosters share words of wisdom for forging ahead. 

“Find ways to take control,” Nelson says. “None of us could have predicted this year would have taken so many wild, unexpected turns. When everything feels out of control around us, I think it’s important to take charge of the things that are within our sphere of influence.”

Thomas suggests participating in online groups and virtual events to stay focused, connected, and updated on the latest and greatest. You never know what or who might inspire you. She also suggests sharpening your skills by staying active in your “zones of genius.” Not only will this fine-tune your expertise, but it’ll raise your confidence, too. 

Above all, keep your eyes on the prize. “Find ways to recharge and rejuvenate, but also take daily action to move your business forward,” Nelson says. “This is a perfect time to be bold and experiment with new ideas.”  

The Missing Seat

With higher barriers on access to funding, resources, and community, as well as lack of representation, women of color face more challenges in starting businesses than their white counterparts. 

“We exist in a world that already devalues our experience. It devalues our skill set. And being an entrepreneur doesn’t necessarily make that an exception of how the outside world sees our experience,” says Char Dobbs, co-owner of The Activate Network, a Minneapolis organization focusing on resources and community for women of color entrepreneurs. “Entrepreneurship already can be hard enough. You don’t want to add to it people making you feel less than—because you’re dealing with that invisible labor as well as building your own business.”

That invisible labor includes a lack of community and support because women of color business owners are often not welcome in many professional communities, in part because of an existing lack of diversity. 

While women of color are starting businesses at an accelerated rate compared to white women, their revenues aren’t increasing at the same rate due to structural disadvantages. The biases against businesses run by women of color stem from a lack of diversity at the table, according to Dobbs. In leadership, investment firms, and professional groups or associations, the people at the top are largely white men, which prevents these groups from welcoming in and investing in the endeavors of women of color—simply because there are no women of color at the table advocating for their peers. 

But women of color are turning the tables. “We just see more opportunity to do it ourselves, to create our own seat at the table,” she says. “We’re taking a stand for what we believe in and for what we know is true for us—we know our value. We’re making it nonnegotiable to be paid more. We’re stepping out on our own and taking advantage of the opportunities that we can control.”

Those steps will hopefully translate to a better future for female entrepreneurs of color. “Studies show that we get better results,” Dobbs says. “We know that; it’s just taking time for the whole world to see that and specifically our white counterparts to see that too.” 

This article originally appeared in the October issue.

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