Women Entrepreneurs

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While men have traditionally held the titles of President and CEO, women are beginning to challenge the dominance of men in the corporate arena. Women start two thirds of all new businesses each year, and there are over nine million woman owned businesses. The increase in women owned businesses has spurned an increase in associations created to help women succeed in male dominated world of entrepreneurship. The Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE) is a regional economic development organization founded by Harvard Business School graduate Andrea Silbert. With offices in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, CWE has served more than 2000 entrepreneurs from over 100 Eastern Massachusetts cities since it's inception in October of 1995.

CWE stands out among other economic advancement programs due to its innovative approaches to economic development. Multi-week courses teach perpetual business improvement skills, while programs and services are comprehensive, with education starting from the origin of a business and continuing through growth and maturity. These classes are socio-culturally diverse to encourage networking and tolerance.

The Center for Women and Enterprise offers numerous courses and workshops for entrepreneurs in the start-up stages of business development, including Business Launch, Finding Your Funding, and Fast Trac Planning. In addition, those entrepreneurs pursuing expansion can take advantage of classes such as Equity Boot Camp and Business Tune-Up.

Although CWE's programs and services are open to everyone, they target low to moderate-income women, especially those from the inner city. This non-profit organization provides its services on a sliding scale basis in an attempt to serve all women, regardless of their ability to pay.

According to Labor Department Statistics, the average working woman earns only about 74 percent of what a man earns for comparable jobs. Furthermore, only three women hold the title of CEO in the Fortune 500 and only five in the Fortune One Thousand. Women owned businesses generate almost four trillion dollars in annual sales and employ more than twenty-seven million people.

Virtually all women who decide to take the entrepreneurial road to success could benefit from business development services. Individualized consulting, networking opportunities, and access to debt and equity capital would give these women greater opportunities for success. Fortunately, the Center for Women and Enterprise has successfully implemented plans to help women become more economically self-sufficient and continues to work to financially empower them.

LINKS AND RESOURCES
The Center for Women and Enterprise

National Association of Women Business Owners

Entrepreneurial Development Center, operated by The Small Business Association of Michigan