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Home - Contacts - Collaborators
Promoting the Development of Women-Owned Businesses
Women business owners are significant contributors to Maine’s economy. The US Census 2000 indicates that women own 24% of all firms in Maine. The median woman-owned business has two employees and sales of $100,000.
Business is also an important economic opportunity for women and their families. More than half of the women-owned businesses in Maine contribute more than half of the owner’s household income. Women business owners on average have household incomes $20,000 higher than Maine households in general. 1
Microenterprise (businesses with five or fewer employees and capital requirement of $25,000 or less) is an important option for women, particularly for rural and low-income women. Microenterprise development addresses the needs of low-income women by acknowledging their potential for business ownership, building their business skills, and validating both part-time and full-time business activity. It also works: over a three year period of supporting self-employment among TANF recipients, Women, Work, and Community reports an average of 15% of welfare recipients moving off TANF because of business earnings.
In spite of the value women’s business ownership brings both to the Maine economy and to the women themselves, many barriers still stand in the way of female entrepreneurs. Women often have difficulty obtaining access to capital due to lack of collateral or equity, or because they are simply not taken seriously by lenders. Women also need technical assistance services that respond to who they are, that take into account their life circumstances and that respect and validate their skills and experiences.
1. From 2001 research conducted by Coastal Enterprises, Inc.'s Women's Business Center.
The Issues
In order to remove barriers and ensure full opportunity for women in entrepreneurship, several issues need to be addressed at both the state and federal level: Accountability and Reporting
- Expanding Opportunities
- Access to Technical Assistance and Financing
- Accountability and Reporting
Priority Recommendations
Expanding Opportunities
- Continue the Maine Department of Human Services’ policy and practice of supporting TANF recipients who wish to pursue self-employment as a strategy for achieving self-sufficiency. Ensure that when TANF is reauthorized at the federal level, current policy supporting self-employment for TANF recipients is retained.
- Fully fund the coordination of the Maine Enterprise Option (MEO) program within the Department of Labor, at a minimum annual level of $50,000.
- Amend the Trade Readjustment Assistance Act (TRAA) to allow dislocated workers to pursue small business development. Ensure that those provisions are compatible with existing regulations under the Self-employment Assistance (SEA) program, which covers recipients of regular unemployment insurance.
- Ensure continuation of the federal SBA 8a Program which channels government contracts to small businesses owned by disadvantaged individuals. Target a percentage of government contracts to women business owners.
- Increase access to healthcare for small business owners.
Access to Technical Assistance and Financing
- Establish permanent funding for the Maine Microenterprise Initiative Fund to provide training and technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs, at a level of $1 million per year. Require that Microenterprise Initiative funds be directed toward community-based organizations that have a proven record of effectively serving female, minority and low-income entrepreneurs.
- In FY2003 federal appropriations, include funding for the three Small Business Administration (SBA) programs that are targeted to microenterprises and benefit women business owners:
- SBA Microloan Program: $35 million for technical assistance and $35 million for loans
- Women’s Business Centers: $14.5 million
- PRIME: $15 million
Accountability and Reporting
- Provide necessary funding for the Census Bureau’s Survey of Women-Owned Businesses. Conducted every five years, this survey provides essential longitudinal data documenting the growth of this sector.
- Require greater accountability in meeting federal contracting procurement targets for contracting with women business owners.
- Enact the Access and Openness in Small Business Lending Act of 2001 (HR 3372) which would require banks and other financial institutions to report the race and gender of the small businesses from which they receive applications and to which they lend.
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