Women Report Needing Half as Much as Men to Launch Business

Photo credit: Sarah Natasha 

What could you do with 10k?

If you’re a woman, you could start a business.

According to a report released by U.S. version of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an annual survey that tracks entrepreneurial activity worldwide, female entrepreneurs in the U.S. reported needing only half as much as their male counterparts to start a new business. 

In 2015, entrepreneurs needed a median level of $17,500 to start their businesses, and financed 57 percent of funding needs themselves.

Women reported needing half as much funding to start companies as men -- $10,000 and $20,000 respectively -- suggesting that women felt they could accomplish what they needed with fewer resources, or that they simply have fewer resources to apply to their businesses. 

"Women felt they could accomplish what they needed with fewer resources."

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“Globalization, changes in technology, and social awareness have provided an impetus to develop capital flows from diverse sources,” said Babson College Professor of Entrepreneurship Donna Kelley, the GEM Report’s lead author. “Startup activity benefits from widespread recognition of the role entrepreneurship plays in increasing employment and improving the economic health of the nation.”

The findings align with the latest survey on business ownership by the Census Bureau, which found that 42.9 percent of female business owners reported using less than $10,000 to start their ventures, compared with just 38.4 percent of men. The Census report also found that 12.1 percent of men who owned businesses said they needed at least $50,000 to launch their companies, more than double the 5.5 percent of women who reported needing at least that much.

The GEM study also found that nationwide, there are more than 60 percent more men than women entrepreneurs. California and Florida have male rates equal to or greater than the overall U.S. level. New York and Ohio show an equal mix of both men and women engaged in entrepreneurial activities. Texas is close to equal and also has the highest rate of women entrepreneurs. 

So, women can do more with less? And Texas female entrepreneurs are kicking-ass? Good up. 

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Cracking the Code: Atlanta Is Changing the Face of Startup Culture

Women in Atlanta are proving that you don't have to be in Silicon Valley to explore your tech dreams. Over the past few years, Atlanta has been growing as hub for female entrepreneurs and defying the status quo with its increasing number of women in tech.

Does it come as any surprise as to why we made the big peach of the south our next stop for Create & Cultivate?

According to Allyson Eman, Executive Director of Venture Atlanta, the premier tech conference held every October for Georgia’s top technology innovators and top-tier investors told Forbes,  "Women are seizing the opportunity to start tech companies in Atlanta’s key industries—fintech, health IT and IT security—as well as in emerging industries, such as marketing automation." According to Eman, Atlanta is much more open to female techies than many other cities. In San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle, for example, tech workforces are more than 75% male. 

At the beginning of 2016, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced the inaugural class of a new program geared at women in business. Called the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative, Mayor Reed said the program is "an important step forward in strengthening our city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem." The group of women, selected through a rigorous process in the fall of 2015, now have opportunity to operate their small businesses in an incubator environment, with designated workspace. The WEI initiative lasts for 15 months and is housed on the 11th floor of Downtown Atlanta’s iconic Flatiron Building – the city’s oldest standing skyscraper. This signifies an important step forward in the city's diverse history and demographics.

Likewise there are venture firms, Atlanta-based Valor Ventures for one, that are focussing on female entrepreneurs in Atlanta and setting up women-only capital funds. Designed to fill the gap in the startup world, Valor also sees this as smart business.  In Quarter 2 of 2015, Atlanta tech companies raised more venture capital — $206.8 million — than in any quarter since Q2 2001. General Partner of Valor told Upstart Biz Journals, "Of the $48 billion in venture capital invested last year, just 7 percent went to female founders. It’s a market niche that’s incredibly underserved, yet is high opportunity.”

She also told them that female-led companies perform better. 

Tickets for Create & Cultivate Atlanta are on sale now! Get yours before they go. 

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4. Originate - Los Angeles, CA

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