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Utah's Women-Owned Businesses Increase, Reflecting National Trend

Published in Utah Business

Women-owned businesses in the United States increased 19.8 percent from 1997 to 2002, according to a report released Thursday by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

By comparison, the number of all firms in the nation grew by 7 percent.

The report defines women-owned firms at those in which 51 percent of the share of business is owned by women and had made $1,000 or more in 2002. With those parameters, Utah ranked 29th in the number of women-owned firms by state.

During the five years of the study, the number of women-owned firms grew by more than 6,000, from 41,991 in 1997 to 48,474 in 2002.

Utah ranks in the top three states with the highest number of firms in which women own at least 50 percent of the company, said Nancy Mitchell, executive director of the Women's Business Center at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce.

"That one percent makes a big difference," Mitchell said, adding that there are many reasons why Utah women choose to open a business.

One of these factors is that "there's a lack of opportunity. There aren't too many jobs at the top level for men or women here. Boise has more corporations than Salt Lake does," and Utah has fewer regional federal government jobs than the Denver area, she said.

Another reason that women start their own companies is that they like to work from home for family reasons, said Kate Reddy, president of the Salt Lake Chapter of the National Association of Women-Owned Businesses (NAWOB.)

Reddy, who with two women business partners owns McKinnon-Mulherin, a business communications and technical writing firm, said she sees Utahns as very accepting of women-owned businesses. "If you have your information, and your services are good, you'll have clients," she said.

She also credits organizations like NAWOB and the Women's Business Center with helping women get their new businesses off the ground.

"When women start there's so much they don't know," she said. "And I can't image a guy starting who knows any more, but women can support each other. They have war stories, they can share information about child care and other functions that are traditionally women's areas. And they can help each other avoid the mistakes they made."

A high number of women-owned businesses in Utah are direct sales, Mitchell said, reflecting the national statistics, which show that 16 percent of women-owned businesses are in health care and social assistance and another 14 percent offered professional, scientific and technical services.

These two sectors produced 15 percent of women-owned business receipts.

The largest revenue was generated in the wholesale and retail trades, which accounted for 17 percent of the number of businesses but 38 percent of revenue, according to the report.