Women entrepreneurs are facing challenges, here’s how they can overcome them

• Aniya Faulcon
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

 Mark Von Holden / American Express via AP Images

Chado Tea Room in Pasadena, Calif., prepares for the 12th annual Small Business Saturday on November 27. Founded by American Express in 2010, Small Business Saturday is a key component of the Shop Small campaign.

Airdate: September 26, 2022

Saturday kicks off National Women’s Small Business Month. Women, specifically women of color, have powered the post-pandemic small business boom. Women entrepreneurs nearly doubled in number from 2019 to 2021, according to Gusto. 32% of small businesses are owned by women and nearly one in five Black women are in the process of running or starting a business, according to the Harvard Business Review.

According to Guidant Financial and the Small Business Trends Alliance, there have been more female small businesses owners in the past few years than at any other point in American history.

However, many women become entrepreneurs out of necessity to accommodate family needs and face obstacles that make it difficult for their business to survive and thrive.

Carolina Martinez, CEO of CAMEO, Adriana Eiriz, Vice President of Partnerships at Accion Opportunity Fund, and Jennie Groff, Member of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage joined us on Monday’s Smart Talk to provide some insight on the obstacles women entrepreneurs face and resources to help them succeed.

“I think that small businesses are showing even more how resilient they (women) are. And in particular, as we talk about women entrepreneurs, they’ve had to go through this process of trying to pivot and find ways to be able to succeed and be successful,” Eiriz said. “So what we’re seeing today is a continued need for support, for educational resources, for tools,  for capital, of course, so that they can continue to solidify and grow their small businesses.”

Martinez said entrepreneurialism can be a powerful force driving economic equality for women but they must be provided with tools to realize their potential and overcome these obstacles:

• The disadvantages, compared to male-owned businesses, in accessing critical resources for sustainability and success
• Lack of access to capital
• Low funding from lawmakers for community development financial institutions to scale their work
• Lawmakers need to implement through the lending legislation at the federal level to help protect the small businesses from predatory lenders
• Lawmakers to need to provide more funding for small business assistance centers

The small business experts suggested that business owners keep their business needs separate from personal finances, seek out coaching and networks, and to invest in your employees, as that is the key to business success.

Eiriz, Martinez, and Groff agreed that one of the best ways to celebrate National Women’s Small Business Month is to support women-owned businesses.

“It goes back to these small businesses, especially women owned businesses are the engine of our economy and they’re the backbone of our society,” Eiriz said. “So not only do these small businesses employ almost half of our nation’s workforce, but they turn these towns into our hometowns, our neighborhoods, our communities, and they build equitable financial sectors. So it’s essential to the entire economy of our country. It’s critical for us to support women.”

The Associated Press and WITF’s democracy reporter Jordan Wilkie are partnering to tell stories about how Pennsylvania elections work, and to debunk misinformation surrounding elections. 

Read the stories here