Women-Owned Business Report

2015

ZipBooks commissioned this report in August 2015 in conjunction with the release of the

preliminary results from the United States Census Bureau's 2012 Survey of Business

Owners (SBO). The 2015 Women-Owned Business Report was published in October 2015.

We are proud to offer this report for those interested in the growing success of

women-owned businesses in the United States today.

With the most complete information publicly available, we hope to shed light on current

state and trends in women-owned businesses. We would like to thank the US Census Bureau

for t imely manner in which the delivered this data and their continued effort in providing

meaningful data for industry analysts.

Introduction..................................................................................................................................................4

Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................5

Women-owned f irm and employment growth.....................................................................................6

Women-owned business revenue growth............................................................................................7

Women-owned business job growth.....................................................................................................8

Geographic trends....................................................................................................................................12

Women-owned businesses by race......................................................................................................15

Women-owned businesses by ethnicity.............................................................................................16

Tables...........................................................................................................................................................17

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

ZipBooks is proud to offer this updated report for those interested in the growing success of

women-owned businesses in the United States today. This publication covers similar themes to

the 2015 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report published by American Express, although

this ZipBooks report accounts for some additional data, presenting a more accurate picture for

2015. For example, the 2012 Census Bureau survey was factored into this report (while it was

not incorporated into the American Express report).

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With current information, we can more precisely and accurately present important trends? like

the fact that there are actually just over 9.9 mill ion small women-owned businesses in the US

currently, rather than American Express?s estimated 9.4 mill ion. But l ike the American Express

report, this ZipBooks publication stil l reinforces an overall trend we have been seeing? that the

number of women-owned f irms continues to increase at rates surpassing the national average,

and yet those f irms are stil l smaller than the average f irm. It is our intention that these updated

f indings advise business owners, allowing them to make informed decisions that will lead to

increasing success in years to come.

As of 2012, the US Census Bureau calculated that there are just over 9.9 mill ion women-owned

businesses in the US. Furthermore, these businesses generate more than $1.5 tril l ion in revenues,

employing over 9 mill ion people.

Execut ive Summary

Sources: 1997 (not online), 2002, 2007, 2012, Census Bureau.

Nominal revenue has been adjusted using 2009 chained dollars.

Refer to Appendix Table A : Women-Owned Firms Statistics.

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It was possible to make an educated guess about the current state of women-owned businesses

by combining the 2012 Census data with standard regression analysis. It is now estimated that

the total number of women-owned businesses is quickly approaching 12 mill ion? employing

10.5 mill ion employees.

Women-Owned Firm and Employment Growth 6

Sources: 1997 (not online), 2002, 2007, 2012, Census Bureau.

Nominal revenue has been adjusted using 2009 chained dollars.

Refer to Appendix Table A : Women-Owned Firms Statistics.

This same approach was used to estimate the total revenue generated by women-owned

businesses in 2015. Based on strong revenue growth from 2007-2012, it is now estimated that

women-owned businesses will actually generate $1.86 tril l ion in revenue.

Women-Owned Business Revenue Growth 7

Sources: 1997 (not online), 2002, 2007, 2012, Census Bureau.

Nominal revenue has been adjusted using 2009 chained dollars.

Refer to Appendix Table A : Women-Owned Firms Statistics.

This approach was also used to estimate the total revenue generated by women-owned

businesses in 2015. Based on strong revenue growth from 2007-2012, it is now estimated that

women-owned businesses will actually generate $1.86 tril l ion in revenue.

Women-Owned Business Revenue Growth 8

Sources: 1997 (not online), 2002, 2007, 2012, Census Bureau.

Nominal revenue has been adjusted using 2009 chained dollars.

Refer to Appendix Table A : Women-Owned Firms Statistics.

These rates surely f it the narrative of what we already know? small business growth is being

driven in large part by women-owned businesses. And according to ADP, small businesses have

been leading the charge on new job creation.

9Women-Owned Business Driving Economic Recovery?

Using more recent census data from 2012,

we can begin to understand how

women-owned businesses contribute to job

growth. When the overall economy was

bleeding jobs, private companies began

hiring employees only after 23 straight

months of private sector job loss. But during

2007-2012, women-owned payrolls grew

by 19.5% (compare this to men-owned

payrolls' 11.5% increase). Additionally,

women-owned businesses created roughly

the same amount of new jobs as

men-owned businesses from 1997-2012

(1.9M vs. 2.2M), despite employing less than

a f if th as many employees.

Women-owned business job growth

Sources: 1997 (not online), 2002, 2007, 2012, Census Bureau.

Refer to Table B : Employee Count.

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Women-owned f irms now account for 36%

of all enterprises, and they are growing

faster in number and employment than

most other f irms.

Despite this fact, women-owned f irms

employ only 7.8% of the country?s

workforce and contribute just under 5% of

business revenues? roughly the same share

they contributed in 1997.

However, women-owned f irms contribute

15% of employment and 11% of revenues

when large, publicly-traded f irms are

excluded.

Women-owned business reach11

GEOGRAPHIC TRENDS 12

Here are the numbers of female-owned businesses by state in 2012 and 2007. They have been normalized using the population of the state. See Table C: Growth Rate By State

Top 10 gainer states by percentage

State 2007 2012 change

Louisiana 830067 1243151 0.497651

Mississippi 488007 724767 0.485157

Texas 5228967 7717118 0.47584

District of Columbia 156778 227719 0.452493

Florida 4969387 7135946 0.435981

South Dakota 134913 192470 0.426623

Tennessee 1138989 1599791 0.404571

Georgia 2274819 3136638 0.378852

Arizona 1152640 1580774 0.371438

Nevada 528617 723002 0.367724

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Top 10 loser states by percentage

State 2007 2012 Change

Maine 308122 341817 0.109356034

New Hampshire 280032 315112 0.125271398

Massachusetts 1461031 1669898 0.142958637

Vermont 162784 190415 0.169740269

Pennsylvania 2138966 2523303 0.179683548

Connecticut 760231 899716 0.183477127

West Virginia 265245 317287 0.19620351

Rhode Island 214502 257994 0.202758016

Kansas 528115 637132 0.206426631

Minnesota 1073675 1296657 0.207681095

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Women-owned businesses by race

US POPULATION

Race of Female Owners

(Legend is sorted high to low)

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By 2009, the proportion of the female

population that was non-Hispanic White

dropped to 65.2 percent and the proportion

that was Hispanic increased to 15.0 percent.

This means that Hispanic females own more

businesses than demographic breakdown

would suggest.

Women-owned businesses by ethnicity

Ethnicity of Female Owners

(Legend is sorted high to low)

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Source?

http:/ /www.mchb.hrsa.gov/whusa11/popchar/pages/102usfp.html

Year # Firms Employment Nominal Revenue ($B)

1997 5.4 7.1 819

2002 6.5 7.1 940

2007 7.8 7.5 1196

Price Index * Real Revenue ($B)

1.281860951 1049

1.175932589 1105

1.027359507 1228

2012 9.9 9 1616 0.950437318 1535

Table A : Women-Owned Firms Stat ist ics

* Price Index uses 2009 chained dollars

Source: 1997 -2012, US Census Bureau

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Table B : Employee Count

Year All f irms Privately Held Men-owned

1997 103,359,815 58,901,815 43,532,114

2002 110,766,605 55,234,825 42,428,508

2007 117,310,118 56,626,555 41,051,438

Women-owned Equally- owned Publicly-traded

7,076,081 8,284,537 44,458,000

7,141,369 5,664,948 55,398,389

7,520,121 8,054,996 60,683,564

2012 115,249,459 61,844,429 45,768,326 8,982,588 7,093,515 53,405,030*

Source: 1997 -2012, US Census Bureau

* The 'publicly held and other f irms not classif iable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status' category is not included in the preliminary tables. We used all f irms' employees minus privately-held f irm employees to estimate the number.

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State 2007 2012

Florida 0.260419 0.373957

District of Columbia 0.253268 0.36787

Hawaii 0.257705 0.328555

New York 0.257275 0.324801

Colorado 0.25636 0.320449

Georgia 0.23183 0.319659

California 0.241393 0.318258

Vermont 0.259793 0.30389

Texas 0.204003 0.301076

Maryland 0.241385 0.30095

Montana 0.217071 0.290296

Wyoming 0.221043 0.280496

State 2007 2012

Ill inois 0.219034 0.272931

Louisiana 0.181445 0.271741

Nevada 0.194342 0.265807

Oregon 0.218887 0.265803

Alaska 0.19569 0.257435

Maine 0.231925 0.257287

Michigan 0.203836 0.255032

New Mexico 0.205767 0.252989

Massachusetts 0.221134 0.252747

Connecticut 0.211957 0.250847

Tennessee 0.177973 0.249976

New Jersey 0.202481 0.247595

Table C : Growth Rate By State

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State 2007 2012

Virginia 0.194675 0.246091

North Carolina 0.189382 0.24568

Rhode Island 0.204162 0.245557

Arizona 0.178225 0.244425

Mississippi 0.163901 0.243418

Minnesota 0.200788 0.242488

North Dakota 0.177594 0.241064

New 0.212498 0.239118

Idaho 0.178428 0.234705

Alabama 0.179416 0.234298

South Dakota 0.16381 0.233696

Nebraska 0.179112 0.233171

State 2007 2012

Washington 0.190842 0.232671

Oklahoma 0.179732 0.23192

South Carolina 0.171524 0.230817

Utah 0.177518 0.225379

Kansas 0.183987 0.221967

Delaware 0.163226 0.219754

Iowa 0.173505 0.21932

Ohio 0.174085 0.217178

Arkansas 0.160083 0.21238

Indiana 0.160535 0.205019

Pennsylvania 0.167842 0.198

Table C : Growth Rate By State cont 'd

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State 2007 2012

Kentucky 0.158494 0.197971

Wisconsin 0.15849 0.192038

West Virginia 0.142996 0.171053

Table C : Growth Rate By State cont 'd

Table D: INDUSTRY TRENDS - Top 10 gains in women-owned f irms (absolute)

Other services (except public administration) (605) 2859148

Health care and social assistance 1741665

Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services 1434774

Professional, scientif ic, and technical services 1096750

Retail trade 627810

Arts, entertainment, and recreation 462695

Educational services 426693

Accommodation and food services 372763

Real estate and rental and leasing 350297

Wholesale trade 133555

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Table E: INDUSTRY TRENDS - Top 10 gains in women-owned f irms (% change)

Agriculture, forestry, f ishing and hunting (606) 0.76

Other services (except public administration) (609) 0.54

Accommodation and food services 0.470299316

Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services 0.436378866

Educational services 0.382952543

Util it ies 0.370935187

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 0.364574828

Management of companies and enterprises 0.361067504

Health care and social assistance 0.338971819

Arts, entertainment, and recreation 0.305720612

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