By Natalia Olson-Urtecho
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988, a landmark piece of legislation that laid the foundation for increased federal support of one of the largest and most important segments of the nation’s economy: women-owned businesses.
According to a recent report by American Express OPEN, as of 2011, there are approximately more than 8.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States, generating nearly $1.3 trillion in revenues and employing nearly 7.7 million people. The report also estimates that, between 1997 and 2011, women-owned firms increased by 50 percent, a rate of 1.5 times the national average.
Clearly, women-owned firms are a major force in the U.S. economy and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a wide range of programs and services to help women establish and grow their small businesses.
SBA Loan Programs
While there aren’t any SBA loan programs specifically for women business owners, the SBA is one of the largest loan guarantors in the country, and, according to the Urban Institute, SBA loans are three to five times more likely to go to women than non-SBA loans. The SBA doesn’t lend the money, but rather provides a guarantee to banks and other participating lenders for the funds they lend to small businesses owners.
The SBA offers a variety of loan programs through its participating lenders that can be used for most business purposes, such as purchasing or improving real estate; purchasing machinery, equipment and inventory or assisting in the acquisition, operation or expansion of an existing business. The SBA also backs working capital loans and revolving lines of credit, as well as loans to refinance existing debt under certain conditions.
Women can explore loan programs based on their business profile and needs using the SBA’s Loans and Grants Search Tool at SBA.gov or by visiting the SBA’s Small Business Loans and Grants home page. In addition to these tools, they can also take online courses in business financing that explain the SBA’s loan programs.
SBA Training and Counseling
The SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership oversees more than 100 Women’s Business Centers (WBC) throughout the United States and its territories and is designed to assist women in starting and growing their small businesses. These centers operate with the mission to “level the playing field” for women entrepreneurs, who still face unique obstacles in the world of business. Through the management and technical assistance provided by the centers, entrepreneurs are offered comprehensive training and counseling on a vast array of topics in many languages to help them start and grow their own businesses.  In Fiscal Year 2012, the WBC network served 137,942 clients throughout the country and supported $40.5 million in capital infusion (loans and equity investment).
The SBA also delivers counseling and training through its network of Small Business Development Centers (SCORE) and veterans’ organizations. These organizations offer an inclusive series of relevant seminars, conferences and workshops to help get ideas for new services or products off the ground or take an existing enterprise to the next level. The best part is that these services are low cost or free. The SBA’s data has shown businesses that receive counseling assistance have significantly better survival rates than those that don’t receive similar support.
Contracting
One of the SBA’s priorities is to make sure more qualified women-owned small businesses have access to government and commercial supply chain opportunities. This is why the Women’s Contracting Rule was put into place, which means that for the first time federal agencies have been able to set aside contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses in more than 300 industries where women are underrepresented.
The SBA’s latest efforts to engage women-owned small businesses in the federal procurement process is the ChallengeHER Campaign, an exciting new initiative that leverages the resources of the SBA and its partners at Women in Public Policy and American Express OPEN to promote the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program and bring more women-owned firms into the federal government’s supply chain.
The SBA is committed to helping women entrepreneurs because it knows how much potential women have to contribute to America’s economic growth. To learn more about how the SBA can help your business, visit www.sba.gov/about-offices-content/1/2895 or visit http://www.sba.gov/wv.
About the Author
Natalia Olson-Urtecho is the regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration. She was previously founder, president and CEO of EG, a company dedicated to helping public and private entities become more profitable through environmentally friendly and socially responsible planning and strategies. Before founding EG, Olson-Urtecho was a transportation and land use planner at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and was director of global initiatives at H2L2. Olson-Urtecho has more than 15 years of experience working with international, regional and local entities. She was previously appointed to the U.S. Innovation Advisory Board and to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and Zoning Code Commission. Olson-Urtecho received the Business Journal 2010 Minority Business Leader Award and in 2009 received the Women of Distinction Award for her work toward building a green economy. She has lived in seven countries and speaks Spanish, French and Portuguese. She holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northeastern University. She has been a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.
