BOSTON, Oct. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of
America and Babson College today
announced the findings of a new study of women entrepreneurs and
how they overcome challenges to business growth beyond venture
funding. The study, part of a larger research collaboration between
Babson's Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) and
Bank of America Private Bank, found that women who have built
successful companies had to navigate significant gender-based
obstacles and, in doing so, created alternate paths to success for
themselves and similarly unstoppable female entrepreneurs.
Findings from the study will be presented today at a gathering
in Boston of more than 100 invited
female entrepreneurs, and published in a new report, "Beyond the
Bucks: Growth Strategies of Successful Women Entrepreneurs". The
report summarizes insights gathered through in-depth, one-on-one
interviews with 30 women business owners, all of whom operate
companies generating more than $5
million in annual revenues.
"The research found that gender-based barriers, such as
misperceptions regarding market opportunities and access to
traditional networks, are challenging, but none of these setbacks
stopped these women from achieving success," said Karen Reynolds Sharkey, business owner
executive, Bank of America Private Bank. "By sharing their
insights, we seek to support women entrepreneurs and enhance their
business growth."
Today, women own an estimated 12.3 million businesses that
employ 9.2 million people and generate more than $1.8 trillion in annual revenues.1
Through the collective experiences of women entrepreneurs in this
study, three key themes emerged relating to the challenges they've
faced when growing their businesses:
- Market misperceptions – Women entrepreneurs' competency
and market knowledge is routinely disregarded, including market
opportunities they identify.
- Network exclusion – Women entrepreneurs often experience
limited, gender-based, access to established social and business
networks, creating less access to knowledgeable mentors and capital
expansion.
- Managing expansion while underfunded – Barriers to
start-up and growth capital create new, ongoing challenges,
including constraints on funding for recruitment, access to new
markets and overall expansion.
"Through this research, we identified several actionable
strategies women entrepreneurs are using to turn the challenges
they face into opportunities and grow their businesses," said
Lakshmi Balachandra, Ph.D., assistant professor, entrepreneurship
at Babson College and the principal
researcher on the project. "These include building on their skills
and strengths, and leveraging their personal insights for
sustainable growth."
Much of the focus on women-owned businesses to date has been on
the gender gap in venture funding. This groundbreaking study looks
at women who have led companies to the growth phase and identifies
several strategies they deploy today and might enable other
entrepreneurs to accelerate their business growth, including:
- Explore various capital alternatives.
- Build for the long term.
- Develop a sustainable and talented workforce.
- Buy from and fund women-owned businesses.
- Be a mentor, seek a mentor.
- Join or create new networks.
- Capitalize on personal insights and experiences.
Click here for a full copy of "Beyond the Bucks: Growth
Strategies of Successful Women Entrepreneurs."
Bank of America supports the economic empowerment of women
through programs such as the Tory Burch Foundation Capital Program,
Global Ambassadors Program and Vital Voices, connecting thousands
of women entrepreneurs and committing more than $100 million in affordable loans and other
resources. The company also spends more than $2 billion annually with minorities through their
supplier diversity program.
1 Source: "The 2018 State of Women-Owned Businesses
Report: Summary of Key Trends," commissioned by American
Express
About Babson College
Babson College is the educator,
convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All
Kinds®. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship
education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where
students, faculty, and staff work together to address the
real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the
entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong
functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change,
accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a
common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an
impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for
nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial
Thought & Action® as the most positive force on the
planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.
Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial
institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market
businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking,
investing, asset management and other financial and risk management
products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience
in the United States, serving
approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with
approximately 4,300 retail financial centers, including
approximately 2,200 lending centers, 2,300 financial centers with a
Consumer Investment Financial Solutions Advisor and 1,700 business
centers; approximately 16,600 ATMs; and award-winning digital
banking with more than 37 million active users, including
approximately 28 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global
leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and
trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving
corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the
world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to
approximately 3 million small business owners through a suite of
innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company
serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and
approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock
(NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Bank of
America Private Bank is a division of Bank of America, N.A., Member
FDIC, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of America
Corporation.
For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements
and other important information, visit the Bank of America
newsroom. Click here to register for news email alerts.
www.bankofamerica.com
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