Unless you’re living under a rock, ever since the Harvey Weinstein scandal, daily news reports are detailing a never-ending litany of sexual harassment cases toward women in the workplace.
The daily barrage of #MeToo posts describing women’s inappropriate treatment in the workplace, is, sadly, the new normal. With that in mind, now may be the time for women to start businesses of their own. In fact, they’ve already accomplished that and more: according to research, the number of female-owned businesses grew five times faster than the national average in the last nine years. In the U.S., the number of all women-owned firms grew by 45% as opposed to a nine percent increase among all firms between 2007-2016.
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While that figure is impressive, not all states are created equally when it comes to a favorable business climate for female entrepreneurs. Female business owners face their own unique set of challenges and obstacles in today’s professional environment. Establishing a business in a location most receptive to female entrepreneurs can be tremendously helpful.
Fit Small Business, an online publication serving small owners, helped identify which states are the most favorable to female entrepreneurs. The publication assembled publicly-available data from leading sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, Womenable and American Express Open – and thoroughly analyzed it to determine the best states for female entrepreneurs. The good news is that the Top 10 states for female entrepreneurs are scattered throughout the country.
Top 10 States for Women Entrepreneurs:
#1 Georgia
#2 Florida
#3 Maryland
#4 California
#5 Colorado
#6 Virginia
#7 New York
#8 Texas
#9 Hawaii
#10 New Mexico
The following six categories were chosen to help to determine a state’s desirability for female business owners:
1. Percentage of women-owned firms out of total businesses in a state
2. Percentage of a state’s business revenues coming from women-owned firms
3. Women economic clout in each state
4. Trend in net number of women-owned firms per day
5. Percentage of women-owned firms with paid employees
6. Percentage of employees in the state that are working in women-owned firms
“While news stories these days portray a dismal outlook for women in the workplace, we were encouraged to discover that female entrepreneurs are receiving more supportive treatment in a variety of states across the country,” said Managing Editor Priyanka Prakash.
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