Attendees linked learning to action immediately at Women's Entrepreneurship Day Wisconsin 2017 & 2018 - conferences for women entrepreneurs, business owners, founders, executives, policy makers and change agents.
From tools to support, ideas and connections, they gained practical skills to grow their business, NPO, and entrepreneurial efforts.
When leaders grow, revenues grow, jobs are created and lives are changed. This is the mission of WED - to celebrate, empower, and support women in business to alleviate poverty (in Wisconsin) and worldwide.
Wisconsin's thought leaders at every stage and every age gathered together in Madison as part of Women's Entrepreneurship Day Wisconsin 2017 & 2018 to learn, encourage and grow their businesses, communities and lives.
They were inspired, gained confidence and felt empowered to lead like never before
- An entire day to think. Not be distracted by emails or phone calls, kids or spouses, parents or life in general.
- They heard stories that encouraged them from people who have been there.
- Learned HOW to move their lives and ideas forward.
- Networks grew exponentially. As a WEDWisconsin participant, they were part of a global community of women who are change agents, business owners, leaders, policy makers, trailblazers and innovators.
- They laughed!
- They were supported. Too few people talk about what it takes to achieve a successful outcome. We see the magazine covers, the Instagram photos and the FB feed and think “it is so easy for them”. At this conference, we did not play that game. We kept it real. The purpose of this conference was to celebrate, empower and support women in business because research shows, those three things combined are difference makers.
- Gained some incredible tools in a really short amount of time that were 100% actionable beginning the minute the left the conference.
- They had access to resources that helped them grow with community economic development partners who were at the conference.
- Enjoyed healthy snacks and a beautiful lunch.
Women, Money, Bias and You - Why is this movement so important?
- While the share of women-owned firms keeps climbing – from 28% in 2002 to 38% today – their share of employment (8%) and revenues (4%) remains essentially unchanged.
- Although the number of minority women-owned businesses has increased at a rate nearly three times that of all women-owned firms since 2006 (127% versus 45%), their average annual revenues are less than half that of the average women-owned firm (just under $69,000 compared to $143,000).
- Between 2007 and 2016 the number of women-owned firms increased by 45%, compared to just a 9% increase among all businesses.
- Only 2% of women-owned enterprises break $1 million in revenue. Those owned by men are 3.5 times as likely to reach that million-dollar threshold.
- Even among SBA loans, women receive 2.5 times less money than men: on average, women get $59,857 while men receive $156,279.
- Since the recession the industries with the greatest share of new women-owned firms are found in historically traditional sectors for women: Services (which includes hair and nail salons, up 98% compared to 45% overall); administrative, support and waste management services (home to janitorial and landscaping businesses, +64%); and accommodation and food services (+62%).
- Female entrepreneurs receive only about 2% of all venture funding, despite owning 38% of the businesses in the country.
- Harvard Business Review found that 67% of the questions posed to male entrepreneurs were promotion-oriented, while 66% of those posed to female entrepreneurs were prevention-oriented.
- For small business loans, women receive just 16% of all loans even though 1 in 3 small businesses in the U.S. are owned by women.
Is you business building, growing or changing?