Tag Archives: women

Revising the Veterans Certification – Top to Bottom

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WomenVeteransAccording to the Small Business Administration (SBA) veterans own nearly 10% of all small businesses and those veteran-owned businesses generate more than $1 trillion dollars in revenue each year. In order to qualify for federal contracting preferences at the Veterans Administration (VA), these businesses have to certify as a veteran owned business. The Veterans Administration calls this program “Veterans First.” Government-wide contracting programs give preferences to service disabled veteran owned businesses (SDVOBs) which are required to go through the certification process at the VA.

The Veterans Administration is asking for comments on a new set of changes for the Veteran Owned Small Business program (VOSB). Among many other changes, the proposal would alter the definition of a veteran, a caregiver, the verification requirements for a VOSB, and requirements for joint ventures.

First, the definition of “veteran” in the program is now consistent with a recent update to the VA’s overall definition of veteran. This means owners who served in the National Guard or in the Reserves are still only eligible to be an owner of VOSB or SDVOSB if they received a service-connected disability. The single definition of “veteran” is intended to create consistency when applying to all programs within the VA.

Veteran owners would be required to oversee “daily business operations,” replacing the terms “daily business management” and “day to day operations” in an effort to simplify the application process. In addition, references to spouses and personal caretakers are removed, replaced by “permanent caretaker” to more clearly define a single role aiding the service-disabled owner. A letter outlining the service-disabled veteran’s disability and the need for the permanent caregiver must be included in order to qualify. The VOSB application process, which was required annually, would be expanded to last for two years if the proposed rule was adopted.

Last, language on VSOB joint ventures has been clarified, requiring at least one joint partner be a verified VOSB. Additionally, the same project and time restrictions that apply to other set-aside programs have been added. All these changes, and more, can be viewed and commented on here.

If you have an opinion on the VA certification, now is the time to submit them. Your comments will make a difference – agencies receive every submission and carefully review them.

Celebrating National Women’s Small Business Month

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10mil

by AnnaKate Moeller, WIPP Programs Manager

This October we are particularly excited to celebrate National Women’s Small Business Month because of the release of the results of the 2012 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) and the SBA issuing the final rule on Sole Source Authority. It has been a big year for women in business to say the least.

The theme for this year’s National Small Business Month is “10 Million Strong” recognizing the 2012 SBO results of the nearly 10 million women-owned businesses currently in the United States. This is a 27.5% increase from 2007 survey results, showing that women-owned businesses are growing and in turn boosting the economy.

We also have cause to celebrate as the Small Business Administration issued the final rule improving access to federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses with Sole Source Authority. This rule is expected to be effective and available for use by federal agencies on October 14, 2015.

As we celebrate 10 Million Strong this October, WIPP will be highlighting women business owners on our boards, throughout our member base and networks. Please check out our twitter, Facebook and blog throughout the month to hear the stories of these female leaders.

Introducing Peer-To-Peer Lending: Alternative Funding for Your Small Business

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SBA Advocacy- P2P issue brief

The Office of Advocacy is an independent office within the Small Business Administration that is a great source for small business statistics, as well as a voice for small business owners that can express their views and issues to policy makers in DC. Today, the Office of Advocacy released an issue brief on “Peer-To-Peer Lending: A Financing Alternative for Small Businesses”.

To explain a little more, Peer-To-Peer Lending or P2P is a funding model where individual investors give small personal loans online to individuals. The Office of Advocacy describes P2P as a hybrid of crowdfunding and marketplace lending.

The issue brief released today details the funding model and gives a side-by-side view of P2P and traditional small business financing options. It also shows how it could affect small businesses in the future, giving them more opportunity for financial growth.

Read the brief to learn more.

Remarkable Advances For Women Business Owners

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By Jake Clabaugh, WIPP Government Relations

Annual Mtg 2014 - #2The U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Business Owners (SBO) showed impressive expansion for women-owned businesses. The survey’s latest data, released in August, showed nearly 10 million women-owned firms in the United States. This represents a 27% improvement from the survey’s last results in 2007. In the long term, the number of women-owned companies has increased over 50% since the survey showed 6.5 million firms in 2002.

This growth in women-owned firms is an encouraging economic indicator. Just as important, this progress occurred during the largest recession since the Great Depression. It stands as a testament to the resilience and entrepreneurial spirit of our country’s female business owners.

The SBO is an important tool for assessing the state and growth of businesses, particularly women-owned. The Census Bureau describes this survey as providing “the only source of detailed and comprehensive data on the status, nature, and scope of women-, minority-, and veteran-owned businesses.” While only the preliminary findings have been released, it provides an important preview of the more comprehensive data that will be made available later this year. The complete dataset will include more specified demographic breakdowns of firm ownership characteristics, including women-, minority- and veteran-owned businesses as well as revenues, size, industry-classification data, and geographic information.

It is imperative to use the most complete, comprehensive, and timely data to structure reasoned, directed policy initiatives and make informed decisions, thus, we are looking forward to having the complete survey data later this year. It will be an invaluable tool for guiding our policy direction moving forward, educating government entities and providing useful comparisons for individual firms. We whole-heartedly expect the full dataset to reveal many more successes.

Celebrating Women’s Equality Day

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Each year on August 26th we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, the day women were granted the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1920. This day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but it also recognizes the ongoing fight toward full economic equality. While we have made gained some ground with WIPP’s efforts to increase federal contracting opportunities for women, we still have a long way to go with issues such as access to capital, equal pay, and ensuring more women are in leadership roles in the corporate and political spheres.

See below for more resources on Women’s Equality Day:

Please don’t forget to recognize this important day by highlighting it via your social media channels.  Use the hashtag – #WomensEqualityDay to add your voice to the chorus in recognizing the important role women play in our nation.

NWBC Survey Analysis Shows Women-Owned Business Growth Soars

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The National Women’s Business Council has released its analysis of the 2012 Survey of Business Owners and while the growth rate for new businesses has slowed down, that is not the case for women-owned firms. The rate of growth of women-owned businesses is almost FOUR TIMES the rate of businesses owned by men. The results show that there were nearly 10 million women-owned small businesses in the US in 2012, a 27.5% increase since 2007. There is also a huge spike in minority women business ownership. The analysis also shows that In 2012, women-owned firms with employees paid their employees $290.5 billion- a $75.8 billion or 35.3% increase since 2007.

For more information, check out several articles written on the analysis:

Click here to view the National Women’s Business Council Fact Sheet.

Babson and Other Business Schools Commit to White House to Create ‘Best Practices’ to Give New Opportunities for Women in Business

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Graduation cap with coins.

Babson, along with 45 other business schools have committed to a set of best practices, shared with the White House, offering strategies for business schools to help women succeed during and after school. These business practices are designed to prepare female students for the challenges of the changing American workforce.

These best practices have four major area’s of focus:

  • Ensuring access to business schools and business careers;
  • Building a business school experience that prepares students for the workforce of tomorrow;
  • Ensuring career services that go beyond the needs of traditional students;
  • Exemplifying how organizations should be run.

To read more about the set of best practices, click here.

A Scorecard That Matters

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WG Blog

By Sydney Ringer, WIPP Government Relations Intern

Earlier this year, Dell released their 2015 Global Women Entrepreneur Leaders Scorecard, a new data-driven diagnostic tool that identifies the impediments to high-impact entrepreneurship. It also introduces steps that can be taken to improve the conditions for high-impact female entrepreneurship development. Countries were rated on five categories: business environment, gendered access, leadership and rights, pipeline for entrepreneurship, and potential entrepreneur leaders. The United States, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, and Canada are at the top of the list.

While the United States was at the top of the rankings system, our rating was still only 71/100 across the categories. Only 13% of start-ups have women on their executive team, and just 3% of start-ups with women CEOs received venture capital funding in 2014.[1] According to Dr. Ruta Aidis, the project director, “if women entrepreneurs were starting growth-oriented businesses at the same rate as men in the United States, we could potentially have 15 million more jobs in the next two years”.[2] The Scored is another reminder of just how challenging it can be for women to succeed even today, and even in countries like the United Sates.

First, female role models in business and government are critically important. In the U.S. only 22% of the female population knows an entrepreneur despite 46% of women believing they have the skills necessary to start a business. Women entrepreneurs can leverage their success to provide real business insights on how to encourage women to start their own businesses. Once Women decide to start their own business they have modest aspirations because access to capital is still a huge barrier. Women-owned companies are 50% less capitalized than their male-owned counterparts.

While this report demonstrates all the growth the United States and other countries still need to do, it also presents some interesting ways to encourage women entrepreneurs. On the international level, the International Trade Centre launched a global initiative to increase the proportion of public procurement contracts being awarded to women owned businesses. The study also suggests corporations diversify their leadership and increase the number of women-owned business vendors in their supply chain.

The media can also play an important role as well. Right now global media only features women as subjects in print, radio and television 25% of the time. Seeing more articles featuring women as the top story on their homepage could inspire women to follow in their footsteps.

Every country in the study, even the top rated, has room for improvement. More than 70% of the countries still rated scored less than 50 out of 100. Despite challenges, women-owned businesses are growing, but they would be growing at an exponentially faster rate if they got some encouragement from their governments, corporations, media, and other entrepreneurs.

[1] CNN Money, “The Best Country For Women Entrepreneurs.” 2015. Available online at http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/30/smallbusiness/women-entrepreneurs-dell/index.html?category=smallbusiness

[2] “Global Women Entrepreneur Scorecard Executive Summary”. 2015. Available online at http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/secure/en/Documents/2015-GWEL-Scorecard-Executive-Summary.pdf

General Assembly Fellowship Opportunity

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GA ATT blog

WIPP sponsor, AT&T, is partnering with General Assembly to support the General Assembly Opportunity Fund, a fellowship program aimed at providing hands-on education and career opportunities in technology to underrepresented groups across the globe. The Opportunity Fund specifically supports women, people of color, military veterans, and low-income individuals.  GA’s Opportunity Fund scholarship program will provide 20 youth and veterans an opportunity to take GA’s full-time, 12 week Web Development Immersive (WDI) and 10 week User Experience Design (UXDI) courses in San Francisco, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. and 50 scholarships for an online web design course. You can read more at CGI America here.

Deadline for all applications is August 15th.

July 2015 WIPP National Partner of the Month: Juli Betwee

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Julie B WIPP’s July 2015 National Partner of the Month: Juli Betwee

Managing Partner at Pivot Point Partners of San Francisco, CA

WIPP sat down with Juli to hear more about her company and relationship with WIPP.

I work with leaders of mid-sized companies to grow and scale their business.  The analogy I often use is:  Strategic planning is like a commitment to a gym membership.  The membership is the intention to set a goal and follow through.  Consistent follow-through is the tough part… when most people bail from their intention.  I work with companies for 2-3 years enabling them to compete in markets and with services, necessary for sustainable, profitable growth but not usually attainable if they keep doing what they have always done.

Tell us a little about your company and its mission. I am the Managing Partner at Pivot Point Partners. It is hard give you a short explanation so I have put together a little piece about Pivot Point.

Have you always been an entrepreneur?  If not, what, or who, inspired you to take this leap?  I have always been entrepreneurial. I often bring a fresh and different perspective to what I do. It is the advantage I bring to the people with whom I work.

How are you engaged in your community (or state or national scene) in philanthropic or political causes? I am on the board of The Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University. I have plans to teach an undergraduate business course in 2015-16. I am working with WIPP to develop their growth strategy and am on the board of The Women Presidents Organization. I contribute to GLIDE, as I believe in their model of social justice.

Have you advocated for an issue or a cause important to you? I advocate for issues that impact women in business.

What value/resources has WIPP brought you (training or education, member or political connections/access, awareness of policies that affect your business and its growth, etc.) that have been helpful to you?  Being Involved with WIPP has given me deeper insight into public policy and how it works. I am amazed at the work you accomplish and inroads you are making for women business leaders.