Women In Business

Women business owners in the South West are performing ahead of expectations - in spite of the rocky economy.

That's according to a survey from the Women's Business Council Southwest which spoke to female entrepreneurs in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Minorities and women business owners are being particularly hard hit as community loans from a Small Business Administration program become increasingly scarce.

The Wall Street Journal recently spoke to Jacqueline M. Payne of Georgia, who unsuccessfully applied for a $5,000 SBA Community Express loan this summer.

Women of color are a growing and increasingly successful segment of small business owners, according to a recent study.

The Center for Women's Business Research issued a recent report noting that women of color now comprise 26 percent of all women business owners, up from 20 percent several years ago.

The economic downturn means that it is vital for owners of small firms to protect their organization from the threat of recession.

Such is the assertion of author Laura S. Wharton, who reports that in spite of the financial crisis opportunities still remain for firms to not only keep their heads above water but go on to grow their business.

Small businesses are increasingly being set up by immigrants living the United States, it has been reported.

In research carried out by the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, it was revealed that immigrants are more likely than those born in the U.S. to create their own firm.

Figures from the office showed that just under a fifth (17 percent) of the 484,000 businesses set up each month are done so by migrants, with these people an estimated 30 percent more likely to start up a firm than non-immigrants.

The song may say that it's a man's, man's, man's world, but it is clear that women also have something to say when it comes to business.

In research carried out by Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), females from minority backgrounds were shown to be setting up their own small business about twice as fast as men of similar backgrounds.

Between 1997 and 2002, it was shown that there has been a 57 percent increase in such women starting their own firm, in comparison to 31 percent of minorities men.

Although banks and commercial organizations across the country are taking a battering during the credit crisis, it appears women in businesses across both North and South Carolina are rolling up their sleeves and getting on with the job in hand.

More than 400 women attended the Blake hotel in North Carolina last Tuesday to hear a number of females pitch their entrepreneurial ambitions, the Charlotte Observer reports.