Achievements of Hispanic Business Women

08 Oct, 2012

Hedy Ratner started the Women’s Business Development Center in Chicago 25 years ago. The center specializes in providing small loans of less than $20,000 to female owners of small businesses. She has suggested that the only reason male-owned small businesses bring in more revenue than female small businesses is the venture capitalists who traditionally fund business development are primarily male.

Columbus, Ohio, entrepreneur Mary McCarthy agrees. To combat these trends that make women-owned small business a challenge, she started the Women’s Small Business Accelerator to offer cheap office space, utilities and mentoring programs to help women get a leg up. She said men “tend to get more support” when they want to start and focus on their business.

With capital funds drying up and investors nervous about opening their wallets to new ideas, it is the savvy businesswoman who knows how to carve out a place in her community for her product or service to thrive.

Latinas and Small Business

In particular, Hispanic business women should be inspired by these numbers and trends. It is not often talked about, but if venture capitalist investors are less likely to provide million-dollar investments in start-up businesses to women is true, it is doubly true for Latinas.

Women in the Hispanic community who dream of starting a business and making it for themselves must skillfully budget time, money and growth to ensure their companies sustain themselves and thrive. Networking and communications skills are a must in our information economy, and making and maintaining connections can be far more important to the success of a business than getting big loans.

Time to Shine

While the road may be difficult for women business owners, they have shown through the years that they can succeed at what has been traditionally a man’s game. While it may appear from some metrics such as revenue growth and capital investment numbers that women still have the lower hand, the economy suggests that women’s time to shine has only just begun.

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