Today is International Women’s Day

March 8th is International Women’s Day, and as a women-owned business, Chmura is pleased to highlight some results from a recent report that we completed on the State of Women Owned Business in Virginia. The inaugural report was undertaken by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Richmond Chapter, and included a survey of Women Owned Businesses (WOBs) in Virginia, in order to better support women entrepreneurs in Virginia and understand their business characteristics.

Some of the key findings of the study include:

Women-owned businesses in the U.S., including those in Virginia, have experienced robust growth in recent years. Nationally, women-owned businesses grew an annual average of 5.0% per year from 2007 to 2012. In Virginia the number of WOBs grew an average 4.3% per year over this period.

In 2012, there were over 9.9 million women-owned businesses in the nation, accounting for 36.0% of all firms. In Virginia, there were 237,371 WOBs, which accounted for 36.3% of total firms.

Total revenue of all WOBs in Virginia was $45.0 billion in 2012, and $1,616.3 billion in the U.S.

WOBs responding to the survey in Virginia tend to rely on personal finances for funding their businesses. Only a small percentage use structured borrowing such as commercial or government loans. In general, a credit card is the most popular tool for respondent WOBs to fund their business needs.

43% of responding WOBs expressed a need for mentorship. Of responding WOBs that have been in existence for 1 year or less, 68.4% said they need mentors.

For more detail and other findings, an executive summary of the report is available online at http://nawborichmond.org/state-of-women-owned-business-in-virginia/.