Women: The Fastest Growing Segment of Small Business Enterprise in America Today.

Women: The Fastest Growing Segment of Small Business Enterprise in America Today.

• The good news is that Louisiana´s number of self employed women is 7 percent higher than it was in 2011.
• The bad news is that it still ranks 47th among the 50 states as far the number of women who have established their own businesses is concerned.

I recently read that in 2013, women made up 31.4 percent of the state’s self-employed workers to Texas 44.5 percent. The only three states with lower percentages are Mississippi, with 31.2 percent; Arkansas, with 30.6; and North Dakota, with 27.9 percent.

According to an article in NOLA.com, “The fastest growing segment of small business enterprise has been women owned businesses,” said Tamara Lundgren, vice chairman of the Chamber and president and CEO of Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. “Across the country, we are seeing women owned businesses grow at a rate that is 1.5 times that of other small business enterprises. These businesses have positive and powerful impacts on our country’s most important challenges of creating new jobs and growing the economy.”

My wife would probably say that I am not the most feminist fellow out there.  But I don´t think this is a feminist issue at all.  In my estimation, this is an economic issue that Louisiana need to embrace and move on quickly. The same NOLA article quotes a National Chamber of Commerce report: “at a national level, women make up 38 percent of self-employed workers – providing opportunities for economic growth for state governors and economic development officials, the chamber’s report said.

The same Chamber report states: “More than half of women aged 55-62 feel they have the capability for entrepreneurship, representing a vast pool of experienced, late-career female professionals who may be looking to start a business given the right opportunity and support,” the report said. “Consequently, it makes a lot of sense for the economic development community at the local, state, regional and national levels to pay attention to this new workforce.”

I am Attorney Martin E. Regan, Jr. and these are my personal thoughts…