According to a recent study conducted by the National Foundation of Women Business Owners (NFWBO), home-based, women-owned businesses in the U.S. number 3.5 million and provide full or part-time employment for an estimated 14 million people. In today's economy, home-based businesses are a growth industry to watch.
Listed below are several key findings of this study.
- Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of home-based women-owned businesses employ people in addition to the owner. Full-time employment, including the owner, numbers 5.6 million people. Part-time or contract income is provided for an additional 8.4 million people.
- Demographically, home-based women business owners are very similar to non home-based women business owners. They are no more likely to have children at home, which contradicts the supposition that women base careers from home to balance the needs of work and a young family. While their education level is somewhat higher, their age distribution and racial composition is the same as non home-based women business owners.
- Home-based businesses owned by women are much more likely to be newer, smaller firms or in the field of business services.
- The average age of a home-based woman-owned business is 6.1 years. These businesses stand the test of time.
- Key issues for women-owned businesses, regardless of location, include maintaining business profitability, managing and maintaining business growth, managing cash flow, and keeping up with technology.
- Information technology is making it all possible. Information technology is opening doors for all kinds of new businesses by allowing for greater freedom of choice. Women entrepreneurs have taken advantage of these choices and created home-based businesses to better fit their lifestyle needs.
- Home-based women business owners are technologically savvy. In fact, home-based women-owned businesses are just as technologically savvy as other businesses with over half (56 percent) having at least one computer and nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) owning more than one. Two-thirds (66 percent) have a computer fax/modem, 55 percent use a cellular phone, 30 percent have CD/ROM capability, and 32 percent use an on-line information service.
- Home-based women business owners are much more likely than other businesses to use private sources and credit cards to finance their businesses than they are to depend on business loans, leased equipment, or vendor credit. Only 12 percent of home-based women-owned businesses used a commercial loan during 1994, compared to 40 percent of non home-based women-owned firms.
