National Women's Council Announces New Online Resource Platform for Growth-Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs

WASHINGTON – June 30, 2016 – The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) today unveiled Grow Her Business: A Resource from Start-up to Scale-up, an online, searchable repository of nearly 200 premiere, growth-oriented programs for entrepreneurs. This new directory will connect entrepreneurs to the resources they need to obtain capital, build industry knowledge and develop the skills needed to meet high-growth objectives.

“By providing these resources we are not only supporting women’s entrepreneurship, but overall economic growth and job creation,” said Carla Harris, Chair of the National Women’s Business Council. “Whether you are looking for resources on financing options or educational opportunities, this online repository has a resource for entrepreneurs to support them at every stage of their growth.”

As of 2012, 36 percent of all non-farm, privately-held businesses in the U.S. are owned by women. Yet, women-owned businesses are largely under-represented among high-growth firms. Census research indicates that fewer than two percent of women-owned firms generate revenues of $1 million or more.

To help bridge the gap in the number of high-growth women-owned firms, NWBC’s new, free online inventory of organizations and their programs, resources, tools and initiatives will serve women entrepreneurs with high-growth aspirations at each stage of their business.The inventory provides four categories of resources that are most common in business development programs: technical assistance programs, financing options, educational opportunities and information on expanding your network. Examples of the resources include venture capital opportunities, membership associations, mentorship opportunities, conferences, competitions and accelerator and incubator programs. The resource contains at least one opportunity per state; overall, half of the resources can be accessed online while the remaining half of resources are in-person opportunities.

“We believe women with innovative and scalable ideas should be able to grow their businesses, increase their receipts and create more jobs; it’s good for the business, and good for the economy overall.,” said Harris.“But in order to do that, we also need to make sure they have access to the resources, markets and capital to ultimately sustain that endeavor. That’s the impetus for today’s release of the resource platform.”

A tutorial of this new resource will be given during the Council’sPublic Meeting – Beyond the Start-Up: Strategies to Scale-Up, which will take place via web conference, on June 30, 2016 at 2pm EST. To join the web conference please visit http://ems7.intellor.com/login/705028 and/or call 1-877-369-5243 or 1-617-668-3633using 0646742#. For further details on the meeting, please visit here. The Council has also released a Grow Her Business Infographic at the United State of Women Summit that you can find at www.nwbc.gov.

About the National Women’s Business Council
The National Women’s Business Council is a non-partisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the U.S. Small Business Administration, Congress and the White House on issues of impact and importance to women business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs.