13 Aug Where are the Women?
The spring 2014 Bank of America Small Business Owner Report stated that a major finding was that female small business owners were the most optimistic about growth prospects. The report also stated that small business:
“. . . is seeing an exciting shift – a rise in the growth of woman-owned businesses. . . two out of five women surveyed started running their business within the last five years. But whether they opened last year or last decade, the majority (68%), have plans to continue growing over the next five years and nearly three quarters (70%) expect their revenue to increase this year. Women also plan to hire more employees than men do.”
The article continues to point out the successes of women-owned businesses.
This report presents two ideas to ponder: (1) Women are very good prospects to buy a business, and (2) Why not recruit female associates/agents to deal with this growing market? The results of our 2014 business brokerage survey are not tabulated yet, but in the 2013 survey, men made up 85% of associates/agents leaving females at only 15%. Who best to work and speak to a woman owner (or potential owner) than another woman.
I know from my own personal experience when I was responsible for over 75 offices in ten states, female agents can be very, very successful. And, this is going back many years when women weren’t as involved in small businesses as they are today. Female agents were scarce going in those years. They probably represented less than five percent of the percentage of associates/agents. But, I vividly recall that out of the top ten commission earners, at least 3 women always made it into the top ten. While less than 5% of the agents were female, at least 30% of the top ten were always females. And, that was in the early to mid 70s.
The moral of all this is that women make very good business owners and operators – and excellent associates/agents.
