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\u201cI believe that literacy is part of the solution to every issue challenging us today, and that one of the best ways to ensure a literate adult Chicago in the future is to work with its children now,\u201d says <\/span>Stacy Ratner<\/span><\/a>, sounding like a campaigner on the stump. Driven by this idea, in 2006, she founded Open Books Ltd.<\/a>, a social enterprise that collects donated books and sells them to fund or uses them for its literacy programs. <\/span><\/p>\n But the path to realizing her vision — now a $1.3 million enterprise — was hard won and not at all bookish. Open Books\u2019 first warehouse was in a \u201crough\u201d neighborhood, its doors punctured by bullet holes, she says. Initial funding came from family and friends and Ratner\u2019s own bank account. She worked hard to craft a sustainable business model, and it took 15 months to really get things moving.<\/p>\n \u201cJust about every detail of the original idea, from proposed location and projected team size through types of programs and needed resources, has changed dramatically as we grew, learned, changed, grew again and learned some more,\u201d she told us.<\/span><\/p>\n Ratner is one of 1,000 female entrepreneurs across the globe who shared their business stories with The Story Exchange over the last three years. We launched the 1,000 Stories<\/a> campaign in October 2012, in partnership with Babson College<\/a>, the renowned entrepreneurship academy, and collected our one-thousandth story in November 2015. Now, with this milestone reached, we are able provide a uniquely deep look<\/a> at why women\u00a0start<\/a>\u00a0companies, how they view success<\/a>, their top challenges<\/a> and their role models<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n The result is 1,000 portals into the diversity and power of individual women creating fascinating lives through business ownership and making important contributions to families, communities and economies around the globe. The Story Exchange has been publishing <\/span>their stories<\/span><\/a> since the project began and, today, unveils an interactive map<\/a> to help readers explore them by location and industry.<\/span><\/p>\n The stories comprise, we believe, an unprecedented qualitative dataset on women business owners. And together, they paint a picture of entrepreneurship that is far bigger and far richer than the prevailing business culture would have you think. <\/span><\/p>\n That culture, especially in the U.S., lionizes<\/span> size, growth and profits to judge a business\u2019 worth. Largely dismissed are the millions of sole proprietorships and small businesses that hum along nicely for years, serving happy regular customers, providing solid livings for owners and employees, and adding strength and vitality to countless communities. Yet these are the kinds of companies most women run.<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless of the cold shoulders, the women we\u2019ve met over the last three years are <\/span>stretching the definition of business value well beyond its traditional \u201cmasculine\u201d measures. They are adding to the mix — and even elevating — traditionally \u201cfeminine\u201d values like helping, inspiring and satisfying other people as well as personal goals like finding meaning, happiness and pursuing passions. <\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, these <\/span>contours of female entrepreneurship combined with the increasing presence of women in business can and are changing business itself. Social goals and measures of value are on the rise; just look at the emergence of social entrepreneurship and <\/span>B Corps<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Our Study<\/b><\/p>\n The women in the 1,000 Stories project are self-selected and well-educated (<\/span>84% possess a Bachelor\u2019s or more advanced degree), <\/span>and most live in the United States (77 percent of respondents) — though India (19 percent), Canada (18 percent) and the United Kingdom (16 percent) have significant representations among a total 50 countries reached. While our data cannot be called representative of female entrepreneurship globally, our findings are broadly in line with <\/span>other<\/span><\/a> studies<\/span><\/a> of women entrepreneurs. <\/span><\/p>\n Our data\u2019s most important contribution lies in its wealth of intensely personal and often dramatic life stories of women in business. These women have surmounted challenges in <\/span>love<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>profound<\/span><\/a> loss<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>homelessness<\/span><\/a> and even <\/span>murder<\/span><\/a>. And they have persevered and gone on to found and nurture companies that provide meaning, serve others, stoke passions and provide solid livelihoods for them, their families and their employees.<\/span><\/p>\n At age 19, <\/span>CJ Scarlet<\/span><\/a> was raped by a sheriff\u2019s deputy she had been dating. That painful experience propelled her into a career as a victims\u2019 advocate. But she became determined to prevent victimization in the first place. So recently, she developed a wearable, voice-activated personal security device that she is now commercializing through Tiger Eye Sensor Inc.<\/a>, of Raleigh-Durham, N.C.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI will know I am successful when I receive the first email from a customer telling me her life was saved by our Tiger Eye Security Sensor,\u201d she says. \u201cOur aim is to prevent sexual assaults and other violence, and I won\u2019t rest until our product is in the market and doing its job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Overall, the businesses in the 1,000 Stories project are fairly new; 35 percent are 2 years old or less and 34 percent are 2-to-5 years old (see <\/span>chart<\/span>). They also tend to be small in size, with sole proprietorships accounting for 35 percent and businesses with 2-to-5 employees for 41 percent (see <\/span>chart<\/span>). The top five industries represented are professional services (other than finance and marketing) at 13 percent, apparel and accessories at 11 percent, other consumer goods (excluding children\u2019s goods) at 11 percent, personal services at 9 percent and marketing and public relations at 9 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n Whatever their size, whatever they do, these businesses represent women\u2019s careers, scores of jobs, local economic engines and much more. \u201cThere\u2019s a ripple effect\u201d when women operate businesses, says Susan G. Duffy, executive director of the Center for Women\u2019s Entrepreneurial Leadership<\/a> at Babson College, which partnered with The Story Exchange on this project. \u201cWhen women invest in their communities, they invest in their employees, they invest in education… \u00a0It impacts local economies, but also local health and education in communities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Starting and Running \u201cGood\u201d Businesses<\/b><\/p>\n One thing that\u2019s clear from our project is that women entrepreneurs are determined to start and build \u201cgood\u201d businesses that give back to their communities and people in need, and don\u2019t just provide livelihoods. Overwhelmingly, they say they started their companies, not for financial gain, but to serve others or actualize themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n Two-fifths of participants say they started their business to fill a gap in the market or solve a problem (41 percent), 20 percent were seeking meaning or purpose, 16 percent started out of raw entrepreneurial drive and 13 percent to pursue a passion. Surprisingly, economic necessity and the pursuit of financial goals account for just 4% and 2% of motivations described, respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n Take <\/span>Holly Twining<\/span><\/a>, who did start Maine Yoga Adventures<\/a> in Orono, Maine, out of economic necessity. She had been let go by Maine Audubon, where she had worked part-time for a decade and had led quarterly yoga and nature workshops. She decided that last bit of her old job was a kernel for a new business and today offers yoga and nature adventures that are combined with seasonal outdoor activities like hiking, birding, kayaking, paddleboarding, horseback riding and skiing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe loss of a part-time job made me a business owner — the best thing that could\u2019ve happened to me,\u201d she told us.<\/span><\/p>\n Financially, Twining\u2019s goal is to make the same amount of money she earned at Maine Audubon. But she defines success as \u201can ability to inspire people and bring them into a community that moves, shares, connects and imagines together. Success is simply seeing faces light up with glee during an adventure that I\u2019ve designed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, women<\/span> are busting the myths of entrepreneurship by<\/span> resolutely prioritizing human values above cold hard cash.<\/span><\/p>\n Only 8 percent of the women we heard from define success based on financial gain, while 26 percent talk about helping or inspiring others, 17 percent about satisfying customers or employees and 17 percent about finding happiness or pursuing a passion. <\/span>When they do mention money, it is often in the same breath as taking care of family, employees, customers and other beneficiaries of their success. <\/span><\/p>\n Debunking the myths of females in the workplace, only 11 percent define success through a balance between their work and personal lives, such as flexible hours for family time, even though their embrace of \u201cfeminine\u201d caretaker roles is infused throughout their stories.<\/span><\/p>\n Their Challenges<\/b><\/p>\n Of course, like all business owners, women encounter a world of challenges. Most women in our project are busy primarily with the nuts and bolts of running companies, while bigger-picture strategic issues get much less of their attention. <\/span><\/p>\n We identified a dozen major themes in open answers when we asked for their top challenge. Overall, most mentioned are sales and marketing (26 percent), personnel and management (17 percent) and finances and cost management (16 percent). Personal challenges rank fourth (12 percent) and are primarily related to confidence issues and difficult events like personal or family health crises (another 2 percent cited discrimination, including sexism and ageism). <\/span>Only 5 percent talk about work flexibility or work-life balance as a top challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n The big picture is where women may have the greatest struggles — perhaps without knowing it.<\/span><\/p>\n Strategic issues around starting up, scaling up, setting business strategy and working with partners and suppliers were cited by a meager 11 percent of respondents. <\/span><\/p>\n Spending too much time working <\/span>in<\/span><\/i> the business, rather than <\/span>on<\/span><\/i> the business, is a common trap for new entrepreneurs, of which there are many in our group. If women are to build companies of the quality and size they desire, they need to \u201cthink big and bold earlier in their entrepreneurial careers,\u201d says Duffy of Babson. Otherwise they risk getting and staying mired in the weeds.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy top challenge has been getting out of my own way. For a long time, I had the \u2018entrepreneur dizzies\u2019 — I wanted to do everything,\u201d says <\/span>Ati Okelo Williams<\/span><\/a>, the Kenya-born owner of DC Home Buzz<\/a>, a real estate agency in Washington, D.C. \u201cOver time, I addressed the problem by learning to hire very capable people who understood the vision I had and the culture of this company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Once Williams freed herself from having to do everything, she was able to rework her business <\/span>model<\/span><\/a> to compete better in an industry where fees are being squeezed. She reinvented her a brokerage as both flat-fee and full-service, and her listings jumped.<\/span><\/p>\n Their Role Models<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Print\"](\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/TSE_1kStories_Logo_FINAL1-525x407.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>Businesses\u00a0often start in poetry, but they always operate in prose.<\/p>\n![\"StacyRatner\"](\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24165117\/StacyRatner1.jpg\")
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<\/a>![\"The](\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/07184513\/Atieno-Okelo-Williams_Home-Buzz.jpg\")
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