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When it comes to women-owned small businesses RI bucks the trend. Why it happens: Commentary

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When it comes to women-owned small businesses RI bucks the trend. Why it happens: Commentary

Cortney Nicolato
 |  Special to The Journal

Ask a roomful of people if they became what they wanted to be when growing up and you’re bound to get a range of answers.

Some, no doubt, followed their earliest dreams while others may have found new passions or opportunities that changed their course. But almost universally, most everyone would say they wanted to achieve success, enjoy what they do, and be able to provide for themselves and their family. Launching a business, which in no way is an easy task, has the ability to combine all of these elements. It’s also a path nearly impossible to navigate alone.

Although women are just a tick more than 50% of the country’s population, they own just 22% of majority-owned small businesses in the United States – roughly one-third the rate of men.

Rhode Island, however, bucks this trend, with more than half its small businesses led by women. This is no coincidence. Rather, it’s due in large part to the efforts of the Center for Women & Enterprise, its Rhode Island Women’s Business Center, and the many Rhode Islanders who support the nonprofit’s mission of helping women-led businesses thrive by giving of their time, talent and treasure.

This is all about economic empowerment, and the numbers speak for themselves: nearly 20,000 aspiring small-business owners have served since the organization’s launch, and the nonprofit has seen a 200% increase in the demand for its services over the last 24 months alone. All this, interestingly enough, comes at a time when federal funding for women’s business centers has remained flat for 35 years and counting.

Fortunately for the Ocean State, we have a nonprofit entirely dedicated to “lift up the women who lift up the world,” and proof of their impact can be found in every corner of our state.

Cortney Nicolato is the president and CEO of United Way of Rhode Island.

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