Ga.’s female business owners lead nation

Why does the number of female entrepreneurs keep growing, particularly in Georgia? Well, here are my reflections, based on personal experiences and those shared with me by other women.

Many women I know evolved in their multi-faceted lives and different roles. When I was graduating college, women generally did one of three things: They went to work for big corporations and then gave up their jobs to have children; they juggled their jobs and their children, or they went to work and didn’t pursue families at all.

At the start of my career, I worked for three different small businesses, and my bosses were a series of male entrepreneurs. However, one of my bosses was a female entrepreneur, and she unknowingly paved the way for my future.

My grandfather and dad were small business owners. My business partner’s father was a small business owner. Today, an estimated 9.1 million small businesses are owned by women. According to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Business Report commissioned by American Express OPEN, $1.4 trillion in revenue is generated by these businesses that employ 7.9 million people. This accounts for 30 percent of all enterprises. It should be noted that, over the last seven years, Georgia has led the U.S. in the fastest growth in women-owned businesses.

I wanted to be a “stay-at-home” mom. Instead, I became a single mom who continued to work. My point: As women’s lives change, so do the choices they make about careers. I met my business partner at day care. Together, we built a family-friendly marketing company, now in its 20th year, that met our needs and families as well as our employees — women and men.

Interestingly, several of the females that worked for our company have left over the past five years to start their own businesses. One became an artist. Several became moms and then came back to work for us. One is a well-known make-up artist. Another started a subscription-based business, andanother became our partner in a new business venture. These women became business owners because they could. Women adapt and make their careers work for their lives, rather than allow their work to run their lives.

Several women on the Atlanta Board of Directors of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) are corporate refugees. They had tremendous career success, pioneered their way in a man’s business world and then retired. These women took their knowledge and experience and applied it to their own gigs. Now, they are successful consultants, attorneys, franchise owners, electricians, event planners, financial advisers and more. Some are wives, some mothers, some both, some neither. All are women business owners in Atlanta.