Sign In
Why Women Should Start Businesses: A Founder's Perspective
I started Editor World in 2010, and the reason was simple: I saw people who needed help with editing their academic papers. As the only American student in my graduate cohort at Ohio State University, many international students needed help with editing and proofreading their papers. I saw, up close, how much demand there was for clear, high-quality editing, and how few good options existed for the writers who needed it most. So I built one. Sixteen years later, Editor World connects clients and editors around the world, and I still believe what I believed then: that women should start businesses, and that the world is better when more of them do.
This is not just encouragement. The data on women-owned businesses is genuinely striking, and my own experience as a founder, a professor, and a woman who has spent 16 years building a company has convinced me that the case for women's entrepreneurship has never been stronger. Below, I share the numbers, the reasons, and the practical resources I wish someone had handed me when I was starting out.
Quick answer: the case for women's entrepreneurship
Women own 14.2 million US businesses, generating $2.8 trillion in revenue, and now launch nearly half of all new businesses. Starting a business offers independence, control over your time, and the chance to build something on your own terms. Practical support exists through grants, certification programs, and organizations created specifically for women founders, several of which are listed at the end of this article.
The Numbers: Women Are Building Businesses at Record Rates
When I started Editor World, women-owned firms were a much smaller share of the economy than they are today. The growth since then has been remarkable. According to the US Census Bureau's November 2025 release, women owned 14.2 million US businesses in 2023, generating $2.8 trillion in receipts. Other widely cited research, including the Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report, puts the figure as high as 14.5 million firms and $3.3 trillion in revenue, with women-owned businesses now making up roughly 39% of all US firms.
The momentum matters as much as the totals. Women launched 49% of new businesses in 2024, and the number of women-owned businesses grew about 17% between 2019 and 2024. That is faster growth than the business population as a whole. More than 1,800 new women-owned businesses are now started in the US every day. The picture is not uniformly rosy: women founders still receive a small fraction of venture capital, and the average woman-owned firm earns less in revenue than the average man-owned firm. But the direction is unmistakable. More women are choosing to build, and they are succeeding.
Why Women Should Start Businesses
The statistics explain what is happening. The reasons below explain why, drawn from what I have seen building my own company and from the women founders I have met along the way.
1. Independence and creative control
Self-employment offers the freedom to control your own schedule, but the deeper freedom is creative. Instead of pitching an idea to an overburdened boss and waiting for feedback that may never come, you can see your decisions take shape in real time. When I wanted Editor World to offer a new service or work differently, I did not have to convince anyone but myself. That ability to act on your own judgment, and to live with the results, is one of the most rewarding parts of building a business. It is also how good companies improve quickly.
2. Control over your time
Many women feel the pull between demanding work and the people they love. A fulfilling job with an over-packed schedule can still take a real toll when there is not enough time left for family or for yourself. Entrepreneurship does not make that tension disappear. Building a company is hard, and the early years ask a lot of you. But it does hand you something employment rarely guarantees: control over your own time, and the ability to decide how you spend it. For me, that has been worth a great deal.
3. The chance to mentor and be mentored
No one builds a business in a vacuum. A mentor or role model can be a steadying force when you are starting out, a sounding board who has seen the problem you are facing. I have benefited from that support, and I try to offer it in turn. I genuinely enjoy connecting with fellow women business owners and learning from the different perspectives they bring. The more women who build successful companies today, the more mentors exist for the founders of tomorrow. That is how the pipeline widens, one relationship at a time.
4. A perspective the economy needs
As a professor of consumer economics, I think a lot about how people make financial decisions, and research consistently finds that women and men often approach risk and decision-making differently. Those differences are a strength in business, not a weakness. Companies and markets benefit from a wider range of perspectives at the table. When more women start businesses, they do not just create jobs and revenue, they bring approaches to problem-solving, customer service, and long-term thinking that the economy genuinely needs. At Editor World, I have always believed that careful, personal attention to each client matters, and that belief has shaped everything about how the company runs.
What I Have Learned in 16 Years
If I could tell a woman thinking about starting a business one thing, it would be this: service compounds. The thing I am proudest of at Editor World is not a revenue figure, it is that as our number of editors and clients has grown, we have managed to keep the same high level of customer service and satisfaction we had when we were small. That consistency is not automatic. It takes deliberate effort, and it is the foundation everything else is built on. Clients return and recommend you because of how you treat them, year after year.
I would also say: invest in your own education as a founder, even after you have started. I completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in 2020 and earned a Certificate in Women's Entrepreneurship through the Bank of America Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell University in 2025. Both were free, both were rigorous, and both gave me skills and connections I use now. The resources for women founders are better than they have ever been, and many of the best ones cost nothing. The next section lists several worth knowing about.
Resources for Women Starting a Business
These are programs and organizations I either have used myself or recommend to other women founders. Most are free or low-cost.
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. A free education program for small business owners, covering practical business skills, with access to capital connections and a national network of alumni.
- Bank of America Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell. A free 12-week online certificate program taught by Cornell faculty, covering customer discovery, legal considerations, funding, product development, and marketing.
- SBA resources for women-owned businesses. The US Small Business Administration funds Women's Business Centers across the country and provides guidance on financing, certification, and federal contracting.
- National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). A membership organization with local chapters, advocacy, and a national network of women business owners.
- Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). The leading certifier of women-owned businesses in the US. WBENC certification can open doors to corporate and government supplier programs.
- SCORE. A nonprofit offering free business mentoring and low-cost workshops, with mentors experienced in launching and growing small businesses.
A Final Word
Starting a business is not easy, and I would never pretend otherwise. But it remains one of the most meaningful things I have done. Sixteen years in, I still love the work, I still learn from my clients and editors, and I am still convinced that the world benefits when more women decide to build. If you are weighing the decision, the data is on your side, the resources exist, and the support is real. I hope you build the thing you have been thinking about.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many women-owned businesses are there in the United States?
According to the US Census Bureau's November 2025 release, women owned 14.2 million US businesses in 2023, generating $2.8 trillion in receipts. Other widely cited research, including the Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report, places the figure as high as 14.5 million firms and $3.3 trillion in revenue. Women-owned businesses now make up roughly 39% of all US firms, a share that has grown steadily over the past two decades.
Why should women start businesses?
Starting a business offers women independence, creative control, and authority over their own time in a way traditional employment rarely guarantees. It also creates opportunities to mentor and be mentored by other women founders, and it brings a wider range of perspectives into the economy. Beyond the personal benefits, women-owned businesses create jobs, generate trillions of dollars in revenue, and now account for nearly half of all new business launches in the United States.
What percentage of new businesses are started by women?
Women launched 49% of new businesses in the United States in 2024. The number of women-owned businesses grew about 17% between 2019 and 2024, faster than the business population as a whole, and more than 1,800 new women-owned businesses are now started every day. This growth has been driven in large part by women of color, who represent a rapidly expanding share of new business owners.
What resources are available for women who want to start a business?
Many strong resources exist, and several are free. The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and the Bank of America Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell both offer free business education. The Small Business Administration funds Women's Business Centers nationwide. NAWBO offers networking and advocacy, WBENC provides certification that can open corporate and government contracting opportunities, and SCORE offers free mentoring. Together these provide education, funding guidance, certification, and community.
What is WBENC certification and why does it matter?
The Women's Business Enterprise National Council is the leading third-party certifier of women-owned businesses in the US. WBENC certification verifies that a business is at least 51% owned, controlled, and operated by one or more women. Many large corporations and government agencies maintain supplier diversity programs that prioritize certified women-owned businesses, so certification can open access to contracts and procurement opportunities that would otherwise be hard to reach.