There are more than 9 million companies that are owned by women. They employee close to 8 million people, and together they accomplished sales close to 1.5 trillion dollars as of this year. With those statistics one wonders why it is still hard for a business woman to get a loan from a bank or get the same benefits than their male counterparts get. To read more about this topic and to read more about Ohio’s economy outlook, follow the links below.
Ranking state economies: See where Ohio falls
Ohio’s economy is something of a mixed bag, at least according to Business Insider, which has ranked all 50 states.
The Buckeye State ranks No. 25.
Here’s what Business Insider has to say about Ohio:
“Ohio has a disproportionate number of manufacturing and health services jobs. However, Ohio’s scores on our measures were very much a mixed bag:
On the bright side, Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped sharply over the past year, from 7.4% in June 2013 to 5.5% in June 2014.
The housing market in Ohio, on the other hand, is not recovering as quickly as it is in many other states. Ohio saw a small 0.1% drop in housing prices between Q1 2013 and Q2 2014.
Similarly, Ohio faces demographic challenges, with the working age population shrinking by a marginal 0.1% between 2012 and 2013, one of only 13 states to show a decline in this population.
Women small business owners struggle to get loans
NEW YORK (AP) — Women are a growing force in the business world, but if they own a company, they may still struggle to get a loan from a bank.
Carrie Charlick and Marcia Cubitt have $4 million in sales but have been rejected for $500,000 credit lines since 2012. Their 11-year-old company, Essential Body Wear, sells women’s underwear at parties at customers’ homes. That’s a problem for bankers, Charlick says. Because the Detroit-based business doesn’t have a traditional structure and sells directly to the public rather than retailers, banks keep saying no.
“We don’t have receivables and we don’t own a building,” she says. “We don’t have collateral.”
Male loan officers have also made inappropriate comments about the fact the company sells lingerie. Charlick is convinced that they have a problem with women-owned businesses.
Women owners have long been at a disadvantage getting loans. Some states required husbands or other male relatives to co-sign business loans until the practice was outlawed by the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988. But women’s business loan approval rates are between 15 percent and 20 percent below men’s, according to the online lending marketplace Biz2Credit.com.
Several factors contribute to the problem. Banks historically have been gun-shy about small businesses, and that caution increased due to stricter government regulations after the 2008 credit crisis. Often, women-owned businesses are young, making them look risky to lenders.
Greg Abbott celebrates growth in women-owned businesses in Texas, overlooks meaningful details
In an email blast, Greg Abbott’s campaign said Texas businesses owned by women flourished with Barack Obama in the White House.
Abbott, the attorney general and Republican gubernatorial nominee, wasn’t saluting the Democratic president. In the July 10, 2014, email message, Kim Snyder, Abbott’s deputy campaign manager, called Texas the “land of opportunity – especially for women.” Texas does better than other states, Snyder wrote, adding: “Let’s compare: the growth rate of women-owned businesses in Texas has nearly doubled that of the nation since President Obama has taken office.”
A reader, bringing the email to our attention, wondered about the described growth rates.
To our inquiry, Abbott spokesman Avdiel Huerta said by email Abbott’s near-doubling reference was based on reports by American Express OPEN, which American Express describes as the leading payment-card issuer for small U.S. businesses.
According to the 2013 State of Women-Owned Businesses report, Huerta said, there were 8,617,200 woman-owned U.S. firms, including 737,300 in Texas, in 2013. In 2007, AMEX said there were 7,793,139 woman-owned firms nationally and 610,007 in Texas, Huerta said.
