Know Your Value

Women are building businesses at remarkable rates. Women entrepreneurs now account for nearly half – 49% – of all new businesses, a 69% increase from 2019 to 2024. But new research from HSBC, in partnership with Know Your Value, shows that even as women build with confidence, they face a unique set of financial challenges. 

Know Your Value and HSBC discuss those challenges at their third "Women and Wealth" event in New York City.  Women are on the rise. Check it out.

Investing in Women Entrepreneurs Isn't Charity

Stamford has long been a place willing to embrace new ideas and bring people together to make them work. I know firsthand how powerful that can be.

Nearly 30 years ago, Fran Pastore was searching for a different path. After years of commuting to New York City, she wanted more time with her two daughters and began exploring the idea of starting her own business. 

Discover how she went from a 'kitchen cabinet" group of people to co-founding the Women's Business Development Council (WBDC) in Connecticut.

Elevating Jewish Women Entrepreneurs Since 2010

The Jewish Women Entrepreneurs (JWE) is a nonprofit community that supports Jewish women entrepreneurs with education, networking, and resources to grow sustainable and values-driven businesses.

JWE has been empowering and elevating Jewish women entrepreneurs and executives since 2010.  They believe ambitious Jewish women can build extraordinary businesses and careers while staying true to their families and communities.

Learn, connect and lead: JWE.  And "Shanah Tovah U'Metukah."

Gloria Steinem: A Model for Women Entrepreneurs

Gloria Steinem was an entrepreneur – just not the Silicon Valley kind.

She didn’t raise venture capital or chase billion-dollar exits. She created something far more powerful. As an entrepreneur of social change, she built media, philanthropic institutions, and movements to disrupt a culture and economy that historically benefited men. Her work transformed media and the lives of generations of women.

“I became aware I could no longer just write about something. I also had to act on it,” Steinem said.

Her conviction to turn her frustration with a world that fought to hold women back from their careers is what made Steinem a model for women entrepreneurs.

An Overlooked Growth Engine: Experienced (Older) Women Entrepreneurs

The startup world loves a young disruptor, but experience may be one of the most valuable assets when building a business. Women entrepreneurs over 50, however, continue to face both gender and age bias that can affect how customers, investors, and business leaders perceive their expertise and potential.

Older women can bring industry knowledge, professional networks, management experience, and a clearer understanding of the problems they are trying to solve.  

Discover that youth is not the determining factor for success. 

Launch Lab for Women Entrepreneurs

The Women's Business Center at Canisius University is launching a new program – a 15-week boot camp course built to support both product- and service-based businesses – this fall designed to help women entrepreneurs turn their business ideas into reality.  Enrollment deadline is Sept. 29.

Entrepreneurship: Identifying a Gap in the Market

Founders of companies often start by identifying a gap in the market, but personal experience can be the inspiration for some of the strongest ideas. Laura M. Mackay (her Instagram), founder and CEO of Mina™ swimwear, spent years in competitive open-water swimming and had trouble finding swimwear that had both a luxury look and the functionality for serious movement in the water.  Hence, she combined all her talents to create a swimsuit that would allow women to move freely in the water while also being elegant. 

Mackay has joined other women entrepreneurs in building businesses that now account for 39.2% of all enterprises in the United States. Since 2019, women-owned businesses have increased by 69%. Last year, women launched 49% of all new businesses, according to the New Business Formation report from Gusto. These women-owned businesses employ 12.9 million workers and have an annual revenue of $3.3 trillion.

Entrepreneurship can have many different paths.  Choose yours and get going!