Everything For a Small Business Is Urgent: Where's the Funding For Women Business Owners?

Women's business centers are essential to ensuring women entrepreneurs can start, grow and sustain businesses that strengthen local economies. There are about 150 such centers nationwide.  Without women’s business centers, countless women entrepreneurs would lack a clear path to success. Federal investment is making a difference — and sustained support remains essential.

A preliminary proposal from the Trump administration called for a halt to federal funding for women's business centers nationwide.

The budget uncertainty in Washington, the federal funding situation for both Women Business Centers and SCORE, is concerning.

We salute the Association of Women's Business Centers for their five-city Media Spotlight Tour to showcase the impact of women-owned businesses and the Women's Business Centers (WBCs) that support them.

There's a reason women are defined as resilient and courageous.  If you strip them of funding, there are no alternatives but to become fearless, resilient and courageous to grow a business. We exist.  Show us support will you? 

Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global® Celebrates 10 Years of Success in Chicago 11/6/25

Join Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global® in Chicago on November 6, 2025, as we celebrate 10 years of success! 

Enjoy exceptional food, signature cocktails, lively conversation, and a soundtrack curated entirely by women artists—plus gift bags filled with products made by women. And to top it all off, the evening will be emceed by the sensational Whitney Reynolds!

To learn more and to attend, visit: https://womenentrepreneursgrowglobal.org/about/10yr-anniversary/

Women in Business 2025 Report

The Women in Business 2025 research highlights the broad array of external pressures prompting firms to improve the gender balance of their teams, and the important role it could play in improving firms’ capacity for growth. Consequently, or otherwise, businesses are also putting pressure on themselves to improve. Globally, just 0.2% of firms say they don’t have a gender equality strategy in place for at least one fundamental business process.

The findings in this Women in Business 2025 report are drawn from interviews conducted between July and September 2024. It should be noted that this year, the data was collected nine months after the previous data set, as opposed to the previous year, where data was collected on an annual basis.

Read the full report (well worth it) by Grant Thornton and discover drivers of diversity, even in 2025, the year of massive change for all organizations.

Meet Trailblazing Impact Investor and Serial Entrepreneur Kim Folsom

Kim Folsom, who I've known for several years, is the Founder, Chairperson and CEO of Founders First Capital Partners which provides access to the critical capital businesses need to unlock their economic potential.

Kim's firm has built a comprehensive ecosystem through its proprietary platform to empower underrepresented founders to become leading premium wage job creators within their communities.  She supports inclusive businesses including those led by women, people of color, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, military veterans, diverse teams and businesses located in low to moderate-income areas.

Founders First provides revenue-based funding, term loans and advisory services to service-based small businesses located outside of major capital markets.

To learn more, visit:  Founders First Capital Partners.

Side note:  Really like this article Kim wrote.

The Next Level For Women Entrepreneurs Is Always Within Our Grasp

To accelerate growth, surround yourself with confident, successful women who recognize the leader in you.

Marsha Ralls says, "remember that the next level is always within our grasp. Together, the trailblazers and upcoming women leaders will rise beyond us, knowing that new heights are indeed possible. They need only to reach for them, together."

After a decade building a community of empowered women entrepreneurs and business leaders, Marsha realized that life’s most profound lessons come masked as confirmations of what you already know inside but have not yet been able to put into words. Below, she finds those words.

Lessons learned.   

Say Hello to wegg® DOBO™

Mahjong Creates Business and Networking Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

By one estimate, mahjong is a $2.57 billion global industry and is expected to increase to $4.08 billion by 2032.  It's also becoming a major business and networking opportunity for women entrepreneurs.

From 2024 to 2025, mahjong events on digital event platform Evite spiked 46 percent year-over-year. “What started as a niche hobby has really become a full-on trend,” says Olivia Pollock, senior director of brand marketing and party data analyst at Evite. “It’s really started to pick up steam in a networking setting.”

Find out why here.

Women Are Turning Visions Into Ventures

The Center for Women Entrepreneurs at Texas Woman’s University, which provides a variety of financial programs, training and advising services for women-owned businesses, offered both virtually and in person – celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a Visions into Ventures milestone event, highlighting the successes of women business owners who have utilized its resources.  

Since 2018, the CWE has awarded over $2.3 million in grants to women entrepreneurs, Irby said. Grant-funded opportunities include the Veteran Woman Entrepreneur grant, the StartHER and Texas Rural Woman Entrepreneur grants, which are available to women-owned startups or small businesses. 

As one woman business owner says, "In the world in which we live right now, being a woman can be hard and finding community with women makes it worth it."

Enough said.

The Foundation of the Future: Artificial Intelligence

In a resurfaced video from his talk at SXSW, Mark Cuban made it clear that for Gen Z and aspiring entrepreneurs, AI is not just the future – it is the foundation. “If I were 16, 18, 20, or 21 starting today, I would spend every waking minute learning about AI,” he told the crowd. “Even while I’m sleeping, I would have podcasts playing about AI.”

Cuban sees AI as the most powerful opportunity to reshape business, creativity, and innovation. Simply understanding how to use AI, he said, can open the door to countless ventures from launching your own startup to consulting for others. 

Happy 21st Birthday Escape From Corporate America Blog!

Thank you for your readership all these years.  Here's one of the first posts I [Laurel Delaney] I did. We now have between 20,000-75,000 readers a month.  When I first started, I was lucky to have one.

Keep reading and keep engaging!  

Young, Gifted and Black

©2025 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Found this wonderful book, Young, Gifted and Black, in the Free Library Box and read through every page.  The graphics and the inspiring stories are irresistible.  It's a launching post for more discoveries featuring 52 black heroes from past and present.

These extraordinary men and women's achievements will inspire a new generation to chase their dream ... whatever it may be.  

Founder and Celebrity Hair Stylist Jen Atkin’s Brand Eyes Expansion

Founder and celebrity hair stylist Jen Atkin’s brand eyes expansion beyond store shelves into non-retail spaces.

The Los Angeles-based company Ouai didn’t become a household name in its own right until around 2019 when the team made a gamble on a novel means of distribution. Ouai sampled one million units of its leave-in conditioner in FabFitFun subscription boxes. It was the company’s biggest sampling program ever.

Find out what happened.  It's better than you think.  

Women Entrepreneurs Are Incredibly Resilient

According to Audrey McLoghlin, founder of the clothing brand Frank & Eileen, female entrepreneurs are uniquely suited to handle these kinds [fighting for success] of crises. “Women are incredibly resilient and built to be able to handle chaos,” she says. “It’s how we’re created for motherhood—that’s constant chaos. We’re built that way.”

McLoghlin knows just how hard entrepreneurship can be. She launched her Los Angeles-based company in 2009 after declaring personal bankruptcy during the Great Recession and spent the next decade fighting to turn it into a success, which she did.

Now her goal is to make more successful women entrepreneurs.  Read about her story, Tory Burch's, Tiffany Dufu's, and Nancy Twine's here. 

Grants, Loans, and Programs to Benefit Your Small Business

Whether you're starting a new small business or looking to grow the one you already own, finding funding can be a challenge for businesses of all sizes. 

Here are more than 100 grants, loans, and programs to benefit your small business.  

Teens Are Open to Pursuing Entrepreneurship

Research from Junior Achievement and Ernst & Young LLP (EY) found that 41% of teens are open to pursuing entrepreneurship over a traditional job, and among current business owners, 13% got their start at age 18 or younger.

Many of the young entrepreneurs below fall into that camp and have continued on their path of success in the years that followed, thanks to great ideas, unwavering determination, and support and guidance from the right mentors.

Archika Dogra, Grace Leger and Caitie Sfingi are among them.

The stories of these young business owners are a reminder that entrepreneurship isn’t about waiting for the perfect moment. It’s about starting where you are, learning as you go, and staying open to feedback, mentors, and change. 

Fasting Growing Group of Entrepreneurs: Black Woman-Owned Businesses

Although Black women make up less than 10% of the U.S. population, they’ve emerged as the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the country. 

According to the Brookings Institution, between 2017 and 2020, the number of Black women-owned small businesses increased by nearly 20%, far exceeding the growth of women-owned businesses and Black-owned businesses overall. 

In this interview, Jean Chatzky is joined by Tiffany Dufu, President of the Tory Burch Foundation and author of Drop the Ball: Achieving More By Doing Less. Tiffany shares the best ways to support Black women-owned businesses right now.

This Female Entrepreneur's Got It: From a Background in Engineering to a Multi-Million Dollar Apparel Business

Learn how Audrey McLoghlin, founder and CEO of Frank & Eileen revamped a men's product for women. The bootstrapped business was a hit — and pledged $20 Million to support women entrepreneurs.

Audrey wanted to reinvent the button-up shirt for women using unbelievable menswear fabrics. 

Visit Frank & Eileen.  The name?  Audrey's grandparents, Frank and Eileen. "They were married in Ireland in 1947, and they lived a beautiful, romantic, old-fashioned life — I don't know if they would describe it that way, but they lived in a little stone cottage, never owned a car, just had a really charming life," says Audrey.

Audrey goes on to say, "The world would be a completely different place if at least 50% of the entrepreneurs and business owners out there were women. We'd live in a very different place."

The Presence of Women in Business Is Growing

Women today are continuously breaking barriers in the workplace, rising to positions of power, and running their own businesses.

Women in leadership, and ownership roles have revolutionized certain aspects of business. According to a report from Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (Canada), the majority of women-run businesses were more proactive in addressing employees’ skills gaps, as 15.6 per cent of all businesses had no plans to do so compared to only 11.7 per cent of majority women-owned businesses. 

For a look at the state of women in business (2024) in USA, visit here and their impact (2025), visit here.

It is important to lean on the other women in business, such as the members of the Women Presidents Organization or Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®.

Stay true to your values and keep growing.

Two Illinois-Based Women Business Owners Are Rocking It for Mother's Day

Thanks to the Illinois Made Program, these two women entrepreneurs are expanding their unique businesses.  The Illinois Made Program exposes them to a broader, more diverse customer base, boosting sales and introducing their mouth-watering products to thousands of the state’s visitors.

Who are the lucky business owners?  Jana Farmer, owner of Ms. Jana’s Candy located at 1649 Montgomery Road, Unit #10, in Aurora, Illinois, and Dominique Leach, owner of Lexington Betty Smokehouse restaurant, located at 756 E. 111th St., in the historic Pullman community.

The Illinois Made Program celebrates small businesses and includes them in the state’s Traveler’s Guide and other tourism information. The program helps drive more customers to the highlighted businesses.

Learn more about Jana's and Dominique's businesses here.

Who Are the Most Courageous People and Leaders on the Planet?

©2025 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Ryan Berman spent three years shadowing the most courageous people and leaders on the planet to find out what they have done to accomplish astounding personal or business feats.

I look forward to reading his book, "Return on Courage – A Playbook for Courageous Change."