NEWS

CORPORATE PARTNER NAMES NEW MANAGING PARTNER
[posted September 2, 2010 | Source: Inside INdiana Business]

Corporate Partner Greenwalt CPAs named Anita Sherman managing partner. She will succeed Larry Greenwalt, who will become chairman of the firm's board of directors. When Sherman assumes her new role January 1, Greenwalt CPA will become the largest firm in Indiana with a female managing partner.

For the complete story, click here.

NEW CORPORATE CONNECTION!
[posted August 31, 2010]

NAWBO-Indianapolis is very pleased to welcome its neweset Corporate Partners!

Brown & Brown Insurance
VTI Contracting, Inc.

These partners joins the ranks of other companies making connections through NAWBO-Indy: the essential community for women business owners.

To view a list of NAWBO-Indy's Corporate Partners, click here.

MINORITY, FEMALE BUSINESSES GROWING FASTER THAN U.S. AVERAGE
[posted August 12, 2010 | Source:  The Times of Northwest Indiana]

The number of minority-owned businesses has grown in Indiana, Illinois and the rest of the United States faster than the national total of all businesses, a U.S. Census Bureau survey found.

A preliminary report released Tuesday from the Census Bureau's 2007 Survey of Business Owners said minority-owned businesses increased an estimated 50.1 percent to about 41,000 in Indiana and 45.7 percent in Illinois to about 223,000 between 2002 and 2007. Nationally, minority-owned businesses increased 45.6 percent to 5.8 million.

The number of female business owners in the country rose 20.1 percent in the same period to 7.8 million. There were roughly 130,000 female-owned businesses in Indiana in 2007, up 9 percent, and about 343,000 in Illinois, up 20.4 percent.

The number of all U.S. businesses increased 18 percent to 27.1 million.

Total sales at all U.S. businesses increased 33.5 percent to $30.2 trillion in 2007. Sales at minority-owned businesses rose 55.6 percent to $1 trillion. For female-owned businesses, receipts increased 24.1 percent $10.3 trillion.

Ownership was defined as having 51 percent or more of the stock or equity in a business and the minority definition included the racial and ethnic categories of black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

When hearing about the statistics, Terrie Daniel, outreach director for the Indiana Minority and Women's Business Enterprises Division, said the news is great for the state and in terms of the economic impact of minority- and female-owned businesses.

Daniel said the office actively reaches out to these businesses and helps them achieve financial sustainability through newsletters and workshops on issues such as how to create a business plan and how to be adequately bonded on construction projects. The office also does outreach statewide to get business owners to become a state-certified minority or disadvantaged business enterprise, which could help them earn public contracts.

"We're heavily involved in trying to give these businesses the resources they need to thrive," Daniel said.

David Hinson, national director of the U.S. Commerce Department's Minority Business Development Agency, said in a statement Tuesday that while he was encouraged by the growth of the minority business community, economic parity remains elusive for many of them.

Average gross sales for minority-owned businesses increased to $179,000 in 2007 from $167,000 in 2002. For non-minority-owned businesses, average gross sales was $490,000. He called the gap "unacceptable" and advocated to aggressively grow minority-owned and operated firms.

Gregory & Appel Insurance
Merrill Lynch
Power & Sons Construction
Xerox

These partners joins the ranks of other companies making connections through NAWBO-Indy: the essential community for women business owners.

To view a list of NAWBO-Indy's Corporate Partners, click here.

The Roadmap to 2020, an unprecedented collaboration of the nation's major women's business organizations and entrepreneurial thought leaders, was released last week, launching a comprehensive action plan to achieve exponential revenue growth and job creation among women's businesses over the next decade.

"Roadmap 2020" recommends nothing less than a paradigm shift in women's business development—from early entrepreneurial education to policy support to capital availability—designed to enable the creation of at least 6 million new jobs over the next ten years.

Quantum Leaps, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and the National Association of Women's Business Owners (NAWBO) jointly released the Roadmap 2020 report at WBENC's 11th Annual Women in Business National Conference and Business Fair before some 2,500 corporations and women business owners in attendance. It was presented on behalf of the 10 women's business organizations and 20 companies that were supporters and collaborators in Roadmap 2020.

"Roadmap 2020 not only tells us how to create more jobs—but also how to improve the quality of those jobs, with higher salaries and better benefits, in growing, innovative companies," said Virginia Littlejohn, CEO and co-founder of Quantum Leaps, the nonprofit that mobilized Roadmap 2020 participants. By galvanizing the leadership of the women's business community, Roadmap 2020 will drive change on the national and grassroots level, and dramatically sharpen the nation's competitiveness.

Roadmap 2020 prescribes agents of growth all along the business continuum:

• Start-up companies should focus on goal-setting for growth, and training to enable that growth, instead of income substitution
• "The Missing Middle" – those companies past the start up stage, but with some potential for growth – need vision, strategy, benchmarking, coaching and mentoring 
• Multi-million dollar businesses can expand through peer mentoring, globalizing, and increased access to corporate and government markets
• Businesses of all sizes need access to capital

Quantum Leaps will organize a strategic think tank in the fall to specify the next steps in implementing Roadmap 2020 recommendations.

"The Roadmap to 2020 is leading a transformation and connecting women in business around the world," said Marilyn Johnson, vice president of Market Development for IBM. "IBM is proud to be the lead corporate sponsor of such a high-impact global initiative."

Roadmap 2020 recommendations focus on six key areas: Measuring Economic Impact and Job Creation; Entrepreneurial Training; Innovation, Technology and Sustainability; Accessing Capital; Accessing Markets; and Building the Movement.

Through 32 core recommendations, Roadmap 2020 challenges policymakers, corporations, financial institutions, educators and the women's business community itself to enable women's business to access more capital, more corporate and government contracts, more expansion and responsible risk. Among the boldest recommendations are:

• Expand the role of the Small Business Administration's Office of Women's Business Ownership (OWBO) beyond oversight of the Women's Business Center (WBC) program to other growth-focused initiatives, including access to capital and access to markets
• Increase communication and collaboration among women's business groups
• Encourage federal, state and local governments to accept third party certifications for women's business enterprises (WBEs)
• Expand entrepreneurship education into ever younger populations

Supporters include the Association of Women's Business Centers, Center for Women's Business Research, Count Me In, Direct Selling Education Foundation, Enterprising Women, WEConnect International, Women Presidents' Organization, and Women Impacting Public Policy.

 Click here to download the full Roadmap to 2020 report.

(Washington DC, Tuesday, May 25, 2010)—The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) strongly supports the legislation proposed yesterday by Senator Olympia Snowe to improve the ability of women-owned businesses to compete for and receive federal contracts. This legislation comes on the heels of a recent meeting between NAWBO and Senator Snowe's office where NAWBO raised issues regarding the women's procurement program. NAWBO has since released an official statement of support to be included with the bill introduction and will work closely with Senator Snowe's office to secure co-sponsors and ongoing support of the bill as it passes through the political process.

On March 4, 2010, the Small Business Administration (SBA) proposed an updated Rule for the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program to facilitate ongoing efforts to reach Congress' goal of awarding 5% of federal contracts to women-owned small businesses. Since the program was introduced in 1994, the goal has never been achieved. Consequently, in 2007, women-owned businesses were losing contract opportunities at a rate of approximately $5 billion each year. Unfortunately, the value of the difference between the goal and the current 3.4% of contracts awarded to women-owned businesses has since increased to approximately $6.9 billion.

Through both written comments and in-person conversations with members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, NAWBO has expressed its support of the updated SBA Rule, including the expansion of under-represented industry categories for women business owners. Likewise, NAWBO has expressed concerns about barriers that the proposed Rule maintains. Yesterday, Senator Snowe took the initiative to ensure women's equity in contracting by introducing legislation that addresses the limitations of the Women Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program.

Senator Snowe's proposed legislation streamlines the certification process while assuring program integrity and accountability by aligning eligibility with other SBA restricted contracting programs. The legislation also recognizes the capability and capacity of women-owned businesses by removing the contract award threshold. Additionally, the legislation improves the program's effectiveness by requiring an update to the NAICS codes in which women are considered under-represented every five years, recognizing that the role of women-owned businesses is as dynamic as the industries in which they engage.

With more than 7,000 members in 80 chapters across the United States, NAWBO is the largest and only dues-based association representing the interests of women entrepreneurs in all industries. On behalf of our membership, for which federal procurement opportunities is a top priority, NAWBO applauds the bill introduced today by Senator Snowe and her continued commitment to equity in women's contracting.

Washington, D.C.—The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) attended a meeting at the White House today to discuss the proposed rules just released by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) that would implement a long-delayed federal program designed to expand federal contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses (WOSBs).

“While the regulatory process is not complete, and achievement of the 5% federal contracting goal established by Congress in 1994 remains to be accomplished, the publication of this rule represents a concrete and important step forward,” says Deborah Stallings, Secretary of the NAWBO Board of Directors who represented NAWBO at the meeting. “I was impressed and encouraged by the open forum the White House afforded us today to discuss the proposal, and by their active solicitation of our advice.”

“The women’s business community has been waiting more than a decade for this program to be fully implemented, during which time the gap between the 5% goal and contracts actually awarded has been $5 to $6 billion dollars annually,” says Helen Han, President and CEO of NAWBO. “For the first time, we actually are optimistic that women business owners are finally on their way to getting their fair share of federal contracting dollars, and NAWBO very much appreciates the leadership President Obama, SBA Administrator Karen Mills and the Director of the SBA Office of Women’s Business Ownership Ana Harvey have shown in moving this important program forward,” adds Han. “This program will aid in the further growth and development of women-owned businesses and enhance their ability to serve as a positive force in the country’s economic recovery, while affording the federal government new opportunities to buy goods and services at competitive prices.”

The rule proposed today by the SBA lists 83 industries in which WOSBs are under-represented or substantially under-represented among contractors doing business with the federal government. The rule proposed by the SBA in December 2007, which NAWBO criticized in comments it submitted asking that the rule be withdrawn, listed only four NAIC codes. In addition, the new rule removes a requirement, also criticized by NAWBO in 2007 that each federal agency make findings that it had engaged in discrimination against WOSBs before it could participate in the set-aside program.

Participating in the meeting with NAWBO were White House and other government officials, including Tina Tchen, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls.  NAWBO was invited to attend the meeting because of its advocacy over the past 16 years in support of achieving the 5% federal contracting goal established by Congress in 1994 for women-owned businesses, and its strong support over the last decade of the women-owned small business set-aside program authorized by Congress in 2000.

NAWBO will be conducting a careful analysis of the SBA’s proposed rule, which you can read here, and submitting formal written comments. Any NAWBO member may, as a member of the public, submit comments up until close of business on May 3, 2010 to www.regulations.gov, or by mailing them to Dean Koppel, Assistant Director, Office of Policy and Research, Office of Government Contracting, U.S. Small Business Administration, 409 3rd St. SW, Washington, DC 20416. Please reference RIN 3245-AG06 when submitting comments.

Other NAWBO survey highlights include:

• With respect to their own business prospects, 65 percent expect improvements in 2010, while 11 percent expect them to worsen and 24 percent remain about the same. Last year in contrast, 54 percent believed things in their business would get better, 15 percent thought they would worsen and 30 percent thought they would hold the line.
• Plans for employment are likewise on the rise: 34 percent of NAWBO members will hire new workers this year, compared to just 24 percent who said they’d be adding jobs last year. Just 9 percent will be trimming staff levels in 2010, compared to 17 percent who said they would be doing that in 2009.
• NAWBO members' capital investment plans are also on the rebound: 21 percent plan to increase capital investment this year, while 33 percent will stay the same. In early 2009, just 17 said they would be increasing capital investment, while 40 percent were planning on holding the line.

"This year's NAWBO survey is an excellent example of the growing optimism among women business owners in particular," says NAWBO President & CEO Helen Han. "While women business owners are optimistic about the year ahead, they remain concerned about key issues such as the state of the economy, business tax issues and the cost and availability of healthcare. Issues like access to capital, national security, education policies, federal contracting opportunities and immigration reform also rank high."
For example, when asked what President Obama and Congress should address in 2010, health care prevails (at 51 percent), followed by:

• The economy (37 percent)
• Reducing taxes/tax cuts (24 percent)
• Access to capital for small business (17 percent)
• Reduce government spending/less government/reduce deficit (16 percent)
• Jobs/unemployment (14 percent)
• Terrorism/national security (12 percent)

As the unified voice of more than 10 million women-owned businesses across the country, NAWBO—in partnership with international advocacy services firm Hogan & Hartson—will be addressing many of these issues that impact women business owners in 2010, beginning with access to capital and federal procurement opportunities "The mission of NAWBO encompasses propelling women entrepreneurs into political spheres of power worldwide," says NAWBO Public Policy Committee Chair Kelly Scanlon. "We are excited to be in a strong position to actively engage in the political process to make an impact for women business owners both now and in the future."