Celebrate Progress, Identify Improvements

As October is National Women’s Small Business Month, I’d like to share some good news: Over the past 40 years, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. has exploded, growing from just 5 percent of all businesses to more than 42 percent.

Here in Iowa, where I am the President of Steffensmeier Welding and Manufacturing, the number of women-owned small businesses has expanded to nearly 95,000, and we collectively employ nearly 10,000.

But even with our growing numbers and increasing financial impact on the communities where we live and work, sustained success of women-owned small businesses remains more fragile than that of our male counterparts.

We are more likely than men to struggle to retain our employees, to meet our revenue goals and to compete with big business.

Why this gender gap persists is complicated, and often affects women entrepreneurs differently. Working mothers still shoulder family caregiving responsibilities, and the pandemic has stretched the already-tenuous network of child care options to the breaking point.

We can’t sustain our businesses if our communities lack affordable, high-quality child care options.

A recent Goldman Sachs survey of small businesses owners across the U.S. found that half of women small business owners face significant challenges finding and retaining employees. Women are also more likely than men to say they are hindered by having to compete for workers with big businesses offering more generous benefits.

Women entrepreneurs and I are calling on policymakers to address these disparities by reauthorizing and modernizing the Small Business Administration (SBA). Bringing the SBA into the modern era, with a contemporary sensibility about what tools and resources women entrepreneurs need to survive and thrive is key to serving the needs of our small business community.

Let’s modernize access to SBA programs, eliminating cumbersome and redundant paperwork. Let’s streamline and bring into this century SBA program application processes. Let’s create an information system that better informs small business owners of important programs historically underused because they are difficult to find and navigate. Let’s re-imagine loan programs to better address modern day needs and challenges.

And let’s hold the SBA accountable for meeting its own goal of awarding 5 percent of federal contracting dollars to women-owned small businesses. The SBA has consistently failed to hit that goal.

Finally achieving this federal procurement goal consistently could be as easy as eliminating obstacles I have faced in trying to win federal contracts, including a lack of clear communication of opportunities available, burdensome and voluminous filings needed to be eligible and high bond requirements.

We have made great strides since the days not so long ago when women were required to have a male relative co-sign for a business loan. But as we celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit of America’s women small business owners, let’s support our women small business owners by taking strong, measurable, sensible steps.

Jenny Steffensmeier is the President of Steffensmeier Welding and Manufacturing in Pilot Grove.