With
Mother’s Day this weekend, we’ve spent the past week focusing in on women
entrepreneurs and business owners. The business world has long been dominated
by men but, in the last ten years, women (and moms) have been making remarkable
headway filling the chair at the head of the conference table and bringing
innovative ideas to life.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, “the number of
women-owned [businesses] with $10 million or more in annual sales has increased
57 percent over the past decade.” That’s an encouraging statistic.

Geography
also offers some interesting insight into the growth of women-owned businesses.
Forbes recently shared some statistics regarding the states with the
most women-owned businesses. Coming out ahead, in terms of states with the
highest percentage of businesses owned by women, are: Washington DC (34.5%),
Maryland (32.6%), New Mexico (31.7%), Hawaii (31%) and Georgia (30.9%). You
might be wondering which states have seen the biggest increase in women-owned
businesses…in that case: Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Nevada and
Mississippi. Georgia and Texas saw the biggest jumps with 117.9% and 98% increases,
respectively.

As enthusiastic supporters
of the small business community, we’re excited about what the future holds for
women who own – or want to own – small businesses. If you’re a woman
entrepreneur, remember there are great loans out there with the interests of
small businesses in mind. While there’s still room for improvement, we’re
optimistic about the outlook for women-owned businesses and excited by the
opportunity to play a positive role in further increasing their numbers.