Women-Owned Businesses

Most books on women entrepreneurs are either popular accounts of successful business women who started their own firms, or how-to books on the process of starting a business written for the woman reader. This current study brings together scholars with extensive experience in the entrepreneurship literature who also work with women starting new business ventures. The contributors here follow the entrepreneurial process--from concept development, through expansion, growth, and transitions to an established business. Among the topics covered are: networking among women entrepreneurs, business growth, financing, the role of the trustees, and changing the direction of a business’s operations. A valuable appendix lists sources of advisory and financial assistance to the woman entrepreneur. The topics covered are the issues that any business faces, but the authors bring into perspective the woman entrepreneur and some of the unique problems she faces as the owner and operator of her business.

The book begins with a description of the paths that lead women in the workplace to businesses of their own. This includes a summary of current research on women entrepreneurs as well as studies of the problems related to balancing family and business, developing the business plan, and managing the business now and in the future. This is followed by a focus on the creative process and how it relates to developing a viable business concept. The contributors examine the issues surrounding the financing of entrepreneurially-driven companies owned and operated by women. They further discuss the methods by which women in business can expand their management capabilities; the practical use of a working board of directors, and the importance of networking. Finally, the book explores the succession process in relation to entrepreneurs, their organizations, and successors. A closing summary looks at those issues yet to be resolved but likely to affect women-owned businesses in the future.

OLIVER HAGAN holds the Herzog Chair in Free Enterprise at Baldwin-Wallace College. In addition to previous academic experience as Assistant Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Baylor University, Hagan founded two businesses and managed several others during his twenty-year business career. He is also director of the Small Business Institute at Baldwin-Wallace.

CAROL RIVCHUN is the Director of the Small Business Management Center of COSE, the small business division of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association.

DONALD SEXTON holds the William H. Davis Chair in the American Free Enterprise System at Ohio State University. Previously he was the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Caruth Professor of Entrepreneurship at Baylor University.