Women-Owned Business Atmosphere in Utah and Women’s Leadership LIVE

Women-Owned Businesses need help in Utah.

I got a unique opportunity this week to help some amazing women.  These women help other women, like me to start and operate businesses by giving them direct access to the tools they need to succeed.  I am so amazed by their accomplishments, and I look forward to their conference.

I started thinking about what the atmosphere in Utah looks like for the Woman-Owned Business.  Progress has been made, but I found the statistics disturbing and really see the need for mentors like the amazing women of Women’s Leadership Live (womensleadershiplive.com)

Women’s Leadership LIVE (WLL), creates a place for learning, collaboration, guidance and understanding called THE Different CONFERENCE©.  WLL’s attendees are business leaders who get things done.  Inspired and empowered women who are catalysts for change.  WLL has three great

women leaders:

• CEO Linda McMahon is the Co-founder and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and a former Republican Party candidate
• Stacey Schieffelin, is a former FORD model and founder of ybf (your best friend) beauty, #1 selling color cosmetics line offered on TV shopping channels worldwide
• Debbie Saviano, transformed herself from a former school principal to a social media strategist.  

THE Different CONFERENCE© is coming to Salt Lake City, Utah on October 13-15 and is the premium event for Women Business owners to attend.  The keynote speaker for THE Different CONFERENCE© is none other than Kevin Harrington.  

Kevin Harrington has been a successful entrepreneur for the last 40 years. He is an Original Shark on the ABC hit, Emmy-winning TV show, “Shark Tank.” He is also the Inventor of the Infomercial, As Seen On TV Pioneer, Co- Founder of the Electronic Retailers Association (ERA) and Co- Founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).

The  Women’s Leadership LIVE business leaders are ready and able to help Women-Owned Businesses in Utah.

The “Wasatch Front” has some amazing women business owners.  I have lived in Utah my entire life, born in a small town on a farm, in Morgan, and raised by my mother, who was a single mom raising four children.  In Morgan, Utah it is difficult to find diversity, and even more difficult to be different.  Morgan is a small, predominately Mormon, town, in which there are certain expectations of the role of a woman.  Men are regarded very highly in the Mormon religion.  Women in Morgan are expected to be a homemaker, handling all of the responsibilities of taking care of a loving home.  

On average, along the “Wasatch Front”, women own 36% of the businesses and make 29% of the earnings their male counterparts do.

Navigating to American Fact Finder, and utilizing a small learning curve allowed the metrics to be downloaded and aggregated.  "Wasatch Front" was not a census distinction, so Davis County, Salt Lake County, Summit County, Utah County, and Weber County were chosen.  I realize that the last Census was done in 2010 and these are just estimates for 2014 but in my mind are fairly accurate for estimates.   (See note below for more information about data)

	Male		Female		Percentage of Women Business Owners relative to Men Business Owners	Percentage of Women Business Owner Earnings relative to Men Business Owner Earnings
	Male Business Owners	Median Earnings (dollar) Estimate	Female Business Owners	Median Earnings (dollar) Estimate
Davis County, Utah	6,898	$96,248	4,326	$29,810	39%	24%
Salt Lake County, Utah	28,491	$87,029	15,428	$36,482	35%	30%
Summit County, Utah	2,228	$118,432	1,083	$66,950	33%	36%
Utah County, Utah	13,048	$89,463	7,709	$26,598	37%	23%
Weber County, Utah	5,208	$76,861	3,048	$31,579	37%	29%
Total	55,873	$468,033	31,594	$191,419	36%	29%

A bar graph of this data shows the following for the number of businesses in these counties:

2014 Census Data - Business Owners by County in Utah

The Women’s Leadership LIVE (WLL), in particular, The Different CONFERENCE© allows Women-Owned businesses to have access to tools and mentors that have been very successful in their business endeavors.  Please register for the conference now at womensleadershiplive.com.

NOTE ABOUT DATA:  Women-owned businesses, as defined by the U.S. Census, are businesses in which women own 51 percent or more of the equity, interest, or stock of the business. Men-owned businesses are defined as men owning 51 percent or more of the equity, interest, or stock of the business. Equally men-/women-owned businesses those in which the equity, interest, or stock of the business is shared 50-50 among men and women owners. Publicly held, foreign-owned, and non-profit businesses are not included in this data.

All calculations are based on the SBO 2012 classification of "all firms classifiable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status" rather than "all firms." Therefore, "publically held and other firms not classifiable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status" are not taken into account in the current calculations.

The data came from the S2408: CLASS OF WORKER BY SEX AND MEDIAN EARNINGS IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS (IN 2014 INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS) FOR THE CIVILIAN EMPLOYED POPULATION 16 YEARS AND OVER.  2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.

Mentors - Who is holding me accountable?

Starting a company is hard, so you're going to need a lot of advice along the way.  If you are like me, you have constant ideas flowing about a new idea for a product or service.  You cannot stop thinking so what should you do to execute at least one of these ideas.  

The answer is finding good mentors.  

I have had some excellent mentors that have held my hand, called my bluff, and gave me pros and cons of ideas.  These people are my personal board of directors that know me and can tell me the holes in my ideas.  Is it a good idea or not?  Is the idea profitable?

I recently read Keith Ferrazzi’s Who’s Got Your Back.  This fantastic book offers the advice to build more supportive relationships.  Ferrazzi provides a nine-step approach to creating what he calls “lifeline relationships,” an inner circle of trusting support peers who serve as advisors, cheerleaders, and accountability watchdogs. These mentors respect you enough to tell you like it is.  Ferrazzi invites you to “let others help.”  Your professional development means more when you let others help.

I have one mentor in particular that I hold a phone call with every two weeks to see how my progress is going.  He holds me accountable for my goals and especially my progress on these objectives.  We discuss strategic tactics and whether these goals are still working or whether we need to change the direction to adjust to changing environmental issues.  I trust him, respect him and he holds me accountable and we work through ideas and execution of those ideas.  In turn, I discuss what is going on with him, and we have a win-win situation where both of us profit both economically and personally.

Without my mentors in my defense contracting business, DynaGrace Enterprises, I would never have known how to organize my accounting records in preparation for a DCAA audit.  My mentors helped me prepare several technical and cost proposals for competitive solicitations and also helped me market my business to government clients.

Because of mentors I have been able to achieve my goals and make them faster because of my personal board of directors.  I suggest you start building that board sooner rather than later and your success knows no limit.