Whats on the minds of female entrepreneurs right now?
The key issues for our members are the health of the economy, war [with Iraq], health care, employee development, and access to capital and federal contracts. Also, networking continues to be the main tie-in for our members, so they’re interested in identifying new leads and finding new approaches to their challenges in business. The top response to a question about “what issues are facing your company in 2003” was the economy. Almost 80% said they’re concerned that tremendous cutbacks in corporate purchasing will hurt their business this year, and 60% said their business has already been adversely affected. Interestingly, 22% said their business was up, so we know that even in this market, some businesses and some locations continue to grow — but 19% said they’re worried that things are going to get worse this year. Q: With the exceptions of economic concerns and the war, the other issues sound like the perennial worries of independent business owners. A: Yes, these are the same conc
