Recently in the Access to Capital Category

Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) along with SCORE and American Express OPEN were featured in PR Newswire's February 4th article "SCORE Launches Government Contracting Resources for Small Businesses at www.score.org".

SCORE has recently launched online resources to help small businesses secure government contracts. New articles, tools and events will be featured in this resource center for small businesses. SCORE, American Express and WIPP with Give Me 5: Education and Access for Women in Contracting is sponsoring the section.

Michelle Thompson-Dolberry, Director of Advocacy Marketing at American Express OPEN, touted the new program's partnership saying "We are pleased to partner with SCORE and our other government contracting partners, Women Impacting Public Policy and Business Matchmaking, to give all business owners access to a variety of resources that will help them grow and succeed."

This new program seeks to greatly assist small businesses looking to grow their sales and success through potential government contracts.

Click here to read a quick introduction on government contracting from American Express OPEN, podcasts from Give Me 5, and access to SCORE mentoring. 

We have never had information before that relected the overall economic impact of women-owned firms.  Today we have it and it reveals the magnitude of importance that small business plays in the overall economy.

Women-owned firms produce employment for more than 23 million people in the United states, or 16% of our 2008 workforce.*.   This means that approximately 8% of the total labor force work directly for a woman-owned firm.  This is astonishing news.

But what really is remarkable, is that that 80% of the women businesses are NOT employer firms.

What would this mean to our national economic recovery if we increased the number of "employer" firms to 25%? To 30%?  How many more people would join the ranks of the employed?   

It is time to start focusing on strategies and policies to make this happen.  WIPP is asking these questions and addressing these issues directly.

*US Department of Labor, November 2008 national employment figures.

WIPP, The Center for Women's Business Research, The National Women's Business Council and Walmart announced exciting new data at the Economic Summit on Friday, October 2nd.

• If women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 5th largest GDP in the world, ahead of countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Italy.
• If women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have a greater GDP than Canada, India and Vietnam COMBINED.
• Women-owned firms have a total economic impact of $3 trillion, including creating and/or maintaining 23 million jobs, 16% of the total workforce.

The economic impact analysis explains the direct, indirect, and induced economic impact of women-owned businesses nationwide.  Moving well beyond the traditional number of women-owned firms, industries, and revenue levels, this research takes things to the next level by analyzing the economic ripple effect of the women-owned business communiety, i.e. what their direct spending is in addition to subsequent spending by their suppliers and employees.  

The survey data provides:

• industry specific data that can be used for programming and public policy;
• data that can drive private and public investments; and
• data that can illuminate the true production capacity of women-owned firms.

The objective of this important research was to broadly quantify the economic contributions of women-owned firms and is unprecedented.  This is the first time that this type of analysis has been undertaken for women-owned firms in the nation and the results will have significant and wide-ranging impact for policymaking, economic development, and private investment focused on women business owners and their communities.  Please go to www.cfwbr.org and www.wipp.org for further information and SBTV.com for a video recording.

Usually government websites are dreary, outdated and hard to navigate.  WIPP says not so with the new website the White House has dedicated to tracking the stimulus money.  www.recovery.gov contains an incredible amount of information which allows small businesses to track the money to the states and to each individual agency. 

Check it out - it's not business as usual.

WIPP would like to invite you to join the Small Business Town Hall community on Facebook and to participate in the Intuit Town Hall Forum scheduled for 3/12 at 3 pm ET.

Intuit's Small Business United campaign is designed to bring America's entrepreneurs together and to fuel their growth by providing free products, services and resources that help them attract customers, save money and make money.

The Town Hall Forum will be hosted online:  http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://crystal.semphonic.com%2Fquickbookscommunitycalendar%2Fhelios%2Fevents%2Findex.php%3Fcom%3Ddetail%26eID%3D3848%26year%3D2009%26month%3D03.

Don't miss it!