Navigating the Federal Procurement Maze
 Womenable has been working with American Express OPEN on their efforts to better understand the challenges and successes that women and men business owners are having as they navigate their way through the maze which is the US Federal procurement marketplace.
The results of a ground-breaking survey among current and wannabe Federal small business contractors are out in two well-cited reports. Here are just a few insights that have been uncovered thus far:
*On average, it takes business owners 1.7 years of trying to land their first Federal contract - and there's no significant difference by gender or race; *Active small business contractors invest an average of $83,000 annually in staff time and resources to pursue Federal contracting opportunities; *The top tips from active small business contractors? 1) start small and work your way up, and 2) if at first you don't succeed, try, try - and try - again; persistence pays off; *Once they become active Federal contractors, women and minority small business owners are just as successful as the average small business owner - both in terms of business size and level of contracting success; *Women and minority business owners, however, are much more likely than average to be waiting at the starting gate - 48% of non-contractors are minorities and 39% are women, compared to a share of 25% and 28%, respectively, among active contractors; *Women are more likely than average to be using the GSA schedule as an avenue for Federal contracts, while minority business owners place high value on developing relationships with procurement officials and attending as many meetings and match-making events as possible. To learn more, click on these links to download and read the first two reports in the Victory in Procurement for Small Business survey series:
The third and final report, focused on the value of teaming and subcontracting as procurement strategies, will be available in August.
Visit govtcontracts. open.com for more information about the VIP program. Also OPEN has been working with Women Impacting Public Policy to launch their " Give Me 5%" program - which provides tips and tools for women interested in selling their goods or services to Federal customers. |
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photo by Antony Di Gesu  |
"If the future is to remain open and free,
we need people who can tolerate the unknown, who will not need the support
of completely worked-out systems or
traditional blueprints from the past."
~ Margaret Mead (1901-1978), anthropologist
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E3nabling News
It is our aim, in this quarterly newsletter, to provide a concise digest of news, information and links to 1: educate, 2: enlighten and 3: empower your work on behalf of nascent, new, established and growing women-owned enterprises around the world.
Our subscribers come from all walks of life: businesses large and small, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multi-lateral organizations (MLOs), public sector agencies, civil society groups and educational institutions. Yet we all share a common interest in supporting women's enterprise in communities around the world.
We hope that you find this information of interest in your pursuit of that goal. Enjoy, Engage and Enable!
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Blueprints and Roadmaps
Charting a new course for women's enterprise development
 Taking a lead from noted anthropologist Margaret Mead (quoted above), women's enterprise stakeholders in North America have recently taken up the challenge of plotting the future course of growth and development for the women's enterprise movement. Building on the early thought leadership of womenablers in the UK - whose 2003 Strategic Framework for Women's Enterprise set a high mark in terms of evaluating the landscape and providing a blueprint for action, and in Canada - where a similar Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs Report and Recommendations was announced later that same year (and unfortunately barely got off the drawing table before a leadership change doomed the document), there are three new blueprints and roadmaps of which you should all be aware: - Last year, timed to insert the voices and viewpoints of women business owners into the US Presidential campaign, Women Impacting Public Policy prepared a document entitled Economic Blueprint: The Women Business Owners' Platform for Growth, containing policy principles in six core areas: health care, procurement, tax, access to capital, energy, and telecommunications. It was supported by a large number of women's business organizations and individual contributors (including Womenable);
- A new initiative is underway in Canada, to pick up where the Prime Minister's Task Force left off and to broaden the inclusion of voices into the development of a Blueprint for Economic Growth. This effort, spearheaded by Dr. Barbara Orser of the University of Ottawa, aims to engage a variety of individuals, associations and other stakeholders in a conversation about what's next for women's enterprise development in Canada; and
- A multi-year effort in the US to engage thought leaders in a variety of disciplines is about to culminate in the publication of The Roadmap to 2020: Fueling the Growth of Women's Enterprise Development. Led by NGO Quantum Leaps (and assisted in several ways by Womenable), this report - which will be published on June 23 and available on that date on this web site - aims to get stakeholders in women's enterprise development in both the private and public sectors to think and act strategically about ways to foster economic growth and job creation, valuing the economic and social contributions of women-owned enterprises, and engaging stakeholders at all levels to take ownership of actions that can fuel the movement. The report is also meant to provide a template for similar collaborative, strategic engagement exercises in other countries where certain women's enterprise framework conditions exist.
These most recent efforts are unique in that they are private sector-led and collaborative by design - two characteristics that bode well for their adoption by women's business associations, and for the resulting amplification of the voices of women business owners in policy circles in these two countries. |
News Updates
Government, multilateral organizations connecting the dots
Womenable has made note of several interesting developments on a governmental, multi-lateral and private sector level that will - like the afore-mentioned blueprints and roadmaps - lay a framework of support for advancements on women's enterprise.
In case you missed these news items recently, here's a roundup of what we consider to be the highlights of recent actions:
- The US State Department, since appointing Melanne Verveer as Global Ambassador for Women's Issues, has raised its profile in the women's economic development arena. They have hosted a number of meetings with women's enterprise leaders from various parts of the world, and recently announced a Secretary's International Fund for Women and Girls, which will provide grants to non-profit organizations that are working to "meet the critical needs of
women and girls around the world," including economic empowerment. For a summary of some of their activities, see their status report sent recently to the White House Council on Women and Girls;
- UNCTAD's EMPRETEC program, which has worked in 27 nations since 1988 to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, recently recognized the entrepreneurial achievements of women with its 2010 Women in Business Award. This year's winner was Beatrice Bvaruhanga from Uganda, founder of Lira Integrated School;
- The World Bank recently announced the launch of an unprecedented, sweeping new platform for data sharing. The Open Data Initiative, found at data.worldbank.org, includes information on over 2,000 indicators in 200 countries, which will give development professionals, policy makers and others quick access to information. The initiative is also launching an "Apps for Development" competition, which aims at creating tools for easier analysis and sharing of all of this data;
- Women, Business and the Law is another initiative within the World Bank. Last year, we shared with you the launch of a Gender Law Library by the World Bank, which documents over 2,000 legal provisions in 181 countries in areas that impact women (see the Womenable E3 News from the 2nd quarter of 2009). That site has migrated to a new "Women, Business and the Law" web page, which is also where you will find a new comprehensive report, Women, Business and the Law 2010, which compares 128 economies on 6 topics that impact women's rights (and their ability to start and grow enterprises): accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, dealing with taxes, building credit, and going to court. Parity between women and men is found in only 20 of 128 economies.
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Research Roundup
Recent studies you'll want to read and reference
 OK, we know that this e-newsletter is getting long, but we know you've probably heard about these recent research reports, and might want to have these handy links to download and read the reports or their summaries. They are all worthy additions to your womenabling reference shelves: - Hidden Social Enterprises, by Rebecca Harding of Delta Economics: an insightful look at what share of firms in the UK are "true" social enterprises (read non-profit) and what share are "hidden," meaning that they are for-profit businesses with a social purpose. Not surprisingly, there are many women in this population;
- Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Are Successful Women Entrepreneurs Different From Men?, a new report from the Kauffman Foundation, takes a look at a narrow but interesting group of entrepreneurs - 549 founders of high-tech companies. In this population, just 7% of respondents are women. Women are similar to their male counterparts in terms of education and assessment of their key business challenges. They differ, however, with respect to their motivations and in their perceptions of the impact of their prior experiences and their networks on their entrepreneurial success;
- Strategies for the Recovery: Woman-owned Small Businesses Put the Customer First, a new report from Key Bank's Key4Women initiative and Forbes Insight research, shows that women-owned firms place customer service and client retention near the top of their business strategies for the coming year, but may not have all of the CRM systems in place to fulfill their goals. (You may also read the study press release here.)
Happy reading! |
NEWS FLASH: Important Data Date!
Census of Women-Owned Firms Released on July 13
 What's the score? How are we sizing up? Those are the questions we've been pondering lately, as we've been anxiously awaiting the results of the 2007 quinquennial business census for women-owned firms. Well, the wait is almost over! Mark your calendars for July 13; that's the date that the new Census counts for women-owned firms (both 51% majority-owned and 50%+ majority/equally-owned) will be announced by the Census Bureau. The announcement will consist of a press release, an audio news release/interview, and summary tables - only at a national and state level, but we'll take what we can get! The full report with all of the detail by detailed industry and geography will not be published until December, but in the meantime this new information is just what the data doctor ordered! All relevant information will be posted on July 13 at the Census' 2007 economic census web site. |
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Sincerely,
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