Women Of The Summit is proud to offer our first ever WOMEN IN BUSINESS GRANT!
Women of the Summit is a non-profit dedicated to establishing, promoting and helping our community of Summit County Colorado Women thrive in business and life.
APPLICATION DEADLINE OCT 31 11:59 PM MT
NEW IN 2022! THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS GRANT is an investment in working women in our community in either their Entrepreneurial or Executive efforts to grow their income stream and increase their impact in our community.
We believe that when Summit County Colorado Women thrive, our entire community thrives.
But don't just take our word for it. This article is mash up of key data and and other resources that support our initiative to invest in women income earners in our community.
If you want to improve a society, you get more money into the hands of women.+
Ellevest co-founder, Sally Krawcheck always says..."Nothing bad happens when women have more money". This is not just some catchy slogan. It’s facts. Economies grow. And when women have more money, more of it goes back into their families and communities. Right now the opposite is happening.
The pay gap is structural, not individual*
First things first: This. is. a. systemic. issue. While each of us (especially women) can (and should) ask for more money at work, it’s worth noting that ~negotiating more~ isn’t going to close the pay gap overall. Much like ditching plastic straws doesn’t even begin to alleviate the worst causes of climate change, individual action won’t cut it.
The biggest changes must come from people in power — politicians, CEOs, and the like. So yes, the more power you have, the more power you have to help close the pay gap. The gender pay gap is very real and very troubling. More women in leadership maybe the solution to this problem that never seems to go away on its own. A new study by Payscale and Redfin found that companies with more women in leadership paid their female staffers more equitably than businesses led by men.
That’s not all, though. The study also found that annual payroll of female-owned firms outgrew male-owned companies over time. From 2007-2015, the annual payroll of businesses owned by women grew by 36.52%, while male-owned companies grew by only 16.54%. A bigger piece of the pie for everyone? Who wouldn’t want that?!
Closing the pay gap is good for everyone — not just women++
First, women tend to reinvest a lot more of their income into their families and communities — one report found that it was almost 90% of their income, compared to just 35% for men. But also, true gender wealth equality has been demonstrated to lead to more economic growth and better development outcomes — put another way, countries’ improvement efforts are more successful when women have more money. In fact, McKinsey found that the global economy could be between $12 trillion and $28 trillion larger in 2025 if women were employed at the same rate, in the same roles, with the same pay as men.
Women are the best source of a communities untapped potential ^^
Research by the Harvard Business Review ** found that women outscore men in most leadership skills. Women scored higher than men in key skills such as team working, innovation and problem-solving. Such research bears testament to the immense potential of women when given a more level playing field, such as mentoring, capacity building and access to credit, as well as their inherent leadership skills critical to success in entrepreneurship.
Look, this is not to say that we don't need or want men on the Leadership Teams.... We do!
And, when women are not properly represented and tapped into for their skills and strengths, the whole community is missing valuable skills to flourish and reach full potential.
Know When To Hold 'em ^
Calculated Risk leads to More Frequent Success
Entrepreneurship naturally involves a greater degree of risk than stable employment. It seems that women may be more inclined to take the necessary risks required to be successful entrepreneurs than men. Recent research, funded by Barclay’s Bank, revealed that 87% of female entrepreneurs consider themselves to be financial risk takers, while only 73% of men do. It also revealed that 80% of women say that they are able to see opportunities where others see risk, while only 67% of men do.
Women may also be more calculated risk takers than men. As the song goes, ‘you need to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.’ While these female entrepreneurs actively embrace risk, they also factor in the potentially damaging implications of the risks they might take in business, making more careful and calculated leaps of faith, and avoiding situations that they deem too risky. The research revealed that four times as many women as men feel that now is a dangerous time to take on risk
An Investment in Community: Impact for the Long Haul^
A flash-in-the-pan business can, of course, be a success – but mainly for the business’ investors and founders who exit. A slow-and-steady-burn business is ideal for the economy because it will likely create more jobs and bring more money into the country over time via taxes, the use of local facilities for operation, the ongoing purchase of production supplies and resources, and product sales.
Sarah Fink, head of research at the Centre of Entrepreneurs in the U.S., says that if policymakers want to see more businesses thrive and endure, they should encourage female entrepreneurship.
“Women entrepreneurs are more likely to work towards controlled, profitable growth with relatively little interest in merely positioning themselves for lucrative exit,” says Fink.
Fink also notes that female-run businesses tend to use their profits in a more productive way. “They often prefer to re-invest business profits over equity investment to scale sustainably.”
John Winter, the chief executive of Barclays Bank’s corporate business, concurs. “As women increasingly embrace entrepreneurship, they are pioneering different business cultures and models of entrepreneurial growth,” he says.
We could not have said it better ourselves.
Women Of The Summit is a local non-profit dedicated to establishing, promoting and helping our community of Summit County Colorado women thrive in business and life.
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