Women-owned businesses are booming. In fact, if they made up their own country, they’d have the fifth-largest gross domestic product in the world, ahead of France, the United Kingdom and Italy.

That’s just one of the facts revealed in a new study from the Center for Women’s Business Research. The study, which focused on the growing power and influence of female-owned businesses, showed that:

• Women-owned businesses have contributed nearly $3 trillion to the U.S. economy.
• Approximately 8 percent of our nation’s labor force works for a business owned by a woman.
• Industries in which female-owned businesses generate the highest revenue include the sciences, technical services, business services, communications, media and waste remediation.
• Firms owned by women create or maintain 23 million jobs nationwide.

Allison De Paoli, president of the San Antonio chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, isn’t surprised by the findings. According to De Paoli, more than 53,000 area women are in business for themselves, whether they’re “Mary Kay representatives or insurance agents or caterers.”

“Female-owned business in San Antonio run the gamut,” De Paoli said. “A large number of them are micro businesses with just one employee – the owner herself – but some have dozens of employees and generate millions of dollars in annual income.”

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