Women and Enterprise in Providence.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration women-owned businesses in Rhode Island employ more than 133,000 workers and generate nearly $16 billion in sales. But for the more than 500 Rhode Island business women, politicians, and government officials who gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the Center for Women and Enterprise in Providence, those numbers are just a stepping stone.
”That is a powerful amount of the economy in Rhode Island, but we are at the peak moment and we need to take advantage of what we have here,” said Carol C. Malysz, executive director of the new center. “Our goal is to give women the opportunity to become entrepreneurs so that they can achieve economic self sufficiency and ultimately, realize their dreams.”
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The Providence center is the third Center for Women and Enterprise to open its doors as a way of providing comprehensive business assistance, networking opportunities and resources for women starting or growing their own business. Two other centers are located in Boston and Worcester, both of them founded by Andrea Silbert.
”Four and half very short years ago, I had a dream to start a non-profit organization to help women entrepreneurs,” Silbert said. “This year, it’s so wonderful to come to the smallest state and have the largest turnout. I think it’s a true reflection of where this group is heading.”
The SBA has committed $150,000 a year for the next five years to support the organization, but matching funds must also be raised. Already the group has secured $100,00 a year for the next five years from Fleet Boston Financial.
”This is a great organization and we have committed to support it for at least five years,” said Norman J. DeLuca, managing director of Fleet Small Business Services. “It’s a dynamic group with a very high impact on the community, so we feel it’s a great investment for us. One can’t be thinking about the entrepreneur marketplace without being focused on women in business.”
There are more than 800 organizations for business women across the country, and according to the SBA, women owned business are growing at twice the rate of other businesses — with women owning 40 percent of all business nationwide. Sherry Henry, assistant administrator at the SBA Office of Women’s Business Ownership in Washington, D.C., said that in the past seven years the number of women owned businesses in the United States has grown by more than 300 percent.
”There is a real momentum here,” Henry said of the center’s opening. “This is truly the fastest growing segment of the small business market, and it’s very important to give them the resources and knowledge that are important for success.”
Henry said the SBA also has an on-line women in business center that gets more than 2 million visitors to the site a month.
Patrick K. McGowan, regional administrator of the SBA, said the ability of the organization to reach small business owners despite cutbacks is because of organizations like CWE.
”We are 30 percent down in the number of staff we have and yet we are still doing five times the number of loans we have in the past,” he said. “CWE helps us meet the needs of our customers by giving them the knowledge they need. With knowledge comes power.”
The CWE, which is now located at the SBA’s Providence office, but is expected to move to the Jewelry District, will focus on finance, technology and education. It is designed to be a center of excellence for business financing, and a model for innovative approaches to small business finance, Malysz said.
”CWE offers women the opportunity to enhance their business skills, to boost their financial acumen and to build a lifetime network of key resources and contacts,” said Mark Hayward, acting director of the SBA’a Rhode Island District Office.
