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Women-Owned Biz
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Business New Haven
4/3/2000
By: Priscilla Searles
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According to the Women's Business Development Center (WBDC), there are 116,000 women-owned businesses in Connecticut, representing 36 percent of all the firms in the state. Women-owned firms in the state employ nearly 341,000 people and generate more than $58 billion in annual sales.
The not-for-profit WBDC, headquartered in Stamford, was founded in 1998 to promote economic development through entrepreneurship. That means lots of help in many areas for everyone from the economically challenged to multi-million-dollar businesses. It benefits women who want to start a business or already have one and need help.
The WBDC is an offshoot of a now-defunct four-year government program, the American Women's Economic Development Corp. “We began creating our own solution,” says Fran Pastore, WBDC executive director of CBDC, “when AWED closed, to provide services to women who are in careers or established businesses or who need assistance in developing their business idea.
“Being subsidized by the federal government, the state of Connecticut and Stamford, in addition to corporate donations, helps to keep the costs down for those attend one of WBDC's programs,” says Pastore, “and we have a scholarship fund, which means we don't have to turn anyone away. We do one-on-one counseling, training programs and short-term workshops and our programs are portable. We travel around the entire state in addition to our in-house programs.”
The WBDC covers the full spectrum of educational services for women seeking information in setting up their own business or getting a business they already own on track. Problems addressed might include anything from how to turn your talents into a viable business to how write a business plan. WBDC knows that businesses don't fail because of what people know; it's what people failed to learn that often results in a “Going Out of Business” sign.
“Full spectrum” describes the WBDC's array of services, which is why the group chose it in namings its largest fundraising event, Spectrum 2000. It's appropriate that Heidi Miller, newly appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Priceline.com and former CEO of Citigroup, should be one of the people the group will honor. She sets an example for WBDC of what women can aspire to. And Miller has been vocal on the subject of successful women's responsibility to be supportive of initiatives that help other women who are starting their own businesses.
In 1999, Connecticut ranked 25th out of 50 states in the number of women-owned businesses headquartered here. That figure is on the rise. For some, it starts with a creative idea that looks salable; for others its a feeling that they can do it better than their boss. An idea becomes a challenge, and a challenge becomes a learning process. And the WBDC is here to help make those women-owned businesses a reality.
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