May 9, 2008 6:15AM

Promoting Women-Owned Businesses

By Alexis Glick

Yesterday I had the pleasure of guest speaking at the WCBS 880AM Women’s Luncheon with Nell Merlino. She is the force behind Take Our Daughters to Work Day and the president and CEO of Count Me In. Count Me In “champions the cause for women’s economic independence by providing access to business loans, consultation and education.” Listen to some of these statistics about women owned and operated businesses.  - 48% of small businesses are run by women while 52% are run by men. 

- Approximately 1,000,000 small businesses are run by men and have revenues of $1 million dollars or more. 

- Approximately 250,000 small businesses are run by women and have revenues of $1 million dollars or more.

- Women-owned businesses employ approximately 30 million people.

- Women business owners contribute more than $3.6 trillion to the marketplace each year, and women account for more than 70% of consumer spending.

- 55% of women provide half or more of their household’s income, yet 48 million women or 80% of all women in the workforce earn less than $25,000 dollars a year. 

Nell has made it her personal mission, and Count Me In’s mission, to increase the number of $1 million dollar revenue generating businesses for women to 1 million by 2010. She is a remarkable woman! She is one of the smartest and most dedicated women that I have ever met. She talked at length about the lending environment. She works with many financial institutions across the country and said that she is not seeing defaults or businesses fail. She actually said that institutions (banks and brokers dealers) call her to see if she is seeing some weakness in the market and said she has not seen any cracks in the small-business market.

 She was also there to talk about a program that she offers in conjunction with her original financial partner, American Express, called the “Make Mine a Million Business Program” which is a part of Count Me In For Women’s Economic Independence. The program provides money, mentoring, marketing and technology to help women grow micro businesses into million dollar businesses. This program, which she calls a cross between “The Apprentice” and “American Idol,” allows women to compete face to face with judges and an audience to sell their product and prove that they are deserving of the “Make Mine a Million Award.” Yesterday, Nell brought two of the award recipients, Nandini Mukherjee, owner of the Indian Bread Co., marrying Indian flavor with the portability and convenience of the American sandwich, and Dr. Julie Goldman of The Original Runner Company, a company that sells customized non-slip aisle runners for weddings and special events. 

If you want more information about either program you can go to www.count-me-in.org or www.makemineamillion.org.

You’ll be happy to know that I asked Nell, Nandini and Julie to appear on Money for Breakfast next week. I will let you know which date they are on. I also want to give a shout out to WCBS AM’s eighth-consecutive Women’s Business Luncheon and the host Pat Carroll, who hosts WCBS 880AM’s morning radio show. This is a wonderful speaking series that engages women in their financial future and helps them network with other women. Hats off to them for their tremendous work!