Free sponsorship for women entrepreneurs/ Empowering women with...

Applicants must be female If co-owned with a man, applicants must have at least 51% ownership of the business. Applicants must have access to internet-enabled devices for training and must be willing to commit to virtual training for a period of 3 months. Businesses in the Startup phase.

Free sponsorship for women entrepreneurs

In short, women entrepreneurs are those women who think of a business enterprise, initiate it, organize and combine factors of production, operate the enterprise and undertake risks and handle economic uncertainty involved in running it.

Women entrepreneurs may be defined as a woman or groups of women who initiate, organize, and run a business enterprise. In terms of the Schumpeterian concept of innovative entrepreneurs, women who innovate, imitate, or adopt a business activity are called “women entrepreneurs”.

Free sponsorship for women entrepreneurs

Raising capital is critical to the success of many companies. However, women-owned businesses face unequal challenges when it comes to securing business financing and investments. Despite the fact that women-owned more than 40% of businesses in the U.S. by 2021, almost 98% of venture capital for new startups went to male founders in 2022.

Women business owners often struggle to qualify for business loans at a disproportionate rate compared with their male counterparts. Only 12% of women business owners said they received the full financing amount they sought from lenders in 2021 compared to 14% of male-owned businesses, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2021 Small Business Credit Survey. It’s also important to note that 80% of women business owners and 82% of businesses owned by men sought Covid-19 relief funding through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that year.

When business loans and equity financing prove difficult to come by, female entrepreneurs can consider business grants for women, too. Competition for business grants can be high, but, if you qualify, you can gain an infusion of cash for your company that you never have to repay.

Empowering women with amazing ideas

Calling all women entrepreneurs, creators, innovators, and dreamers! Get everything you need to build your website for FREE in our International Women’s Day 2022 initiative. Pitch us your idea for a chance to win sponsorship for a whole year.

Successful applicants will get:

ANY non-premium domain they like
One year of the web hosting that best suits their needs
One year of SSL security

Who can apply

To celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s Month, we are looking for women applicants only.* Whether your new site idea is a business, a blog, a portfolio, a resume, or something entirely unique — if it needs a website, we might be able to help you!

How it works

Tell us all about your idea using our application form. Every application will be consider on merit, and our favorites will receive sponsorship. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2022.

Apply Now

Web Hosting

We’ll select the hosting that’s the best fit for your idea. This could be easy-to-install, easy-to-use EasyWP, our versatile Shared Hosting, or perhaps even Virtual Private Server hosting — it all depends on what you need.

The 12 Best Business Grants for Women Entrepreneurs

Grants.gov
National Association for the Self-Employed Growth Grants
Amber Grant
IdeaCafe Grant
Cartier Women’s Initiative Award
GrantsforWomen.org
FedEx Small Business Grant
The Halstead Grant
Open Meadows Foundation
37 Angels
Visa Everywhere Initiative
Small Business Innovation Research Program

About Women entrepreneurs

Female entrepreneurs are women who organize and manage an enterprise, especially a business. Female entrepreneurship has steadily increased in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries, with female-owned businesses increasing at a rate of 5% since 1997. This increase gave rise to wealthy self-made females such as Coco Chanel, Diane Hendricks, Meg Whitman, and Oprah Winfrey.

“In the grab for power, women use whatever means available to them, whereas a man would take a club to his opponent’s head, a woman is more likely use other less forceful and more subversive measures. Let’s just own it, we have different weapons in our arsenal.” Female entrepreneurs make up approximately 1/3 of all entrepreneurs globally.

According to one study, in 2012 there were approximately 126 million women that were either starting or already running new businesses in various economies all over the world. As far as those who were already established, there was an approximate 98 million. Not only are these women running or starting their own businesses but they are also employing others so that they are participating in the growth of their respective economies.

History

The first female-owned business in the United States is recorded in 1739 when Eliza Lucas Pinckney took over her family’s plantations in South Carolina when she was 16 years old. In the 18th and 19th centuries, women-operated small businesses attained from inheritance or to supplement their income. In many cases, they were trying to avoid poverty or were replacing the income from the loss of a spouse.

At that time, the ventures that these women undertook were not thought of as entrepreneurial. Many of them had to focus on their domestic responsibilities. For instance, with longstanding and significant barriers to educational and alternative employment opportunities, Black women were historically relegated to low-paying jobs and domestic work—particularly in the Jim Crow South.

As a result, Black women of the early 20th century developed entrepreneurial niches in dressmaking, Black hair care, private home domestic work, and midwifery. Lower levels of wealth, access to capital, racial discrimination, and inadequate networks have been and continue to be barriers to entrepreneurship women of color face. The term entrepreneur is used to describe individuals who have ideas for products and/or services that they turn into a working business. In earlier times, this term was reserved for men.

Women became more involved in the business world

Women became more involved in the business world only when the idea of women in business became palatable to the general public; however, this does not mean that there were no female entrepreneurs until that time. In the 17th century, Dutch colonists who came to what is now known as New York City operated under a matriarchal society. In this society, many women inherited money and lands, and through this inheritance, became business owners. One of the most successful women from this time was Margaret Hardenbrook Philipse, who was a merchant, a shipowner, and was involved in the trading of goods.

During the mid 18th century, it was popular for women to own certain businesses like brothels, alehouses, taverns, and retail shops. Most of these businesses were not perceive with good reputations because it was consider shameful for women to be in these positions. Society frowned upon women involved in such businesses; because they detracted from the women’s supposed gentle and frail nature.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, more women came out from under the oppression of society’s limits and began to emerge into the public eye. Despite the disapproval of society, women such as Rebecca Lukens flourished. In 1825, Lukens took over the family business, Brandywine Iron Works & Nail Factory, and turned it into a profit-generating steel business.

In the 1900s

From 1900s, due to a more progressive way of thinking, and the rise of feminism, female entrepreneurs began to be a widely accepted term. Although these female entrepreneurs serviced mostly female consumers, they were making great strides. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, and two years later, Clara and Lillian Westropp started the institution of Women’s Savings & Loan as a way of teaching women how to be smart with their money.

As society progressed, female entrepreneurs became more influential. With the boom of the textile industry and the development of the railroad and telegraph system, women such as Madame C. J. Walker took advantage of the changing times.

Walker was able to market her hair care products in a successful way, becoming the first African American female millionaire. Carrie Crawford Smith was the owner of an employment agency that opened in 1918, and like Madame C. J. Walker, sought to provide help to many women by giving them opportunities to work.

During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, some of the opportunities afforded to women took a backseat and society seemed to reverse its views, reverting to more traditional roles. This affected women working in the business; however, it also served as a push to those involved in the entrepreneurial world. More women began to start their own businesses, looking to survive during this time of hardship. In 1938, Hattie Moseley Austin, who had begun to sell chicken and biscuits after her husband died, opened Hattie’s Chicken Shack in Saratoga Springs, New York.

During World War II, many women entered the workforce, filling jobs that men had left behind to serve in the military. Some women, of their own accord, took these jobs as a patriotic duty while others started businesses of their own. One of these women was Pauline Trigere, who came to New York from Paris in 1937, started a tailoring business that later turned into a high-end fashion house.

Another woman was Estée Lauder, who was working on the idea for her beauty products which officially launched in 1946, a year after the war ended. When the war ended, many women still had to maintain their place in the business world; because many of the men who return were injure.

The National Federation of Business

The National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs was the source of encouragement to female entrepreneurs. They often would hold workshops with already established entrepreneurs, such as Elizabeth Arden, who would give advice. During the 1950s, women found themselves surrounded by messages everywhere, stating what their role should be. Domesticity was the overall public concern and a theme that was highly stress during this time, and women had to juggle combine home responsibilities and their careers.

Home-based businesses helped to solve a good part of the problem for those women who worried about being mothers. Lillian Vernon, while pregnant with her first child, started her own business dealing with catalogs by investing money from wedding gifts and started filling orders right at her kitchen table. Mary Crowley founded Home Decorating and Interiors as a way of helping women to work from home by throwing parties to sell the products right in the comfort of their own home.

In an effort to avoid criticism and lost business from those who did not support women in business, Bette Nesmith, who developed the product “Mistake Out,” a liquid that painted over mistakes in typing, would sign her orders B. Smith so no one would know she was a female.

From the 1960s to the late 1970s

From the 1960s to the late 1970s, another change came about when divorce rates rose and many women were forced back into the role of being the sole provider. This push them back into the working world, where they were not well receive. When the recession hit, many of these women were the first to be without work. Once again, the entrepreneurial endeavors of women came to the rescue as an effort of asserting themselves and aiding other women in being a part of the workforce. Mary Kay Ash and Ruth Fertel of Ruth’s Chris Steak House were part of that movement.

The 1980s and 1990s were a time of reaping the benefits from the hard work of women who worked tirelessly for their rightful place in the workforce as employees and entrepreneurs. Martha Stewart and Vera Bradley were among the twenty-first percent women who owned businesses. The public was also becoming more receptive and encouraging to these female entrepreneurs, acknowledging the valuable contribution they were making to the economy.

The National Association of Women Business Owners helped to push Congress to pass the Women’s Business Ownership Act in 1988, which would end discrimination in lending and also strike down laws that required married women to acquire their husband’s signatures for all loans. In addition, the Act also gave women-owned businesses a chance to compete for government contracts.

Another monumental moment for women in business

Another monumental moment for women in business was the appointment of Susan Engeleiter as head of the US government’s Small Business Administration in 1989. In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, there was more of a focus on networking opportunities in the world of female entrepreneurs. There were many opportunities that came about to help those who were interested in starting up their own businesses.

Support groups, organizations for educating the female entrepreneur, and other opportunities like seminars and help with financing came from many different sources, such as the Women’s Business Development Center and Count Me In. Despite all these advances, the female entrepreneurs still fell behind when compared to their male counterparts.

As the 1990s came in, the availability of computers and the increasing popularity of the internet gave a much-needed boost to women in business. This technology allowed them to be more prevalent in the business world and showcase their skills to their competitors. Even with the increased popularity of women in business, the availability of technology and the support from different organizations, female entrepreneurs today are still struggling. The economic downturn of 2008 did not serve to help them in their quest.

However, with the continual attention given to female entrepreneurs and the educational programs afforded to women who seek to start out with their own business ventures, there is much information and help available. Since 2000, there has been an increase in small and big ventures by women, including one of their biggest obstacles—financing. Vartika Manasvi is among those who chose Canada over the US. According to her, “there’s no longevity there.”