October is National Women’s Small Business Month, and there’s plenty to celebrate. Women launched 49% of all new U.S. businesses in 2024, up from 29% in 2019, according to Gusto’s 2025 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report.
But starting a business and building a sustainable, growing company are two different challenges. While women are launching businesses at an impressive pace, many still face obstacles when it comes to accessing capital, hiring employees, winning larger contracts, and expanding their companies.
So how do we move beyond encouraging women to start businesses and give them the resources they need to succeed on their own terms?
I talked to Corinne Goble, CEO of the Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC), about what it takes to help women-owned businesses survive, grow, and build lasting economic opportunities — and why the nation’s Women’s Business Centers are an important part of that effort.
From Starting a Business to Building One
Rieva Lesonsky: Are women-owned businesses surviving and scaling at the same pace they’re being launched? Where is the biggest gap?
Corinne Goble: Women are starting businesses at a record pace, but launching and scaling are two very different climbs. Nine in ten women-owned businesses have no employees, and while the typical solo business brings in about $35,000 a year, the roughly 1.4 million women-owned employer firms generate more than 80% of women-owned business revenue, according to projections in Wells Fargo’s 2026 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report.
So the biggest gap I see is the jump from owner-operator to employer. That gap isn’t about ambition as much as the critical moments when a business needs its first commercial loan, its first hire, or its first contract that is larger than the owner can deliver alone. Those are the moments when founders need the right advisors, capital, and buyers in place, and that’s exactly where the support system can get thin.
Lesonsky: Do we put enough emphasis and resources into helping women become employers, grow revenue, enter new markets, and build wealth?
Goble: We’ve done a good job building on-ramps for business formation, but we’ve done a much weaker job building the highway to sustainable growth. Startup training is essential, and Women’s Business Centers are effective in that phase, but the greater economic impact comes from helping established businesses add employees, win government and corporate contracts, enter new markets, and secure growth capital. Every employee a woman business owner hires is another paycheck in her community.
Unfortunately, there is still a real shortage of investment in this kind of economic development, including the growth-focused work Women’s Business Centers do. I’d like to see more funders, lenders, and policymakers measure success through entrepreneurship-led economic development: jobs created by small businesses, progress toward capital readiness, and incremental revenue growth, not simply the number of businesses started.
Lesonsky: What changes when a founder moves from startup to growth mode? Where do women get stuck?
Goble: In growth mode, the owner’s job starts to shift from doing the work to building the systems, team, and financial foundation that allow the business to grow. That requires new skills, including managing cash flow, pricing for healthy margins, forecasting, hiring and delegating, and negotiating larger deals.
Where I often see women get stuck is the “do-it-all” trap. She’s the best salesperson, bookkeeper, and service provider, so she never steps back long enough to build a team or a plan for sustainable growth. Pricing is another common sticking point. If your margins don’t leave room to invest in people, systems, and growth, it becomes very difficult to scale.
That’s why our team at AWBC is now certified in A Force for Good’s entrepreneurial operating system, created by Coco Sellman. Through our HOPE2Women, VeteranStartup, and Biz2Grow cohorts, founders use tools like the 4-Page Growth Plan and Pricing and Break-Even Calculator to work through the decisions that matter, from understanding what actually generates profit to determining what to charge and what the next 12 months need to deliver.
The goal is to give founders an operating system for growth, rather than another endless to-do list. Women’s Business Centers use a variety of systems and tools depending on the communities they serve and what works best for their clients.
The Capital and Connections Women Need to Grow
Lesonsky: Are women getting the right kinds of capital at the right stages? What should a woman understand before seeking money to grow?
Goble: Availability is only half the story. Too many women finance growth with personal savings, credit cards, or short-term products that can cost far more than a well-structured loan, simply because those options are easier to access quickly. The right capital depends on the stage of the business: microloans and CDFI lending can help build a track record, SBA-backed and traditional bank loans can support expansion, and equity may make sense for the smaller share of companies built for venture-style growth.
Before seeking capital, a woman should know her numbers, including her margins, cash flow, how much she needs, what the money will accomplish, and how she will repay it. That’s why our Women’s Business Centers put so much emphasis on loan readiness. A founder who walks into a lender conversation prepared is in a much stronger position to get the right capital on the right terms.
Lesonsky: Which connections actually make a measurable difference as a business grows, and how can women build them?
Goble: The connections that can make the biggest difference are buyers and lenders, because while a mentor can change your thinking, a customer contract can change your revenue, and a strong banking relationship can open doors to capital. Strategic partners who can team with you on larger bids are another important piece. For women who didn’t inherit a business network, the good news is that these relationships can be built deliberately.
Women’s Business Centers exist in part to help build that network, connecting entrepreneurs with local lenders, procurement opportunities, strategic partners, and peers who are a few steps ahead. My advice is to identify three relationships that could meaningfully change your business over the next year and pursue them intentionally.
Lesonsky: How can we distinguish between women building a good business that supports their family and those building larger companies, and respect both?
Goble: Success looks different for every entrepreneur, and both paths deserve to be respected and supported. A business that replaces a paycheck, provides flexibility, and supports a family is a meaningful economic achievement, just as building a larger, high-growth company is.
The mistake is assuming every woman entrepreneur has the same goals, or treating one path as more valuable than the other. Good advising starts by asking, “What do you want this business to do for you?” and then connecting her with the resources that match those goals. At the same time, we can’t let the system put a ceiling on women who want to grow, which is why targeted growth programs, larger loan products, and access to contracting opportunities matter.
Why Women’s Business Centers Matter
Lesonsky: Where does the WBC network stand today? Do WBCs have the funding and stability they need, and are you concerned about what happens beyond FY2026?
Goble: We’re grateful that Congress, on a bipartisan basis, recognized the value of Women’s Business Centers and provided $27 million for FY2026. That sends a clear message that WBCs work and that communities rely on them. SBA’s new WBC Modernization Initiative is also a welcome investment in what comes next for Women’s Business Center funding models and expansion.
But stability is still the challenge. Most WBCs remain subject to the $150,000 federal funding cap, while also being required to match those federal dollars with non-federal sources. And I don’t think enough funders recognize the return on that investment. For every taxpayer dollar invested in WBCs, an additional $11 in private capital is lent, generating $23 in economic activity. For every taxpayer dollar invested, new businesses generate $7 in revenue. In FY2025 alone, WBCs supported 241,000 jobs and $11 billion in wages.
So yes, we’re focused on FY2027 and beyond. The case is straightforward: investing in WBCs doesn’t just fund services. It leverages local dollars, unlocks private capital, creates jobs, and generates revenue in communities across the country.
Lesonsky: Five years from now, what would you want to say had changed? What needs to happen now?
Goble: I’d want to be able to say that the revenue gap had narrowed meaningfully, more women-owned businesses had become employers, and a woman with a solid business plan could access the right capital at the right time without putting her home on the line.
Getting there will take all of us. Lenders need to design products around the businesses women are actually building. Policymakers need to provide Women’s Business Centers with stable, multi-year funding so they can focus on helping businesses grow rather than constantly fighting to maintain services. Business organizations and large buyers need to open their supply chains to more women-owned businesses.
And women business owners need to give themselves permission to think bigger and ask for more. The data is clear: when women have access to the right resources and opportunities, they deliver.
My Takeaway
I’ve spent decades covering women entrepreneurs, and one thing hasn’t changed: Starting a business is only the beginning. Women need access to capital, customers, networks, and experienced advisers if they want to build businesses that last.
But growth isn’t everyone’s goal, and it shouldn’t have to be. A successful business helps its owner achieve her goals, whether that’s financial independence, flexibility, or building a company that employs hundreds of people.
As we celebrate National Women’s Small Business Month, it’s imperative that we support women at every stage of entrepreneurship — not just cheer them on when they start. And we must also support the organizations that help women achieve their entrepreneurial goals.
Rieva Lesonsky is the founder of Small Business Currents, a content company focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurship. You can find her on Twitter @Rieva, Bluesky @Rieva.bsky.social, and LinkedIn. Or email her at Rieva@SmallBusinessCurrents.com.
