Reversing the Decline in Women Entrepreneurship: Opportunities for Rebuilding the Economy (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, June 15, 2021)
Summary
The printed record of a hearing before the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access of the House Committee on Small Business, Small Business Committee Document Number 117–018, titled Reversing the Decline in Women Entrepreneurship: Opportunities for Rebuilding the Economy, held June 15, 2021 in the 117th Congress. The contents list opening statements by Hon. Sharice Davids and Hon. Dan Meuser. The four witnesses are Sherry Turner of the Kansas City Women's Business Center, Tammy Williams of Envision2bWell, Inc., Ayris T. Scales of Walker's Legacy Foundation and Natalie Buford-Young of Springboard Enterprises. The appendix lists their prepared statements and questions from Hon. Van Duyne to Sherry Turner with her answers.
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“Reversing the Decline in Women Entrepreneurship: Opportunities for Rebuilding the Economy (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, June 15, 2021).”
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REVERSING THE DECLINE IN WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: OPPORTUNITIES FOR
REBUILDING THE ECONOMY
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC GROWTH,
TAX, AND CAPITAL ACCESS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
HEARING HELD
JUNE 15, 2021
Small Business Committee Document Number 117–018
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
44–751 WASHINGTON : 2021
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
TROY CARTER, Louisiana
JUDY CHU, California
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
YOUNG KIM, California
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
BYRON DONALDS, Florida
MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
MELISSA JUNG, Majority Staff Director
ELLEN HARRINGTON, Majority Deputy Staff Director
DAVID PLANNING, Staff Director
(II)
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CONTENTS
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Sharice Davids ................................................................................................ 1
Hon. Dan Meuser ..................................................................................................... 2
WITNESSES
Ms. Sherry Turner, Executive Director, Kansas City Women’s Business Cen-
ter, Fairway, KS ................................................................................................... 5
Ms. Tammy Williams, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Envision2bWell,
Inc., West Chester, PA ......................................................................................... 7
Ms. Ayris T. Scales, Chief Executive Officer, Walker’s Legacy Foundation,
Washington, DC ................................................................................................... 9
Ms. Natalie Buford-Young, Chief Executive Officer, Springboard Enterprises,
McLean, VA .......................................................................................................... 10
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Ms. Sherry Turner, Executive Director, Kansas City Women’s Business
Center, Fairway, KS ..................................................................................... 26
Ms. Tammy Williams, Founder & Chief Executive Officer,
Envision2bWell, Inc., West Chester, PA ..................................................... 36
Ms. Ayris T. Scales, Chief Executive Officer, Walker’s Legacy Foundation,
Washington, DC ............................................................................................ 44
Ms. Natalie Buford-Young, Chief Executive Officer, Springboard Enter-
prises, McLean, VA ....................................................................................... 51
Questions and Answers for the Record:
Questions from Hon. Van Duyne to Ms. Sherry Turner and Answers
from Ms. Sherry Turner ............................................................................... 54
Additional Material for the Record:
None.
(III)
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REVERSING THE DECLINE IN WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: OPPORTUNITIES FOR
REBUILDING THE ECONOMY
TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2021
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC GROWTH,
TAX, AND CAPITAL ACCESS,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in Room
2360, Rayburn House Office Building and via Zoom, Hon. Sharice
Davids [chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Davids, Newman, Bourdeaux, Chu,
Evans, Mr. Kim, Meuser, Garbarino, Ms. Young Kim, and Van
Duyne.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Good morning. I call this hearing to
order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess at
any time.
Let me begin by saying by saying that standing House and Com-
mittee rules and practice will continue to apply during hybrid pro-
ceedings. All Members are reminded that they are expected to ad-
here to these standing rules including decorum.
House regulations require Members to be visible through a video
connection throughout the proceeding, so please keep your cameras
on. Also, please remember to remain muted until you are recog-
nized to minimize background noise. If you have to participate in
another proceeding, please exit this one and log back in later.
In the event a Member encounters technical issues that prevent
them from being recognized for their questioning, I will move to the
next available Member of the same party and will recognize that
Member at the next appropriate time slot provided that they have
returned to the proceeding.
For those Members and staff physically present in the Com-
mittee room today, we will continue to follow the most recent OAP
guidance. I sincerely hope we all do our parts to protect each other
and our staff.
Women are at the center of the American economy. They make
up nearly half the workforce and own an estimated 42 percent of
all U.S. businesses. Before the pandemic, these women-owned busi-
nesses employed 9.4 million workers and generated $1.9 trillion in
revenue. Businesses owned by women of color were experiencing
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exponential growth. Pre-COVID, firms owned by women of color
grew at 43 percent, one of the fastest rates among all groups.
But the virus has caused a monumental setback to women’s ca-
reers, earnings, and the progress that has been made over the past
half century. The pandemic has been incredibly hard for small
firms, closing more businesses in 2020 than any other year on
record. As of May 2021, more than 37 percent of small businesses
have closed their doors.
Unfortunely, women-owned businesses have borne the brunt of
this economic devastation. Throughout the pandemic, female entre-
preneurs have been more likely to close their businesses and report
a significant decline in the overall health of their companies.
COVID also dealt a severe blow to the progress that women have
made in the workforce. In just 2 months, from February to April
2020, women lost a staggering 12.2 million jobs. Overall, women
lost their jobs at rates 24 percent higher than men. Today, many
have yet to start working again, working with 1.8 fewer women in
the labor force than pre-pandemic. Simply put, the pandemic was
a travesty for women small business owners and their female em-
ployees.
But disproportionate challenges are nothing new for female en-
trepreneurs. There have long been numerous structural obstacles
facing women in areas pivotal to business success. Women histori-
cally have a much harder time obtaining capital, the capital needed
to start and run a business. Only about 24 percent of small busi-
nesses’ bank loans go to female entrepreneurs. When women do ob-
tain loans, the average amount is 33 percent less than their male
peers. This lack of access to traditional lending forces women to
rely on family connections or self-finance their businesses.
Female entrepreneurs also have less access to resources and sup-
port systems that can mean the difference between success and
failure for an enterprise. There is a strong relationship between
technical assistance, confidence, and a positive success rate for
small firms. Inadequate resources for core support programs can
hurt some women entrepreneurs who need technical assistance and
create more hardships for those already struggling to gain business
funding. A strong recovery from this crisis will depend on helping
female entrepreneurs rebuild and getting women back in the work-
force. This requires a deliberate investment and initiatives that
drive and support female entrepreneurship.
Today’s hearing will allow us to examine what is working and
what changes Congress can pursue to ensure that we are meeting
the needs of women small business owners. It is not enough to re-
create the pre-pandemic economy for female workers and business
owners. We have to build back better. By unleashing the full poten-
tial of female entrepreneurship, we can create a more equitable,
balanced, and prosperous economy.
I would now like to yield to Ranking Member Mr. Meuser for his
opening statement.
Mr. MEUSER. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It is a
pleasure to be here and thanks to our witnesses. Looking forward
your testimony.
There is no doubt that main street America was hit hard by the
COVID-19 pandemic, particularly women entrepreneurs. And I look
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forward to exploring solutions with you all today to empower
women entrepreneurs in their recovery and beyond.
In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. women-owned
businesses represented 42 percent of all businesses, employing 9.4
million workers and generating $1.9 trillion in revenue. In fact, ac-
cording to the American Express Annual State of Women-Owned
Business Report, women-owned businesses were growing two times
faster on average prior than all businesses nationwide. There is a
saying that goes, ‘‘Rising tides raises all ships.’’ And under the past
administration’s pro-growth policies, tax cuts, regulatory relief, and
other pro-growth initiatives, business optimism soared.
The impact COVID-19 had on entrepreneurs is impossible to ig-
nore as the number of active businessowners in the United States
decreased by 3.3 million or 22 percent from February to April 2020.
The National Bureau of Economic Research found that during the
crucial 2 month window, between February and April of last year,
the number of female business owners dropped by 5.4 million to 4
million, a decline of roughly 25 percent. Very significant.
In speaking with female entrepreneurs from Pennsylvania’s 9th
District, I found that they not only face the same challenges that
all business owners are struggling with right now—lack of labor,
fear of increased taxes, high cost of goods, projects delayed due to
burdensome regulations, supply chain shortfalls and everchanging
government mandates, but they also face unique obstacles in start-
ing and growing their businesses.
One entrepreneur in my district, Barbara Green, Barb Green,
president of Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Carbon County, Pennsyl-
vania, has been in business since the 1980s. she started her career
as a second women at a 100-person accounting firm and credits her
success with a couple of things. As she said, I worked harder, I got
in earlier, and I stayed later. Today, she is somewhat frustrated
with our education system for her business and throughout the
area that it does not produce enough skilled employees and pro-
mote the idea that a college education is the only way to be suc-
cessful. She said we need to focus on educating young women in
skills development and entrepreneurship instead of only, quite
often only focusing on how to get into college.
Another woman entrepreneur in my district told me tax increase
and supply chain issues uniquely impact small businesses much
more so than large businesses in their bottom line stating we are
not price setters; we are, in fact, price takers.
Adequate access to capital and financing opportunities are also
a challenge women entrepreneurs face. In 2019, the proportion of
venture capital dollars that went to female women-owned founders
of companies reached an all-time high of a mere 2.8 percent. during
the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the number fell to 2.3 percent. In
a previous Committee hearing on May 19, 2021, the Association of
Women Business Centers testified that their experience in working
with many women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic
showed that women minority-owned businesses do not hold long-
standing relationships with traditional lending institutions. The
matter of access to capital is a particular concern to me and I hope
to learn from our witnesses today on how we can improve and ad-
dress this problem.
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Additionally, Mastercard’s Index of Women Entrepreneurs found
that COVID-19 disproportionately disrupted women’s lives to a
greater extent than men due to preexisting factors—the jobs and
sectors women tend to work in, childcare and domestic responsibil-
ities. Add that to the preexisting gender disparity in business. That
is from Mastercard, their research. Numerous nonprofit organiza-
tions and private companies exist to advocate for women entre-
preneurs, provide increased networking and mentorship, promote
awareness of financing opportunities, and offer general support to
women as they start and grow their businesses.
Additionally, the SBA’s resource partners, such as women’s busi-
ness centers and SCORE offer similar assistance and mentorship
to women entrepreneurs. There is no doubt that women entre-
preneurs are a vital part of our economy and when they accelerate,
so does our nation. I look forward to learning more about these
challenges women entrepreneurs currently face and areas where
policy can be improved to increase access to capital and benefit
women’s businesses.
I would like to thank each of our witnesses again for joining us
today and I yield back, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
I would like to take a moment to just kind of explain how the
hearing is going to proceed. Each witness is going to have 5 min-
utes to provide a statement, and then each Committee Member will
have 5 minutes for questions. Please ensure that your microphone
is on when you begin speaking and that for the folks on the digital
platform, make sure you are muted when you are not speaking.
With that, I would now like to introduce each of our witnesses.
The Ranking Member will introduce his witness and then we will
get into the witness testimony.
Our first witness is Ms. Sherry Turner, the executive director of
the Kansas City Women’s Business Center located in the 3rd Dis-
trict in Kansas that I get to represent. WBCs help to counsel and
mentor women in all stages of business development and growth.
Through the Women’s Employment Network, the Women’s Capital
Connection and Micro Lending Programs, Ms. Turner works tire-
lessly to help educate, build networks, and support women entre-
preneurs. On behalf of the people of the 3rd District and the State
of Kansas, I would like to thank you for your work and for being
here today to testify before the Committee.
Our second witness today is Ms. Tammy Williams, the founder
and CEO of Envision2bwell. Ms. Williams is a business thought
leader and problem solver who started her company with the belief
that everyone deserves an equal shot at a healthy, joyful life. She
is also engaged in supporting women’s entrepreneurship through
the Ellevate Network and Vision 2020. Thank you for being here
today, Ms. Williams.
And then our third witness is Ms. Ayris Scales, the CEO of
Walker’s Legacy Foundation, a global platform for professional and
entrepreneurial multicultural women. Ms. Scales is a champion of
women entrepreneurs and underinvested communities in the pub-
lic, private, and not-for-profit sectors. She has nearly 20 years of
leadership experience at both the local and national levels, adjust-
ing racial and gender inequities. Welcome, Ms. Scales.
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And then the Ranking Member, Mr. Meuser, will now introduce
our fourth witness.
Mr. MEUSER. Thank you again, Chairwoman.
Our next witness is Natalie Buford-Young. Ms. Buford-Young is
the chief executive officer of Springboard Enterprises in McLean,
Virginia, and is responsible for leading Springboard’s mission to ac-
celerate the growth of women-led entrepreneurial companies
through access to essential resources and a global community of ex-
perts. With 20 years of experience connecting women entrepreneurs
with human, social, and financial capital, Springboard Enterprises
is the leading network of influencers, investors, and innovators
dedicated to building high growth companies led by women. Nota-
bly, Springboard alumni include the investors of Zipcar, iRobot,
Minute Clinic, Canva, and Everlywell, whose at-home COVID-19
test received the first FDA emergency use authorization of its kind.
Ms. Buford-Young is an accomplished and innovative entrepreneur,
community builder, and corporate executive. Prior to Springboard,
she served as managing director of Market Development for
Deloitte’s Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Emergency Private
Company Practice. Welcome, and I yield back. Thank you.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
And thank you again to all of our witnesses for being here today.
Ms. Turner, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF SHERRY TURNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
KANSAS CITY WOMEN’S BUSINESS CENTER; TAMMY WIL-
LIAMS, FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
ENVISION2BWELL, INC.; AYRIS T. SCALES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, WALKER’S LEGACY FOUNDATION; NATALIE
BUFORD-YOUNG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SPRING-
BOARD ENTERPRISES
STATEMENT OF SHERRY TURNER
Ms. TURNER. Thank you, Chairwoman Davids, Ranking Mem-
ber Meuser, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee for
this opportunity to provide testimony on women’s entrepreneur-
ship. My name is Sherry Turner. I am executive director of the
Kansas City Women’s Business Center. It is my honor to highlight
the incredible resilience of entrepreneurs that contribute to our
U.S. economy in a very profound way.
Our national network of 135 Women’s Business Centers (WBCs)
demonstrates a commitment to urban and rural markets serving
economically and socially disadvantaged clients in as many as 38
languages.
Our WBC network is also fortunate to have the association of
Women’s Business Centers to support and advocate for women’s en-
trepreneurship.
On May 19th, Corinne Hodges, CEO of the association, provided
testimony to the Small Business Subcommittee on Innovation, En-
trepreneurship, and Workforce Development.
She testified regarding the increased demand for services at the
WBCs across the nation. During the past year, our WBC had to be-
come very entrepreneurial as an organization and we were thrust
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into virtual services delivery overnight with 133 percent increase
in client activity.
The funding through the CARES Act grant enabled us to in-
crease our capacity to assist this influx in clients. The primary
service has been to assist our clients in navigating the federal and
local emergency relief funding programs and completing applica-
tions. Many of our clients are self-employed within underserved
markets and do not have a solid understanding of their business
financial statements that sometimes hinder their ability to even
apply for the funding that is available to them.
This pandemic also brings to light the longstanding issues sur-
rounding childcare. In Q1 of this year, 61 percent of women busi-
ness owners with children at home reported that school closures
had impacted their business and 30 percent of such owners re-
ported scaling back due to childcare needs. Many childcare busi-
nesses have failed this past year and our role as a WBC can help
this sector to rebound.
Lessons that we have learned during COVID. Our CARES Act
are being deployed exactly as the statute intended. Pivoting to a
digital delivery was paramount to our success and we must remain
doing so as a method of delivery. Our digital marketing expertise
is critical for clients to find us. The technology and staff must re-
main up to date to remain effective.
We are also supportive of a coalition of economic development or-
ganization focused on bolstering entrepreneurship across the coun-
try. Launched by the Kansas City based Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation, Start Us Up is a collective effort in creating a business
plan that provides very specific recommendations at the federal,
state, and local levels to reduce barriers for entrepreneurs to suc-
ceed. The Kauffman Foundation also released a report on what new
entrepreneurs look like. In 2020 alone, 4 in 10 new entrepreneurs
were women, 1 in 5 were Latino, and more than 1 in 4 were foreign
born.
A recent survey exploring women starting businesses during
COVID-19 revealed that minority women have been leading new
business starts, largely out of need. Nearly half are minority
owned, and these women were more than twice as likely to start
a new business because of financial need.
Since 1996, new entrepreneurs within Asian, Black, and Latino
communities have steadily increased and foreign born new entre-
preneurs have more than doubled. Strategies to bolster entrepre-
neurship in a post-COVID economy must take into account that
new entrepreneurs are diverse and likely to span any age, gender,
and breadth of experience.
We ask this Committee and the current Congress to support
these strategies among the women’s entrepreneurial community.
Fully fund the WBC program with $30 million in core funding. Pro-
vide an additional $48 million COVID-related appropriation. And
waive the match requirement until fiscal year 2023. Support mod-
ernization and accreditation of the WBC program to level the play-
ing field. Reauthorization of the program through legislation like
H.R. 4405 introduced by Representative Davids to the 116th Con-
gress would support the efforts of 135 WBCs. Ensure WBCs are
partners of choice for engaging women business owners in any fu-
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ture jobs and infrastructure packages. Support work-family friend-
ly policies with emphasis on access to affordable childcare. And
prioritize funding for community development financial institutions
that are providing loans for small businesses in traditionally un-
derserved communities.
We have a significant opportunity in front of us in elevating the
role entrepreneurship has on our future economy and the role
women play in our success as a nation. Women Business Centers
are grateful for your support. Thank you for your time today. It has
been a privilege to address the Committee. I look forward to your
questions.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you, Ms. Turner.
The Chair will now recognize Ms. Williams for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF TAMMY WILLIAMS
Ms. WILLIAMS. Chair Davids, Ranking Member Meuser, and
Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify today. My name is Tammy Williams, and?I am the president
and founder of Envision2bWell Inc., a firm that reimagines
wellness with our unified digital health and wellness platform. I
founded the company in 2019 and we are based in West Chester,
Pennsylvania.
I am before you today as a woman entrepreneur who happens to
be a Black woman in technology and a baby boomer, with a solu-
tion to a problem that has plagued many: an easier way to be
healthy and happier. I started my company for two main reasons.
First, I was let go from a job I loved, and second, because I knew
there was a gap that needed to be filled for people to be
sustainably healthier.
Our platform, EnvisionWell brings knowledge to life in one cen-
tralized location to empower and enable healthier outcomes. Every-
thing that we do begins with our proprietary Knowledge Support
Access and Autonomy, known as KSAA engagement model that
keeps social determinants of health in mind with a focus on our 10
Pillars of Well-Being.
We were a little ahead of our time. Focusing on social deter-
minants of health is now widely accepted as a key to under-
standing health, especially in low-income and minority populations.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the scope of
workplace wellness initiatives has not taken social determinants of
health, nor employees’ individual social or mental needs into ac-
count.
Capital is the lifeline of business. The ability to secure capital de-
termines an entrepreneur’s opportunity to start or grow.
Envision2bWell was mostly self-funded before we got our first insti-
tutional investor than Franklin Technology Partners of South-
eastern Pennsylvania. They provided investment in my company
through their program that meets matching capital for investment
in early stage ventures. The program has helped thousands of com-
panies accelerate their growth in Pennsylvania.
There are nearly 10 million women-owned businesses in the
United States, generating $1.6 trillion in receipts and employing
nearly 9 million Americans. However, the statistics remain shock-
ing. Women receive on 4 percent of all commercial loan dollars and
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fewer than 1 in 3 loan applications for women-owned firms were
approved.
Women also ask for less funding. On average, it is about $35,000
less than men.
Recent legislative efforts to improve women-owned businesses’
access to capital are promising and I urge the Committee to move
the following legislation forward.
1. The Women and Minority Investment Act introduced in the
116th Congress made a necessary change that will allow a women-
owned or minority-owned firm to obtain equity or venture capital
funding without losing its status to participate in the SBA federal
contracting programs. The equity or venture funding would have to
come from a firm whose majority owners were women or minori-
ties.
2. Congress should consider expanding the SBA’s Small Business
Investment Company, the SBIC program. There are best practices
in the private sector that the SBA should consider adopting. For
example, I recently participated in a pitch competition where five
companies presented to a panel of three experienced investors. This
was great experience for me to be able to speak to investors in a
forum that exposes investors to new, innovative businesses. SBA
should sponsor pitch sessions for small businesses that belong in
their network to provide targeted investment introductions to
SBIC. Additionally, I want to applaud the Committee’s work on im-
proving this program. I recommend that any legislative promotions
include an emerging fund manager’s program, as well as incentives
for making equity investments in women, minority, and under-
served businesses.
3. Revitalize the Interagency Committee on Women’s Business
Enterprise to facilitate intergovernmental cooperation with respect
to resources for women in business.
And finally, in light of the pandemic, there is also a renewed
focus on ensuring small businesses have ample opportunities to
win federal contracts. Increasing and harmonizing requirements for
awarding sole source contracts would provide companies like
Envision2bWell the ability to market and secure federal contracts.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, I did not know if my business
would be able to stay afloat. The few people at that time I was
forced to lay off. The Paycheck Protection Program became a life-
line but navigating the process proved to be challenging. Let me
just say, it was not the large bank where I had my account that
came to my aid. It was a small bank who assisted us. Without PPP
loans, my business would have failed and I know that this Com-
mittee and its Senate counterpart are responsible for putting this
program together. Please accept my gratitude for all the work that
went into standing up the PPP program.
As the title of this hearing suggests, we need to reverse the de-
cline in women’s entrepreneurship. And in closing, I urge the Sub-
committee to proactively take steps to break down barriers with re-
spect to access and support for women entrepreneurs. Together, we
can eliminate obstacles that prevent women from accessing critical
capital to succeed in business.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to testify before you
today and I look forward to answering any questions.
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Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you, Ms. Williams.
Ms. Scales, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF AYRIS T. SCALES
Ms. SCALES. Thank you so much.
Greetings Madam Chair and Members of the Subcommittee on
Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access. My name is Ayris
Scales and I have the great pleasure of serving as the CEO of
Walker’s Legacy Foundation and the Managing Director of Walk-
er’s Legacy LLC. We are serving women entrepreneurs in more
than 20 markets across the country.
I want you to journey with me for a second. It is 4:00 a.m. and
a woman climbs out of bed. She has one eye open. Two feet moving
towards the responsibilities of the day. She wakes her children.
She makes breakfast. She starts laundry. She sets out clothes,
keeping in mind that there is one child who has soccer practice and
another who has a field trip at the same time. She then allows her
brain to shift gears to business. Where is the shipment? Is the in-
ventory ready? Will I have enough money to make payroll? Will I
be able to pay my vendors?
Walker’s Legacy understands this woman, and like you, is here
to support this woman. Our fundamental values, inspiration, and
strategic approach is shaped and driven by the philanthropic spirit
and unprecedented entrepreneurial achievements of Madam C.J.
Walker, this country’s first self-made female entrepreneur.
Our whole purpose is to unleash the next generation of self-made
women and to improve the livelihood and economic prosperity of
women and girls. We believe that we achieve this through entre-
preneurship, financial literacy and professional development. We
amplify that women are the backbones of our families and our
homes and that women-led enterprises and small businesses collec-
tively are the backbone of our communities and that in turn makes
them the backbone and true engine of our economy.
With nearly 50 percent of all Americans working for a small
business, we know that now is not the time to cease investing in
their speedy recovery. According to the American Progress, African
American and Hispanic female-owned businesses are the fastest
growing entrepreneurial segment in this country. They are growing
at a rate of six times faster than White firms at nearly 300 percent.
And with more women being pushed out or deciding to opt out of
the workforce, entrepreneurial endeavors are becoming their alter-
native. Over 2 million women left the labor force during COVID
and the unemployment rate for Black and Latino women remains
persistently high. We also know through our recent COVID-19 Im-
pact Study that 80 percent of the female respondents shared that
they are fearful their doors will be closed by the end of the year.
These are astonishing numbers but they are not beyond repair.
Supporting wealth creation for low to moderate income Black and
Latin women, female founders, and entrepreneurs is fundamental
to reversing the decline and building back stronger via a system
that is not just focused on rebounding but focused on true and eq-
uitable recovery. Building a more equitable and inclusive country
requires all hands. It is a multi-sector approach. It is a bipartisan
approach. This moment and the momentum that is finally being fo-
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cused on investing resources, infrastructure, and new policies to
support and advance small businesses cannot come at a more
poignant time. This country is and always has been built on the
bold vision, innovation, and hustle of everyday citizens who sought
new and better and different ways to create wealth but also to cre-
ate opportunity. Empowering women through entrepreneurship
and entities who support that ecosystem is a surefire strategy to
closing social, economic, racial, and gender inequalities.
However, minority women-owned firms continue to struggle with
growth regardless of their income status, their capital, and hiring
needed to scale and expand. The barriers for women to maintaining
and start successful businesses include as highlighted earlier a lack
of startup capital, access to formal business training, gender dis-
crimination, little to limited access to strong and diverse networks
and mentors, and difficulty in obtaining government and private
contracts. We are now seeing new challenges and barriers that are
taxing small businesses as they try to navigate this landscape of
uncertainty. They are sharing with us that they have concerns
around employee reintegration and retention, pivoting and main-
taining technology into the service delivery, discriminatory evalua-
tion criteria to access capital and business insurance, and most re-
cently, emerging mental health issues and concerns.
These are further reiterating the need for ongoing federal fund-
ing but also that of a multisector approach with private sector part-
ners. Federal support via PPP loans, loan forgiveness, childcare as-
sistance, and unemployment insurance were critical lifelines to
women-led businesses and the small business ecosystem in general.
In closing, for more than a decade, Walker’s Legacy has been piv-
oting and providing critical support for these women. We have an
industry agnostic business accelerator and we are absolutely com-
mitted and poised to be a partner as we look at long-term sustain-
ability solutions to ensure, in fact, that women and small busi-
nesses are at the forefront of our recovery efforts today and tomor-
row.
This concludes my statement. Thank you again for the oppor-
tunity to share about Walker’s Legacy and future legacy makers.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you, Ms. Scales.
And Ms. Buford-Young, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF NATALIE BUFORD-YOUNG
Ms. BUFORD-YOUNG. Good morning. I am Natalie Buford-
Young. I am the CEO of Springboard. Thank you, Chairwoman Da-
vids, Ranking Member Meuser, and the Committee for having me
today.
Springboard Enterprises is a 21-year-old not-for-profit committed
to propelling women entrepreneurs forward. We serve as a growth
accelerator for women entrepreneurs who are building innovative
companies at scale. The value that Springboard Enterprises brings
to the market has been validated by our strong 21-year track
record of success with more than 835 companies coming through
our program resulting in more than $27 billion of value created.
Approximately 90 percent of our portfolio companies receive fund-
ing and we have had more than 200 exits or M&A events and 22
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IPOs. And despite all of Springboard’s success, women founders are
still only receiving a small fraction of venture capital funding.
In 2019, women founders received a paltry 2.8 percent of venture
capital funding, and in 2020, it dipped even lower to 2.3 percent
of venture capital funding going to women founders. And studies
are really pointing to two contributing factors for the decline.
Women were disproportionately impacted by COVID, as they often
serve as the primary caregivers for their families and found them-
selves faced with the choice of focusing on the care of their families
or building their companies. And some opted to put their company
growth on hold or postpone their capital raise.
The second is investors, faced with market uncertainty, reverted
back to their more ‘‘comfortable’’ networks and were less willing to
take a ‘‘risk’’ on unknown entities, including women founders. Iron-
ically, studies show that companies with a woman founder per-
formed 63 percent better than investments in all-male founding
teams, and businesses founded by women deliver twice as much
per dollar invested than those founded by men.
In contrary to the overall market, in the time that most women-
founded companies were taking a hit from 2019 to 2020, Spring-
board was doubling down and our Springboard companies saw an
increase. In 2019, Springboard companies raised $1.06 billion in
funding, and in 2020, despite the pandemic, our Springboard com-
panies raised $1.31 billion in funding.
Springboard is the first organization of its type focused on
women entrepreneurs and has been instrumental in the success of
our entrepreneurs, including those who built top companies such as
Zipcar, iRobot, Minute Clinic, Constant Contact, Everlywell and
many others. While there are many accelerators and start-up orga-
nizations that focus on companies at the ideation stage, Spring-
board programs serve women entrepreneurs that are at the critical
stage of scaling their companies. Our companies have typically
raised their seed or angel funding and are approaching series A or
have raised their series A.
Springboard impacts the success of our women entrepreneurs
through our expert network and our signature programs. Unlike
most accelerators, we are focused on assessing the stage and skill
sets of our entrepreneurs and then helping them fill those gaps
using our network of 5,000 advisors.
And here is how it works. Women entrepreneurs apply, are eval-
uated, and then selected to join one of our various cohorts. Once
a woman is selected to be a part of one of the Springboard cohorts,
we assess the needs of the founder and the company. Then, we
match them with a custom set of advisors from our network of
more than 5,000 subject matter experts.
Another one of our signature programs is Dolphin Tank. And like
the show Shark Tank, select companies present their quick pitch
to a live audience. In the case of Dolphin Tank, our live audience
is comprised of advisors and investors who offer their feedback and
connections.
Our collective community, which includes all of you, needs to ban
together to support the next generation of women entrepreneurs
building their companies at scale. Here are a few of the ways that
you can support the women entrepreneurs:
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You can provide incentives for all types of investors to be moti-
vated to invest in women-founded companies.
And you can create direct grant programs that support mid to
later stage women-led start-ups where there is a large funding gap.
Springboard and other similar not-for-profits and accelerators
have accomplished so much with the support of the private sector
primarily through corporate sponsorships, corporate philanthropic
donations, as well as individual donor contributions. Despite their
contributions, we still need additional support to allow us to serve
more women entrepreneurs. As corporations have cut back on spon-
sorship and philanthropic budgets during the pandemic, it has im-
pacted our fundraising efforts to support our mission of advancing
women entrepreneurs. While direct support of women entre-
preneurs is key, support of organizations like Springboard is cru-
cial to provide women entrepreneurs with the educational and
hands-on support they need to build their companies to scale.
Here is how you can support Springboard and our mission:
Provide meaningful governmental incentives for corporations and
other donors to give to non-profits that support women entre-
preneurs. And second, establish governmental grant programs that
directly support women entrepreneurs while establishing key
metrics on their outcomes. We would love for you to see us in ac-
tion and join us for one of our Dolphin Tanks, which you can at-
tend virtually.
Thank you to the Committee for this opportunity, and I look for-
ward to your questions.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. And thank you again to all of
our witnesses for being here today and for the work you are doing
in supporting women entrepreneurs.
So I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes. Thank you
to our witnesses for joining us again today.
First, I would like to start with Ms. Turner, the executive direc-
tor of the Kansas City Women’s Business Center. The center is lo-
cated in Fairway, Kansas, which is in the 3rd District and has been
a central lifeline for so many women, small business owners during
this pandemic. I know in 2019, the Kansas City Women’s Business
Center served over 800 businesses across the Greater Kansas City
area and the entire state of Kansas which is an enormous geo-
graphic region and a lot for a staff of four.
Ms. Turner, I am curious if you could share with us how the
WBC, the Kansas City WBC was able to adapt during the pan-
demic to serve so many businesses in the middle of a crisis.
Ms. TURNER. Thank you for the question.
Certainly, the CARES Act was our lifeline as an organization to
be able to increase our capacity. The way in which we did that was
obviously a digital virtual deliverable immediately. We did that
through being able to contract with local women-owned businesses
that were subject matter experts on a variety of topics that were
essentially really for companies during COVID. You know, how to
navigate communication with employees. How to navigate
cashflow, supply chain management, social medial. Whatever it
took we had about 74 different business topics that we converted
to our YouTube channel which allowed a broader audience not only
across the state of Kansas but obviously available to anyone. We
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had about 35 different states that had plugged into some of our
content.
The other thing that we found interesting is in the fall we had
an uptick of calls related to startups. And this is true of a down
economy. So we were able to convert our in-person 8-week startup
course to a virtual course and will continue to do that probably
long term. We also made sure that our Women’s Capital Connec-
tion, which is our angel investor network, which meets monthly
with 45 women angel investors investing in women-led companies
was able to see companies virtually and continue to work with com-
panies that were interested in that kind of equity funding.
We also, with some of the CARES Act dollars through one of our
largest counties in Kansas was able to put $13.5 million of grant
money towards businesses that were less than 50 employees. And
so all of these things were really the lifeblood for us as an organi-
zation but certainly could not have done it without the CARES Act
grant we received.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. That is really helpful.
I want to touch on a couple of things and hopefully I will have
time here. First, you know, last Congress, and you mentioned this,
Ms. Turner, in the testimony that you gave, I introduced the Wom-
en’s Business Center Improvement Act which would reauthorize
the WBC program, increase the funding level, and increase the cap
on individual center grants. This Committee and the Full House
passed that bill in 2019 with broad bipartisan support. And I know
our WBCs are undoubtedly a critical resource partner for our fe-
male entrepreneurs. And one of the greatest challenges that our fe-
male entrepreneurs face is access to capital.
I am curious, Ms. Turner, are there specific reforms that were in-
cluded in that bill that you see as better serving the women entre-
preneurs and small business owners that we have been talking
about today?
Ms. TURNER. Yes. Particularly, the increase in funding. Cur-
rently, the grant we receive through the Office of Women’s Busi-
ness Ownership is about 25 percent of our budget. And again, we
are a small WBC. This would potentially double that which would
really allow for more service. I think modernization is the key to
some of that legislation which is, you know, we have had to step
up our game. Stepping up our game does not mean that our clients
do not have challenges over the next couple of years if they are
able to remain in business. The free counseling and training that
we provide requires a capacity building. The largest piece of that
would be the marketing and digital medial consultant we were able
to hire during the COVID situation and that will be paramount to
what we look like in the future to ensure that our clients are able
to find us as a resource.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. And my time has now ex-
pired.
And the Chair will recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Meuser
for 5 minutes.
Mr. MEUSER. Thank you, Chairwoman Davids. And again,
thanks to the witnesses for being here.
So Ms. Buford-Young, I shall start my questioning with you.
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In your experiences and interaction with women entrepreneurs,
what is the top legislative priority you could define for us that
would benefit and help women entrepreneurs and women-owned
small businesses?
Ms. BUFORD-YOUNG. I will not pretend to understand all of
the mechanics of the government but I do know the needs of what
women entrepreneurs are seeking and I know that there are a
number of programs that are really out there to help very nascent
stage, early stage companies as they are forming. And what we are
finding is once women get over that hurdle there is a huge gap in
the ability to get funding for companies that are ready to scale
which is why we focus here and, you know, we have really relied
on the private sector to fill that gap. So I do not know the mechan-
ics behind it but I do know that that is the need, is to continue
the support for women entrepreneurs considering that venture cap-
ital should be the source but we are only receiving currently 2.3
percent of funding.
Mr. MEUSER. Okay. You spoke about the idea of incentives for
access to capital and there is this seeming focus on venture capital
that I am somewhat curious about. Banks right now have high re-
serves and lines of credit are clearly available in those traditional
means of gaining access to capital for businesses. So maybe we can
explore that afterwards.
But what is the type of incentive? So from a real world perspec-
tive, forget about the idea of crafting legislation, from a real world
perspective, what would you define or offer as a type of incentive
that would help create more investment in women-owned small
businesses or small businesses in general?
Ms. BUFORD-YOUNG. I think when we are looking at the large
venture capital firms or looking at investors of any size, to my
knowledge there is not a specific incentive or motivational factor
from a tax perspective or any other perspective for them to increase
their investment in women entrepreneurs. So aside from knowing
the mechanics of how to do it there has to be something that forces
or encourages investors and the private sector to increase their in-
vestment for the entrepreneurs.
Mr. MEUSER. Thank you.
Taxes are a point of discussion. They always seem to be but they
are moving forward. There was close to a 20 percent reduction for
small business in the last Jobs and Tax Act. There is talk now of
raising capital gains taxes. How would, and briefly perhaps, how
would raising capital gains taxes affect you, affect the type of in-
centive to extend venture capital loans or make investments?
Ms. BUFORD-YOUNG. I do not know the answer to that. I am
not a tax specialist. So I wish I had more.
Mr. MEUSER. Okay. Fair enough.
So Ms. Williams, I would like to turn to you, West Chester, fel-
low Pennsylvanians. West Chester is not too far outside my district
so I am glad you made the trip down.
Ms. WILLIAMS. Thank you.
MEUSER. You talked about a bill, a Women Minority Act for
venture capital funds would not cause you to lose SBA. I under-
stand Marco Rubio, Senator Rubio sponsored such a bill last Con-
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gress. So I can assure you that would be something that I will take
a look at.
What else could you tell us about your business, some of your ex-
periences, and what, sitting in my seat, sitting here, what could we
do on a federal level, but perhaps even offer on a state level? What
could Pennsylvania do for you? What can this Committee help you
with?
Ms. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Meuser.
I believe that one of the things, first and foremost, is access. At
Envision2bWell, we call this KSAA, Knowledge, Support, Access,
and Autonomy for living a sustainably healthier life. But the same
applies to any entrepreneur. It is the Knowledge, Support, Access,
and Autonomy to start and grow your business. You cannot scale
your business without money. Typically, you cannot get money
without introductions. So it is built upon relationships. So those
two really intersect. Without it, you are pretty much stuck where
you are.
More mentoring. You know, I know that SCORE and the
WBDCs, you know, those organizations have mentoring programs
but I believe that a program that would be a step above, say 101,
would be great for those small businesses that they are thriving,
they are ready to scale, and they need to go beyond what it takes
to just start the business. So have those introductions, being able
to pitch, doing all of those things makes a difference. And I can tell
you that from my experience, in starting a business that had to be
self-funded to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars before
we got our first institutional investor, it is a tough thing and not
many businesses, whether they are minority or women can do that.
And so just more access. Thank you.
Mr. MEUSER. Madam Chair, we are over my time. I can see
why you are successful and are such an asset to those that you
work with. So I yield back. Thank you.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
And next the Chair will recognize Rep. Newman for 5 minutes.
Ms. NEWMAN. Good morning, everyone. And thank you, Chair
and Ranking Member. I appreciate it.
And congratulations to all the marvelous entrepreneurs on our
dais today. I appreciate all the things you have done to get us
through the pandemic. Small business got us through. So bravo.
So a couple things. Just to give you some good news, obviously,
if you read any of the data or the tax propositions and proposals
from the Biden administration, small business will not be affected.
Large businesses will pay their fair share to assure you of that.
And just to answer some questions that were raised a little bit ear-
lier. There are several studies about capital gains and they are not
tethered to the success or lack of success to small businesses. So
more good news.
So I have a question. So recently, we found out that the RRF
Fund, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund is in great jeopardy be-
cause it is being sued by a conservative Republican group. And as
we all know, those 3,000 folks that applied and were approved for
this, it is primarily veterans, women, and economically disadvan-
taged. So that is scary stuff. As a result of that, and all the reasons
you cited today, I am just going to ask a couple of you to share
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what you think are the top priorities for Congress to do given that
jeopardy and then just the state of affairs in our economy anyway,
even though we are coming out of things.
So I am going to start with Ms. Williams if you would not mind.
Your top priorities.
Ms. WILLIAMS. Thank you.
Again, I think that my top priority really comes down to, and I
cannot say this enough, it is access. Access, relationships. That is
going to lead to capital.
Women have unique experiences. They have unique ideas, like
mine, that I was able to bring to life. But you still need access to
capital. So taking away anything that is going to at least open
those doors is a problem. It needs to be accessible. The whole eco-
system. It is not just one thing. It is capital, suppliers, vendors, dis-
tributors. Even our politicians and representatives, all of you. You
have a major impact on this. And so again, the PPP was a lifeline
for us. And without it I would not be here talking to you or maybe
in a different setting. So I would say that that would be, for me,
the biggest priorities.
Ms. NEWMAN. Thank you for your counsel.
I am going to go to Ms. Scales. If you might share your top pri-
ority given all of the factors that I shared in my comments.
Ms. SCALES. Absolutely. I agree with all of the other witnesses.
But one of the things when I think about access to capital, and I
know that comes up a lot, you know, I kind of pushed the needle
a little bit where I say there is capital that exists that is available.
Where we could use additional support is how we look at those bar-
riers to accessing that capital. Right? And those barriers come from
things such as the evaluation criteria that financial institutions
have that they apply for nonminority or women-led organizations
or entities on to women-led or minority-led businesses. So one, just
kind of looking at what those barriers are. How to get financial in-
stitutions and venture capitalists to feel more comfortable with tak-
ing risk when really they should not see us as at risk because we
are performing and outperforming and sustaining in ways that oth-
ers are not with very limited resources.
The other thing that I would really recommend or challenge is
how we continue to absolutely invest in small businesses but sup-
porting those of us who are part of that ecosystem who is investing
and supporting them. We, too, need to have access to capital and
access to resources and support so that we can continue with tech-
nical assistance that is responsive, that is adaptive.
And the last that I would say is what role do we play in ensuring
that the integration of technology is really at the forefront of how
we are conducting and doing business. Traditionally, women of
color, entrepreneurs, small businesses have had challenges with ac-
cessing technology, integrating technology, and what we know now
due to some of these behavioral changes, consumer changes with
COVID is that business will no longer look the same as it has and
that we have had to pivot more quickly with that integration of
technology. So what funding resources and programs can further do
that. And then I am always going to support mentoring and ex-
panding networks and that is part of what we do at Walker’s Leg-
acy.
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Ms. NEWMAN. Well, thank you for your comments. And I agree.
I was in that position where I had to pitch my business to VC&P
companies and there are two comments that I always make. One
is that they always saw me as a risk, too. And then secondly, I
never saw a person of color or women on any dais out of 50 of
them. Maybe one. And so we have to make sure we are
incentivizing people that have lived experiences that sit in these
companies and make these financial decisions. So that is one of my
passion areas.
Thank you very much, and thank you all for your great com-
ments today.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you, Ms. Newman.
And the Chair will now recognize Rep. Van Duyne for 5 minutes.
Ms. VAN DUYNE. Thank you very much, Chairwoman Davids
and Ranking Member Meuser for holding this hearing today.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, women entrepreneurs as Con-
gressman Meuser had mentioned, were making great strides. In
fact, from 2014 to 2019, women-owned businesses increased reve-
nues, they hired more employees, and they grew at a faster rate
than businesses at large. As a former small business owner and en-
trepreneur myself, I can tell you that women entrepreneurs face
the same hurdles that every entrepreneur faces. And at the end of
the day, one key measures success in business is the same: does
your company bring in more money than it loses? Something the
federal government still fails to understand.
We cannot sit here and talk about challenges that women entre-
preneurs face honestly without mentioning this administration’s
harmful anti-growth policies. No matter your gender, race, or back-
ground, increased taxes, skyrocketing inflation, labor shortages,
and federally mandated minimum wage hikes will kill any hope
that an entrepreneur has of creating a successful business.
To highlight the effect these policies are having, just this past
week I held a local restaurant owners’ roundtable to discuss the re-
covery and I cannot make this up. We literally had a number of
folk who could not come to the roundtable because they could not
find people to cover their shifts because they cannot compete with
the federal government paying people to stay at home.
These problems are not going away any time soon, and after see-
ing the harmful effect of long-term shutdowns and enhanced unem-
ployment benefits, one thing should be crystal clear. One of the
best ways to help female entrepreneurs is by not hurting them. The
uncomfortable truth here is that no matter how much rhetoric you
use touting more equitable entrepreneurship, fancy words will
never make up for disastrous economic policies. If you want to help
small business owners, the equation is simple: ease tax burdens,
lower barriers of entry, and do not make small businesses compete
with never-ending federal unemployment benefits.
And with that said, I really appreciate all of you coming today.
I appreciate your comments.
And for Ms. Williams, you made a really good point. You said
that one thing that women are looking for right now, business own-
ers are looking for right now is access to capital, is to have money.
You made a great point about that, needing money. But with the
policies that you see coming down the pike right now from this ad-
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ministration, including the increased capital gains cost, increased
corporate tax rate, the rising inflation, rising cost of things like
gas, food, utilities, paper products, you name it, how is those poli-
cies, if women-owned businesses are seriously in need right now of
capital, how is it helping them by having more of that capital that
they make going back to the federal government and going back
into increased costs?
Ms. WILLIAMS. Thank you very much for asking that great
question. I have been one that has always said if I was paying
taxes it meant that I was making money. But, you know, there
comes a point where you do need to hold on to more of that money.
I can give you something from my experience.
So as a small business, and many of us face this, we are com-
peting with those large businesses for great talent. Those large
businesses have perks. They have healthcare and benefits. And as
a result, we are a tech company and we are about being well. So
I had to make a decision: do we add benefits to our cost to attract
talent? And I can tell you that not one person that is on my team
is paid at market value. Not one. And they all have access to and
are being delivered benefits. A full benefits package that we are
eating some of that cost.
Now, you know, when you talk about taking away money, and
knowing what we are trying to do to scale, it is an incredible bur-
den that keeps you up at night. So I agree with you wholeheartedly
that we need to do something. There needs to be policy that is
going to help those small businesses. And right now I am going to
talk about women-owned and minority-owned businesses, be able
to not only start a business but to grow it, to scale it. And then
possibly even exit. That is where we are headed.
Ms. VAN DUYNE. I appreciate that very much. And I will yield
back the remainder of my time. Thank you.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize Congresswoman Chu.
Ms. CHU. Yes. Ms. Williams, in April, I introduced my legisla-
tion, H.R. 2680, the Providing Real Opportunities for Growth to
Rising Entrepreneurs for Sustained Success, or PROGRESS Act.
This legislation would support the smallest businesses, those with-
out any employees, the sole proprietor, by helping them expand
and incentivize third party investment. And non-employer firms
are much more likely to be owned by women and female entre-
preneurs on average start out with roughly half the capital as male
entrepreneurs. So this legislation would create a refundable payroll
tax credit for non-employer firms that hire their first full-time em-
ployee and an investment credit to encourage third-party capital
investment into non-employer firms.
So can you talk broadly about how policies to level the playing
field by incentivizing third-party investment into small businesses
and the expansion of non-employer firms can improve outcomes for
female entrepreneurs?
Ms. WILLIAMS. Thank you very much. And that is another
great question.
It most definitely can help to improve. You know, most busi-
nesses are started as solopreneurs. And then if you start to grow,
attract contracts, and you cannot do it all alone. You cannot. There
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is no way that you can do everything by yourself. So in order to
bring on people, you know that you already have to have contracts
and revenue coming in. Sometimes that is just not the case. So to
have this ability to receive a tax credit, first of all, I can say I will
raise my hand because I know that I could certainly use it as well.
But, you know, this is a very good thing. And I do hope that this
H.R. 2680 is able to make it through in all aspects that is going
to really help those small businesses, in particular those very small
solopreneurs to scale and grow their businesses, keeping in mind
that everyone does not want to have a high growth company. There
are some people, many, that need a lifestyle type business that is
going to pay the bills and afford them a great life to live. But they
also deserve to have that opportunity with access to be able to do
that.
Ms. CHU. Thank you for that.
Ms. Scales, you talked about child and family obligations cre-
ating barriers for women to start and maintain businesses. Con-
gress and President Biden can address these barriers by ensuring
that all workers, including entrepreneurs have access to benefits
like paid leave and affordable childcare. So as a Member of the
Ways and Means Committee, I strongly support Chairman Neal’s
Building an Economy for Families Act discussion draft which would
provide 12 weeks of universal paid leave for all workers and ensure
progressive wage replacement for low-income workers, as well as
establish a new childcare information network, create a payroll tax
credit for childcare providers to raise wages, and invest $15 billion
into physical infrastructure for childcare. So I am so glad that
President Biden is prioritizing these critical issues in the American
Families Plan because these policies can help our small businesses
thrive.
Now, when I was in the California legislature, I wrote it for the
nation’s first paid family leave because I knew it would benefit our
state small businesses, including women-owned businesses. Women
are much more likely to leave the workforce because they have to
care for loved ones or provide childcare for their children which
was a reality magnified during the pandemic. And in fact, Decem-
ber, this last December marked a 33-year low in women’s labor
force participation because of this.
Can you discuss how benefits like a full 12-weeks universal paid
leave can lower barriers for female entrepreneurship and support
the long-term care of women-owned businesses?
Ms. WILLIAMS. Absolutely. You know, when I gave my opening
statement I kind of tried to set the tone for what a day in the life
is like for a woman who is juggling working, as well as running a
business and a household. And supports and investments like this
go a long way. When you have that burden, when you have that
pressure off of you for where your children will be, will they have
safe and affordable and high-quality educational opportunities from
a childcare perspective? When you know that your employees are
not thinking about that or having to come up with how do I take
today off? You know, how do I make sure that I show up but still
be present? It goes a long way.
And I think back to even my own personal story as a young mom
and trying to navigate through college and figuring out what was
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next. And I was really fortunate to have support with having high
quality childcare for my daughter. And it took additional burden off
of me. And what we are realizing is that this burden that our em-
ployees are having to face and that this burden that our founders
and entrepreneurs are having to face is beginning to impact not
just people economically but mentally, emotionally, and socially.
And so anything that the federal government can do from a respon-
sible standpoint, from a responsive standpoint to further support
our micro enterprising, our entrepreneurs, our women, our mothers
is a best bet and sure bet for me.
Ms. CHU. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back.
And next, the Chair will recognize Rep. Young Kim, the Ranking
Member on the Subcommittee of Innovation, Entrepreneurship,
and Workforce Development.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chair Davids and Ranking Mem-
ber Meuser for holding this very important hearing today. I also
want to thank our witnesses for being with us.
As a former woman small business owner and a mother of four,
I know firsthand the hurdles that women entrepreneurs must over-
come in order to succeed. the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated
challenges many women entrepreneurs face on a daily basis to
keep their doors open for business. Lack of access to capital, never-
ending lockdowns in states like California and the looming uncer-
tainty of higher taxes does not empower and incentivize our women
entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses.
So Ms. Williams, question for you. In your testimony you high-
lighted H.R. 3842. This is a bill I introduced with my colleague,
Representative Neguse to establish a microcap SBIC certification.
Could you further expand on your testimony and tell us how the
legislation could incentivize greater access to capital for women en-
trepreneurs and for businesses serving underrepresented commu-
nities?
Ms. WILLIAMS. Thank you very much for that question.
You know, as a small, minority, women-owned business, being
certified as such has really helped to open doors. The WOSB pro-
gram, women-owned small business and also being certified
through the National Minority Supplier Development Council and
the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, all of these
open doors. But opening doors is only one thing.
Since the pandemic and not being able to be face to face where
you can really establish those relationships, you can get mentoring.
People can connect with you, see that body language. It takes away
from what you are really able to do. Anything that any of the Com-
mittee Members can do to assist us with having more access, not
just to capital, okay, because capital is important but it is not just
capital. It is access to individuals that can help us, mentoring pro-
grams. All of these things make a difference. And I do hope, and
I am not that familiar with the legislation, but I do hope that what
I am saying in my testimony will help in some way to expand upon
that.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you.
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You know, in your testimony you also offered suggestions to im-
prove the SBA’s Small Business Investment Company program. So
have you received financing through the SBIC program?
Ms. WILLIAMS. No, I have not. And the SBIC program I will
say is actually a pretty cumbersome program to get through. I
equate it pretty similarly to the PPP. And if you are not used to
a lot of paperwork or how to navigate it, you know, it can be pretty
daunting. Now, at the same time you have organizations out there
that will assist you for a price. And so, you know once again you
still need the money to do it. I received PPP. I did receive a small
EIDL. But outside of that, there has been absolutely nothing.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Well, I hope we can continue to be a resource
to you, and I hope that you can take advantage of several SBA re-
lated programs. And we would love to be there to help you if we
can.
But next, I would like to ask a question to Ms. Scales. In your
testimony, you stated 70 percent of small businesses that receive
mentoring survive 5 more years, and 93 percent of small businesses
have noted that mentoring has helped them succeed. In your expe-
rience, what drives individuals to become a mentor? And do you
have any suggestions on how the SBA’s resource partners, like
Women Business Centers and SCORE can improve their
mentorship and outreach?
Ms. SCALES. Oh, thank you so much for that question. We are
passionate about mentoring and connecting mentors to small busi-
nesses, particularly women of color businesses.
When you ask what drives people to serve as a mentor, and I
think that has, you know, one of my favorite responses is it de-
pends. But I think at some point you do get to a level where you
find that you are in a position to be able to give back and you real-
ly want to make sure that you are doing your part to support the
next generation of whatever. If it is entrepreneurs or young people
who are coming up. But when we think about the importance of
mentoring and why it is so important for women of color entre-
preneurs is that representation matters. That being able to see and
connect with and learn from others who have been in your shoes,
who understand your plight is super critical. And so for even the
approach that we take at Walker’s Legacy, we have an accelerated
program called Prospectus and Women Who Enterprise. And a core
part of that is making sure that we are connecting women in those
cohorts to mentor, particularly mentors of color because so often we
know that they do not get access to these additional network that
we know are critical to supporting their sustainability and their ex-
pansion.
Beyond that, one of the things that we also note with mentoring
is that it creates a space in place for our entrepreneurs to be able
to receive resources beyond the financial contributions, beyond
some of the contractual things that they are able to access, but
having someone that is a real thought partner and leader in sup-
porting their growth.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you both. I know my time has expired.
Thank you. I yield back.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
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Next, the Chair will recognize Representative Evans for 5 min-
utes.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Williams, welcome. It is great to have you here as a Black
female entrepreneur whose business is located in West Chester,
Pennsylvania, just outside of my home city of Philadelphia. I un-
derstand that you started your business after you lost your job in
corporate America.
Can you speak a little bit more about your entrepreneur econ
system, how you got started, how can we help create a situation
where all women entrepreneurs have a robust support and entre-
preneur ecosystem?
Ms. WILLIAMS. Thank you very much. And I am really happy
to be here and to see representation as well from Pennsylvania. So
it makes me kind of feel at home.
You know, mentoring. We have talked about mentoring. And it
is often mentioned as a helpful tool as you said. It helps with the
relationships but it is about relationships that actually matter. You
know, networking for the sake of networking really helps nobody.
So knowing that you have an advocate within an organization or
an industry that has your back can provide a tremendous boost of
confidence. And I will give you an example.
I am in a mentor protege program, PACT. Mr. Meuser, you
might be familiar with this. It is the Philadelphia Alliance of Cap-
ital and Technology. And PACT partners startup companies with
teams of mentors who are seasoned entrepreneurs themselves with
decades of experience. Now, while volunteers similar to SCORE,
these seasoned entrepreneurs must have founded or led a company
as an entrepreneur. And it is a joint partnership between PACT
and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of southeastern Penn-
sylvania who provides matching capital. So you see where that
goes. It is a two-way street. They are giving something but you are
able to potentially get something back. And so for me, after having
lost my position, a very lucrative position by the way in corporate
America, I made the decision that this idea of filling the gap that
was needed to help people with their health and well-being, but
that it is for everyone through the lens of social determinants of
health was so important that it was necessary to do that. We are,
by the way, we happen to be a C corp but we are also a public ben-
efit corporation because what you do and how you look at everyone
matters and that is what we believe. And that is what I believe.
I get pretty passionate about this, and I could go on and on and
I do not want to take up all the time but would love to have an
offline conversation.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you.
Prior to the pandemic, Ms. Scales, women of color accounted for
50 percent of all women-owned businesses. However, there is a
stark revenue disparity between minorities and non-minority
women-owned businesses. Women minority owned businesses aver-
age just over 65,000 while nonminority women own on average
over 218,000. What do you think contributes to this disparity and
how can Congress help? Ms. Scales?
Ms. SCALES. Contributing to that disparity. Wow, we could be
here for a long time.
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I think it comes down to a few things. We have talked about
mentoring. And behind mentoring is being able to have those ac-
cess to additional networks and markets. Right? And we have
talked about the impact of having access to capital, or I like to say
the barriers to accessing capital. Absolutely. And technology inte-
gration into service delivery. But just as importantly is the addi-
tional responsibilities that are often placed upon women of color
entrepreneurs where they do not have some of the flexibility, hav-
ing the additional resources to be able to step back in a more stra-
tegic way to think of how they are sustaining, scaling, and growing
their business. We are so often moving quickly, pivoting, juggling
so much. So there are many I think factors that contribute to that
but access to markets and new networks and having the removal
of barriers that are impacting them from accessing capital and just
having the additional supports to remove some of the burdens that
also interfere with their abilities to focus and scale and sustain
their business unequivocally service issues.
Mr. EVANS. Real quick. I think I have a little time.
Ms. Williams, do you have any reaction to that question I just
asked?
Ms. WILLIAMS. First, and I know that we are out of time, but
we can always, always do more. Starting a business is daunting in
its own right. But there is only so many cohorts around. There are
only so many applications that you can fill out and then hope with
a wing and a prayer, like you are submitting a resume into a
blackhole, that somebody is going to recognize it. And it comes back
to the relationships and being able to have those doors opened so
that you do not just fall into a blackhole. Venture capital is not for
everyone. Okay? Grants. We need more grants. We need more
other ways to provide capital. And the banks, you know, they have
a set of criteria that women do not always fall into very neatly, and
especially women of color. And so these are all things that really
need emphasis. And we need to find creative measures to ensure
that small businesses, those entrepreneurs and especially those
women-owned businesses that might have the bakery shop, that
might have the hair salon. You know, they are just as important.
Well, I am going to stop there because I could go on and on and
I see the time. Thank you.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you. I yield back the rest of my time. Madam
Chair, thank you.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize Rep. Bourdeaux for 5 minutes.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you, Chairwoman Davids and Rank-
ing Member Meuser. And thank you to our witnesses for taking the
time to speak with us today.
In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, women-
owned businesses experienced significant growth, but once the
COVID-19 pandemic hit, this growth came to an abrupt halt. Prior
to the pandemic, 67 percent of male-owned businesses ranked the
overall health of their business as good, compared to 60 percent of
women-owned businesses. However, we know that the pandemic
has disproportionately affected women-owned businesses, and the
numbers bear that out. Male-owned businesses only saw a drop of
about 5 percent in that same metric in July of 2020 to 62 percent,
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while that number among women-owned businesses fell 13 percent,
from 60 percent to 47 percent. A similar disparity can be seen in
a recent survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which indicates
that in 2021, less than half of women entrepreneurs believe their
revenue will increase compared to almost 60 percent of male own-
ers who believe the same. Despite the significant federal relief, too
many women-owned small businesses are really still struggling to
recover from the pandemic.
This is a question for Ms. Turner. The pandemic has also dis-
proportionately affected minority-owned businesses. It is my under-
standing that nationwide in 2020, over 50 percent of the people
served by our Women’s Business Centers were people of color. In
my district, the WBC in Norcross, Georgia does extremely impor-
tant work, very useful for businesses owned by women, and espe-
cially women of color. But we are very interested in the Community
Navigators program and how we can use that to be more useful.
And so one question is, you know, what can we do to do a better
job of reaching out to diverse communities, and how should we tar-
get the Community Navigators program to be more helpful?
Ms. TURNER. Thank you for the question. Related to this in ac-
cess to funding and being intentional about serving women of color,
our organization has been very intentional over the last several
years and have been able to increase that percentage to about 48
percent. So I do believe that there has to be intention. Part of the
natural way of ensuring that access to capital is available to micro-
enterprises and their startup is really through a lot of the work
that is being done in microlending. And I want to really emphasize
that because the Minority Development Institutions and the Com-
munity Development Financial Institutions have been doing this
work for a long time. And it does not mean that we are not at-
tached to the connectivity with institutional banking relationships
but microenterprises are, you know, the technical assistance is also
provided to that business owner to be able to navigate and ensure
that the capital that they receive as a borrower actually has some
growth potential for their business. And I cannot overemphasize
that this has always been a struggle to ensure that these institu-
tions have had the amount of capital needed to actually be inten-
tional in those underserved markets. So Community Navigator is
an example of something that may roll out to actually help that
connectivity that I think every community right now is exploring.
And so obviously we welcome any of that kind of connectivity if
that is helpful.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. I am very interested in the microlending pro-
grams and how we really get that into the community. I meet with
small business owners all the time and women, and I do not know
how many times, even though we have all these resources available
for them, they just do not know about it and it is really surprising
to me. We have just got to keep pushing. Keep pushing on that.
On that note, we have had some really important programs in
the pandemic that have helped small businesses and actually have
reached a much broader community. Are there any programs or
pieces of programs or parts of them that we should consider con-
tinuing as we recover from the pandemic?
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Ms. TURNER. You know, anything, I think it has been stated
prior by the other witnesses today, is any kind of small business
tax incentives can be helpful long term. I think the World Bank as-
sessment of the United States has us listed as 53rd in the easiness,
the ease of being able to start a business. And in the United States
that is just not acceptable. I think the work that is being done, as
long as clients can actually find the resource, to your point, which
is why I think a suggestion of making sure that we have that dig-
ital presence, you know, it is all shifted. Right? And being able for
people to find those resources. What has been done with the PPP
and the EIDL loan and even communities that have created their
own relief funding programs has absolutely elevated access to cap-
ital for those underserved markets. We just have to keep it going.
Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you so much. We are out of time. I
yield back.
Chairwoman DAVIDS. Thank you. The gentlewoman yields back.
All right. Well, I really appreciate our witnesses who have taken
the time out of what I am sure are very busy schedules to join us
today. Your testimony has illuminated many of the problems that
female business owners face. And I appreciate you sharing your
stories. And of course, your insights and valuable recommendations
for what we can be doing. All of you come from different commu-
nities across the country but you have described some pretty simi-
lar ways that our small businesses really need support, that
women small businesses need support in this economy because
right now what we are seeing is not quite working. And being the
venue to listen and hear from the voices of small businesses in
Washington, we have to work as a Committee to remove the obsta-
cles and barriers that we heard about today so that we can get the
playing field leveled. And without a full recovery for women-owned
businesses, we are not going to be able to move past the economic
crisis that we have seen because of a public health crisis that we
have been in. And I am looking forward to working with my fellow
Committee Members to address the issues that we have heard
about today and build a better economy for female entrepreneurs
and for their employees.
I would ask unanimous consent that Members have 5 legislative
days to submit statements and supporting materials for the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
And if there is no further business to come before the Committee,
we are adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 11:24 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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APPENDIX
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Æ
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- e22d5130ef2c1623e0ea6142f44dcc3c4c94ec4f026a22dcc887be0545844968
- Our copy
- CHRG-117hhrg44751.pdf
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov