Today in We’ve Heard This Before… WaPo Says: Good News! But Hold the Applause
You know, we’re getting a little tired of holding the applause. The Washington Post today reports on yesterday’s census numbers and reading it is like an emotional roller-coaster! Seriously. It’s all “Good news! But wait not so fast cause bad news too. However, also, good news!” And so on. It’s exhausting.
Anyway, the good news!:
In the years preceding the recession, the ranks of minority and female entrepreneurs exploded, according to census statistics released Tuesday. By 2007, minorities owned one in five small U.S. businesses, and women owned almost one in three.
The bad:
But even as the statistics were released, they were eclipsed by the recession that started in December 2007, leading economists to wonder whether the downturn will reverse much of the progress.
The good!:
A study published last year by the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute projected that small businesses run by women will create one-third of all new jobs.
The bad:
However, the challenges and inequities many minorities and women face in business remain formidable.
And the AWESOME:
More women are starting firms in nontraditional fields; they own about 11 percent of construction firms, for instance.
Melissa Schneider and Amber Peebles, both former Marines, have 12 employees at their Dumfries firm, the Athena Construction Group. Schneider started the company in 2003 to do home remodeling after sensing that she was bumping up against a glass ceiling at the international technology firm where she was a network operations manager … Neither regrets branching out in such a severe downturn.
Big ups to these ladies, for starters. We really wish we’d had a female contractor when we went through renovations, cause our contractor was a cocky little shit.
Anyway, despite all the caveats, these numbers are a big deal. Will they change the working world? We’ll see.
-Jesse
