Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship
5-7 November 2008 - Belfast, N. Ireland
A Connotation for Control:
Women Business Owners Seeking Balance AND Growth
Julie R. Weeks, President and CEO
Womenable
13601 S. Beaver Pond Road
Empire, MI USA 49630
Tel: +1.231.326.3300
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.womenable.com
Abstract
Objectives: Many policy makers, business support providers and researchers frequently describe
the goal of work-life balance in the same breath as their descriptions of “lifestyle” businesses
and non growth-oriented firms. Recently conducted research among women business owners in
the United States seeking to grow their enterprises to the million-dollar level dispels this
assumption, showing that the goals of balance and growth are not mutually exclusive.
Approach: Two nationwide online surveys were conducted among members of the “Make Mine a
Million Dollar Business” community, an Internet-based support network of women business
owners seeking to grow their businesses to the million-dollar level. The first was conducted
during the month of August 2007, with a total of 1,162 surveys completed. The second was
conducted during the month of April 2008, with a total of 1,127 surveys completed. The surveys
covered several topics, among them business owner goals and motivations, the issue of worklife balance, and level of business achievement.
Results: When asked about their primary motivation for starting their business, the top reason
given is work-life-balance (followed by “being my own boss”). Analysis of these responses
combined with motherhood status and level of business accomplishment reveals that “balance
seekers” are no less accomplished in their business growth, running counter to the assumption
that women business owners who start businesses in order to find greater balance in their lives
are not as interested in growing their enterprises as women who start their businesses for other
reasons. In addition, the women who feel they have achieved a high level of work-life balance
have likewise achieved a similar level of business growth, as defined by firm revenues and
employment.
Implications: The results of this study have particular value for entrepreneurial support
organisations, which may be proffering business advice and counsel on the basis of an incorrect
assumption that women who say they have started or wish to start a business to achieve
greater “balance” are not interested in learning more about strategies for growth. This study
would indicate that growth-oriented advice aimed at nascent entrepreneurs – even those who
are seeking greater balance in their lives – could pay off with significant economic and social
benefits to business owners, entrepreneurial support organisations, and to the community at
large.
Value: This research should contribute to a greater understanding of the gender-based
differences in meaning ascribed to certain terminology. While “balance” to some may mean
eschewing competitiveness for nurturing, for others the word may indeed connote greater
control over one’s destiny – a destiny that includes managing a growth-oriented enterprise.
Key Words: women business owners, business growth, work-life balance
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Introduction
Around the world, more and more women are getting into business. In the United States, for
example, the number of women-owned firms grew by 20% between 1997 and 2002, twice the
10% rate of growth of all U.S. businesses. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006) In the United Kingdom,
Canada, and in other countries where there are regular business censuses or surveys, a similar
rise in the number of women entering into self-employment is seen.
And yet, on average, women are less likely than men to be entering into business ownership,
and when they do their firms are seen to be smaller than the average business. The extensive
work done by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor consortium has found repeatedly that, in
nearly every country studied, entrepreneurship rates for women are typically half those for
men, and business survival rates are lower, especially in lower and middle income countries.
(Allen, et al, 2008) Women are also likely to own smaller businesses, as defined by employment
and revenue size. (See Orser, B. for a Canadian study addressing this issue.)
In some measure, the gender difference in firm size may have to do with the relative youth of
women-owned firms, but many have also posited that women business owners are not as
oriented toward growing their firms as men business owners may be. Both academic
researchers and the popular press alike combine discussions of the issue of “work-life balance”
with parental status and a supposed desire to work fewer hours. It is also frequently stated that
many women (inferring more women than men) operate “lifestyle” businesses – meaning that
their enterprises are oriented toward income replacement or household income enhancement
rather than toward wealth-creation. Thus, the term “lifestyle business” has taken on a
somewhat pejorative, less-than-serious, anti-growth connotation, and “seeking balance” has
come to connote a lower and slower business growth trajectory.
This paper will focus on the relationship between seeking and obtaining greater work-life
balance and the achievement of business growth among a unique population of women business
owners, showing that, among these women at least, these two goals are not necessarily
mutually exclusive and, indeed, are not particularly strongly correlated. Balance and growth can
go hand in hand, and “seeking balance” is seen to be a connotation for control rather than a
reason to relax.
Survey Respondents and Methodology
The research upon which this paper is based was conducted among a unique population of
women business owners – those who have joined an online community of women who are
seeking to grow their enterprises to the million-dollar level. The initiative, “Make Mine a MillionDollar Business” (abbreviated as M3), was launched in the United States in 2006 by Count Me in
for Women’s Economic Independence, a non-profit organisation which provides capital to
women-owned enterprises, and is supported by a number of corporations, among them
American Express OPEN®, which underwrote the surveys. Womenable would like to thank them
for granting their permission for the public release of this analysis, paper and presentation. For
further information about the “M3” initiative, visit www.makemineamillion.org.
Two surveys were conducted online among this community of women business owners, the first
in August 2007 and the second in April 2008. The size of this population of women business
owners now numbers nearly 60,000. When the 2007 survey was launched the survey
population was 26,000, and had grown to just under 50,000 at the time of the second survey.
The interview periods, survey populations, response rates, and survey error margins are
indicated in the following table:
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Online Survey Statistics
Interview period
Survey population
Number of completed interviews
Response rate*
Error margin (95% confidence)
* Among delivered/opened surveys.
5-7 November 2008 - Belfast, N. Ireland
August 2007
9 August2 September, 2007
26,000
1,162
27%
+/- 2.8%
April 2008
3-21 April, 2008
48,000
1,127
19%
+/- 2.8%
The women in this community differ from the average woman business owner in the United
States in several important ways: 1) their firms are younger but larger than average, 2) they
themselves are younger than the average woman business owner, and 3) they are more
ethnically diverse. (See table below.)
The “M3”
Population
Average Woman
Business Owner
Firm Age
In business more than 5 years
25%
58%2
Not yet started the business
5
0
Firm Size
Percent with employees
55
141
Percent with $100,000+ in revenues
54
131
Personal Characteristics
Percent under 45
46
242
Percent women of colour
31
231
1
U.S. Census Bureau, 2002 business census
2
2008 membership survey, National Association of Women Business Owners
In addition, by definition, these women business owners are more likely than average to be
oriented toward and focused on business growth issues. Thus, the findings in this analysis
cannot be generalised to the national population of women business owners in the U.S. It is
nonetheless a very unique and therefore very interesting subgroup of the American woman
business owner population.
Research Questions
Three key questions will be investigated in this analysis:
1. Are women business owners who seek to grow their enterprises to the million-dollar
level concerned at all with the issue of work-life balance?
2. How do balance-seekers differ from others in terms of business and personal
characteristics, and level of focus on business growth?
3. Do women business owners who seek or achieved greater work-life balance grow their
firms at a different pace than non balance-seekers, or do the business accomplishments
of balance-seekers lag those of other women business owners?
In addressing these issues, we will analyse the responses to three key questions in concert with
current business age and size (as measured by employment and business turnover), and
personal characteristics such as age, marital status and motherhood status. The questions are:
1. Which of the following comes closest to describing why you started (or will start) your
business? (five answer categories given: to have work-life balance; to be my own boss;
to build a legacy/achieve recognition; to provide for my family; none of these quite fits,
the most important reason is: _____)
2. Which ONE of the following statements do you most agree with? 1-I have been
continually focused on growing my business since day one; 2-my focus on growth is
inconsistent; 3-my focus on growth is secondary to other considerations
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3. On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means your business is driving you and you have no
balance and 10 means you feel you have things mostly under control and have the
“balance thing” figured out, where do you stand on the “balance achievement scale”?
First, though, a word about the meaning of “balance” and “work-life balance.” These terms,
while used frequently, do not have a widely agreed-upon meaning. It is generally accepted,
however, that balance does not necessarily mean an equal weighting of attention paid to
different aspects of life, nor are the relative importance of factors the same for each individual.
One useful definition of balance or work-life balance to consider is “meaningful daily
achievement AND enjoyment in each of four important life quadrants – work, family, friends
and self.”1
Key Findings
The Desire for Balance and Growth: The desire for greater balance in one’s life may be a
common and frequently plaintive longing, but does it exist even among women business owners
who are seeking to grow their firms to the million-dollar level? The short answer is, “Yes,
definitely!” While the majority of women seeking to grow their businesses to the million-dollar
level gave non balance-seeking reasons for launching their enterprises, the most frequently
mentioned reason for wanting to launch their business was the desire for greater work-life
balance.
When asked why they decided to start their business, a 29% plurality of women seeking to
grow their businesses to $1 million in revenues and beyond said that they did so in order to
have more work-life balance. Another 22% did so to be their own boss, 13% were driven by the
desire to build a legacy and achieve recognition, and 11% launched their enterprise to provide
for their families. One-quarter said that none of these reasons quite fit, including 5% who
started their businesses to fulfil a dream or passion, 4% who wanted to make a difference, and
16% who had various other reasons.
Defining the Balance-Seekers: What types of women business owners are most likely to be
seeking greater balance in their lives? While seeking greater balance was the most frequently
offered business motivation mentioned by most members of the Make Mine a Million Dollar
Business (M3) community, balance-seekers are more likely than non-seekers to be:
•
•
•
Married/partnered rather than single
Mothers of children under 18
Caucasian
Over two-thirds (68%) of balanceseekers are married or partnered,
compared to just 60% of nonseekers, a statistically significant
difference (F=6.2, sig .01). Women
who started their firms primarily to
seek greater work-life balance are
also more likely than other women
business owners to be mothers, and
to have children at home – either
pre-school
or
in
primary
or
secondary school. Fully 67% of
balance-seekers
are
mothers,
compared to 60% of those who
started for other reasons, and just
over half (51%) of balance-seekers
have minor (pre-school, primary or
secondary school aged) children, compared to just 39% of non balance-seekers. (F=1.5, sig
.002).
1
For an interesting discussion on the issue, see http://worklifebalance.com/worklifebalancedefined.html.
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Balance-seekers (70%) are also more likely to be Caucasian than non-seekers (63%), but there
may be other factors at work driving this racial difference.2
Seeking greater work-life balance is, then, impacted by the existence of children at home, and
the expression of that desire may be fostered by the existence of a second income. Is does
appear to be more of a life stage than a life time business goal; those seeking balance are
younger on average than those who have started their businesses for other reasons. But, since
the members of the M3 community are in the early stages of their enterprises (52% have
started their firms within the past three years), it remains to be seen whether this goal will
remain as the business and their families mature.
When looking at the industry distribution of women in the M3 community, it is seen that the
vast majority (90%) are in service-related businesses, with the largest prevalence in retail trade
(18%) and professional/scientific/technical services (12%). There is no significant difference in
the types of businesses that balance-seekers have started compared to those launched by
women who have other motivations for entrepreneurship.
It also does not appear that women who are motivated by finding greater work-life balance are
launching their enterprises to seek refuge from their work experiences in a large corporate
environment, nor is the desire for greater balance more prevalent among women who have
voluntarily “off-ramped” at some point in their careers. Just over one-third (36%) of M3
members worked in a large corporation just prior to starting their enterprise, and 48% say that
at one point in their careers they voluntarily “off-ramped” for six months or more – taking time
away from the workforce for personal reasons such as child care, elder care or the furtherance
of their education.
Forty percent (40%) of those seeking balance worked for a large corporation immediately prior
to launching their enterprise, as did
36% of those who have some other
motivation
for
starting
their
business. Put another way, just
under one-third (31%) of those who
started their businesses just after
leaving a position in a large
corporation started with the primary
motivation
of
seeking
greater
balance, as did 29% of all M3
members – not a statistically
significant difference.
So, too, just under half of both
balance-seekers (49%) and non
balance-seekers (47%) have “offramped” at some point in their
careers. And an identical 16% of
each group on-ramped directly from
their time away from the workforce into business ownership.
Therefore, those who say their primary business motivation is seeking greater work-life balance
are no different from those who started their businesses for other reasons in terms of their
large corporation experience, nor are they more likely to have off-ramped during their careers
or on-ramped into entrepreneurship. Seeking balance thus does not appear to be a reaction to a
2
In a previous M3 analysis performed by Womenable looking at issues of ethnicity, it was found that
women of colour are much more likely than Caucasian women to be motivated by making a difference in
their communities, and take greater pride in being role models. In addition, some women of colour in the
M3 community are younger and less likely to have children (Asian Americans) and some are less likely to
be married or partnered (African Americans) – all of which are mediating factors in the expression of a
desire for work-life balance.
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harsh corporate environment nor a way to ease back into the workforce through selfemployment.
Balance and Business Achievement: The third and perhaps most important research question
remains: do women business owners who seek greater work-life balance grow their firms at a
different pace than non balance-seekers? In other words, does having a goal of greater worklife balance dampen business growth, and do those who have achieved greater balance do so at
the cost of firm size? The answer,
among
these
growth-oriented
women business owners, is an
emphatic
“No!”
There
is
no
significant difference between those
who started their enterprises in
order to seek greater balance and
all other M3 members in their
degree of focus on growing their
business or in the size of their
enterprises,
nor
is
there
a
significant difference in level of
business accomplishment among
those who have achieved greater
work-life balance than among those
with low levels of balance in their
lives.
To begin, seeking greater work-life
balance does not mean that a
woman is less interested or less focused on growing her business. When asked how focused
they are on growing their enterprise, a 58% majority of all members of the Make Mine a Million
Dollar business community say that they “have been continually focused on growing my
business since the first day I started it.” Another 29% admit that their focus has been
inconsistent, and one in eight (13%) state that their focus on growth is secondary to other
considerations. There is no significant difference between balance-seekers and those who are
motivated by other reasons in their response to this question: both balance-seekers (57%) and
those who are motivated by other factors (59%) are equally likely to say that they have been
continually focused on the growth of their businesses since day one.
Similarly, those who started their enterprises to achieve a higher level of work-life balance are
not spending significantly less time managing their firms than are those who started for other
reasons. Half of both balance-seekers (51%) and non-seekers (50%) are currently working at
least 40 hours per week, 26% and 18%, respectively, are working between 30 and 39 hours,
and 23% and 22%, respectively, are working less than 30 hours a week in their enterprises.
Since their level of focus on growth and amount of time spent in the business is not significantly
different, it stands to reason that their business outcomes would likewise be similar – and they
are. The share of firms owned by balance-seekers that has reached the $250,000 revenue mark
is virtually the same as the share among all other M3 members – 15% and 18%, respectively.
In addition, employment achievement is similar: 13% of balance-seekers and 14% of nonseekers employ five or more workers.
What if the desire for greater work-life balance is different from the achievement of that goal?
Since the number of hours worked in the business is not significantly different between balanceseekers and non-seekers, has their desire for greater work-life balance not yet been realised?
Maybe we would only see significant differences in business size between those who actually
have achieved a greater level of work-life balance and those who have not reached that goal.
The second M3 survey, conducted in April 2008, asked a direct question about how much
balance these women feel they have in their lives. When asked to place themselves on a 0 to 10
scale, where 0 meant that their business ran them and they had no balance and 10 meant that
they felt they had “the balance thing” figured out, women placed themselves just above the
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midpoint, with an average of 5.5.
One-third (33%) of these growthoriented women business owners
felt they had achieved a high level
of balance (7-10 on the scale), 49%
a moderate level of balance (4-6),
and 18% felt that they had a very
low level of balance in their lives (03 on the scale).
An analysis of the revenue and
employment levels of these three
groups reveals that there is no
significant difference in level of
business accomplishment between
the women with high levels of
balance in their lives and those with
low or moderate levels of balance.
In other words, the achievement of
a high level of work-life balance has not dampened business growth – nor has focusing on the
business to the detriment of personal relationships had a beneficial impact on their business’
bottom line.3
Therefore, women business owners who feel they have achieved a high level of balance in their
lives have not sacrificed higher business growth to reach that point. Nineteen percent (19%) of
them employ five or more workers, and 10% generate $500,000 or more in annual revenues.
Similarly, 16% of women business owners with low levels of balance in their lives employ five or
more workers and 11% generate $500,000 or more in annual revenues.
Conclusions and Implications
An analysis of a population of women business owners who seek to grow their enterprises to
and beyond the million-dollar level reveals that a desire for greater balance in their lives is the
single most frequently cited motivation for the launch of their entrepreneurial endeavours.
Thus, in the minds of many of these growth-oriented women business owners, growth and
balance are not mutually exclusive; indeed, both goals are integrally related.
Seeking balance does appear to be related to life stage: mothers with minor children are among
those most likely to desire more balance in their lives. However, significant shares of growthoriented women business owners of other ages and stages of life are also motivated to start
enterprises to improve their chances of finding greater balance.
The notion that the desire for greater balance means that a woman business owner is not as
interested in or focused on growing her business is dispelled by our analysis of this unique
survey population. Indeed, neither the desire for greater work-life balance nor the achievement
of greater balance has dampened the business accomplishments of the women in the M3
community: sales and employment levels of “balance-seekers” and non-seekers alike are quite
similar.
We suggest that the term “work-life balance” has been used incorrectly and has, consciously or
unconsciously, come to connote a less serious approach to business ownership and a lower level
of focus on business growth and wealth creation as entrepreneurial goals. While “balance” to
some may mean eschewing competitiveness for caring or child-minding, for this population of
women business owners the word may instead connote greater control over one’s destiny – a
destiny that includes managing a growth-oriented enterprise.
3
Which reminds this author of the lyrics from a 1974 song by the late Hoyt Axton: “Work your fingers to
the bone and what do you get? Bony fingers, bony fingers.” http://www.rhapsody.com/hoytaxton
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This points not only to a misattribution of the term “balance” but to a need for more research
into the broader issue of gender differences in the way business owners describe their
motivations, goals, desires and measures of success. It may well be that many women
entrepreneurs have a different lexicon which they use to describe their entrepreneurial visions
and values. The current entrepreneurial dictionary and thesaurus have been largely maledefined and may not adequately take into consideration gender-based differences in meaning.
The results of this analysis should also have significant implications for entrepreneurship
educators and support organisations, policy makers, and women’s business association leaders.
For entrepreneurship educators and support organisations, these findings indicate that paying
attention to fostering and supporting business growth very early – even among women who are
seeking greater balance in their lives – may be advisable. Business counsellors and educators
should not assume that women business owners who are seeking greater balance are
uninterested in or are eschewing business growth.
Policy makers would do well to foster both policies and programmes that bring greater attention
to avenues to business growth, and encourage more dialogue about the strategies that
entrepreneurs can employ to achieve both balance and growth.
Finally, women’s business association leaders can play an integral role in bringing more
attention to how women business owners approach business growth, the ways in which women
business owners verbalise their entrepreneurial plans and perspectives, and the different vision
and voice that women bring to business ownership – especially where the counter-intuitive topic
of harmonising balance and growth is concerned.
This analysis should contribute to these efforts.
References
Allen, I.E., Langowitz, N., Elam, A.; Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report on Women and
Entrepreneurship, 2007; Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College, Baruch
College; published May 2008. See
http://www3.babson.edu/CWL/upload/GEMWomen07.pdf
National Association of Women Business Owners; 2008 membership survey data;
unpublished.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; Women and Men in OECD
Countries; 2008. See
http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,3343,en_21571361_38039199_38167008_1_1_1_1,0
0.html
Orser, B.; Growth Intentions of Women Business Owners in Manitoba: Implications for Policy
and Training; Manitoba Women’s Enterprise Centre, 1998. See
http://www.wecm.ca/docs/growth_intention.doc
U.S. Census Bureau; Women-Owned Firms, 2002; 2002 Economic Census publication SB0200CS-WMN; published January 2006. http://www.census.gov/csd/sbo/women2002.htm
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