October. National Women's Small Business Month

Women Own 39.2% Of U.S. Businesses. They Command 6.2% Of The Revenue.

National Women's Small Business Month traces back to the Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988, the law that created a federal council for women business owners still operating today. No single person founded this month. Decades of advocacy did.

39.2%

Of all U.S. firms are women owned, an estimated 14.5 million businesses.

9.6%

Share of total U.S. employment those businesses produce.

6.2%

Share of total U.S. business revenue.

$33K vs $2.0M

Average revenue, solo owner vs. employer firm.

Why This Month Exists

On October 25, 1988, Ronald Reagan signed the Women's Business Ownership Act, H.R. 5050, into law. It expanded federal lending access for women-owned businesses at a time when some women needed a male relative to co-sign a business loan application. The same law created the National Women's Business Council, a federal advisory body that still reports to the President, Congress, and the Small Business Administration.

Congress separately recognized October as National Women's Small Business Month in resolutions, including one in 2015. No single founder created it. It came from the law, the council it built, and the advocacy that followed.

The Gap

Ownership is up. Power isn't moving at the same pace. Women-owned firms grew 17.1% between 2019 and 2024, and revenue grew 53.8%. Those 14.5 million businesses still produce less than a tenth of U.S. employment and just over 6% of U.S. business revenue. That's the number worth sitting with, not the ownership percentage everyone already quotes.

"Owning the business was never going to be the hard part."

Solo Isn't The Finish Line

Most of that growth is one person, not a team. An estimated 13 million women run solo businesses averaging about $33,000 a year. About 1.4 million have grown into employer firms, averaging $2.0 million in revenue and 9.1 employees. Minority women-owned employer firms grew 49.8% between 2017 and 2023, nearly two and a half times the overall rate, proof the growth is there even where it gets talked about least.

The businesses that cross from solo to employer aren't running a better idea. They're running a system underneath the idea.

If This Is You

If You're Building The $33K Business

Most solo founders don't stay small for lack of ambition. They stay small because nobody taught them the parts of a business that don't need their own two hands: pricing, offers, delivery systems, the infrastructure that turns expertise into income without every hour of the day attached to it.

That's the work at Ready Launch Build Studios. If that's the gap you're standing in, a discovery call is the first step.

Ready Launch Build Studios ↗

National Women's Business Council

The federal council the 1988 ownership law created, still advising the President, Congress, and the SBA on policy for women business owners.

↗ nwbc.gov

SBA Office of Women's Business Ownership

Federal resources, funding programs, and Women's Business Centers nationwide.

↗ sba.gov

National Association of Women Business Owners

Advocacy and community for women business owners at every stage.

↗ nawbo.org

Census Business Builder

Free federal tool for market and location research, built for anyone starting or growing a small business.

↗ census.gov

Sources: Wells Fargo, 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report. U.S. Census Bureau. Congress.gov, H.R. 5050 and S.Res. 280. National Women's Business Council.