Women-owned small businesses are growing at a strong rate. Approximately 22% of new registrants on my company's lending platform in July 2012 were owned by women. Overall, more than 8.3 million firms -- or 29% of all businesses -- are now owned by women. Surprisingly, women-owned businesses employ 40% more people than the top three employers (McDonald’s, IBM and Wal*Mart) in the U.S. combined, and between 1997 and 2012, they grew at a pace that was 1.5 times the national average, according to American Express OPEN's State of Women-Owned Businesses Report.
