This is a good time to be a businesswoman in San Diego — or almost anywhere in Southern California — judging by the phenomenal growth women's businesses are enjoying. New figures from the National Foundation of Women Business Owners (NFWBO) show the southern portion of the Golden State ranking high on a list of 50 metropolitan areas for the number of businesses owned by women, and in the growth of those firms reflected by the numbers they employ and the revenues they generate.
    Nationwide, employment and revenue of women-owned businesses has more than doubled in the past seven years. In some Southern California metropolitan areas, the gains are even greater.
    Credit the climate — physical as well as economic — the increasing credibility of women in business, the improved availability of financial assistance for them in starting new or revitalizing old businesses, their different styles of management or a combinations of those factors. But whatever the reasons, women are rapidly entering into, and advancing through, the world of business owners.
    As vice president of the San Diego CDC Small Business Finance Corp., Kim Buttermere helps women and minorities obtain business loans. San Diego, she says, is a good market for startups.
    "Small business in general makes up a large part of the economy in San Diego," she says. "Consumers here are open to patronizing small businesses." She also sees San Diego as an encouraging environment. "There is a lot of support for women in business here," she adds, citing programs such as UCSD Connect's Athena and a strong local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). (NAWBO spun off NFWBO several years ago as a foundation to research and document women's progress in owning businesses.)
    The newly completed update of an earlier study on businesswomen puts San Diego ninth — in a tie with Orlando, Fla., for the percentage of growth in women-owned businesses, the numbers they employ and their revenues since 1992. In addition, San Diego County ranked 11th in the number of women-owned businesses overall.
    As of 1999, San Diego has 102,700 women-owned firms employing an estimated 571,900 workers and generating $46.2 billion in sales. That represents increases since 1992 of 41 percent in the number of firms, 216 percent in the numbers employed by women-owned businesses and 183 percent in generated revenue.
    "Women in business have credibility now," says Carolyn Smith-Konow, president of the San Diego Chapter of NAWBO. "Women have proved they have staying power."
    While San Diego ranks 11th in the total number of women-owned businesses, other leading Southern California areas are Los Angeles-Long Beach, ranked second to New York, with 360,300 women-owned businesses, and Orange County, ninth with 113,600 such firms.
    The majority of the growth locally is in the nontraditional goods-producing sector, including agribusiness, construction and manufacturing. That is in keeping with national trends. The number of goods-producing women-owned firms has increased by 57 percent since 1992.
    The figures illustrating this growth are from NFWBO's "1999 Facts on Women-Owned Businesses: Trends in the Top 50 Metropolitan Areas." Sponsored by Wells fargo, a major lender to businesswomen, the report is an update of a 1996 study based on a 1999 projected analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
    Although some of these figures seem a bit high to Kelly Cunningham, research manager at the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, he says they are probably pretty accurate, judging from past growth. In 1992, about 36 percent of all San Diego businesses were owned by women. It would be much higher today using NFWBO figures, but Cunningham notes differing definitions of what constitutes a business might change the picture. Chamber records reflect businesses based on tax filings, and many small businesses operated out of the home or with one or two employees would not be included in that count. They are counted by NFWBO.

    In 1992, says Cunningham, women-owned businesses provided paychecks for 33 percent of those employed in San Diego. NFWBO says that number approaches 40 percent today, a figure Cunningham says is not only possible but appears to be supported by the growing number of women business owners he meets at chamber events.
    Cunningham says one reason for the rapid rate of business startups by women in San Diego is that they have found niches and want to be their own bosses.
    But probably the main reason for the growth is the increasing availability of funding for businesswomen. Wells Fargo, for example, has committed to loan $10 billion over 10 years to provide the capital women need to start new businesses and nurture those already operating. Such loans usually come in $5,000 to $10,000 lines of credit, and have totaled more than $5.2 billion in the past three and one-half years.
    San Diegan Jennifer Guillroy says a Wells Fargo loan allowed expansion of her security business. It may even have saved the enterprise, Calitec Securities, that she founded in Old Town six years ago.
    Originally, she started the company to meet a long-standing desire to get into law enforcement, one delayed by the financial demands of raising a family.
    "I had to get a job to help support my family," says the former bank property manager, "but when the children were grown, I decided to go for it." With her last paycheck of $730 she purchased a $550 state license and launched her security business. Now she oversees 50 to 70 guards, some armed, and 10 vehicles working throughout the county.
    The Wells Fargo line of credit enabled her to upgrade and add equipment to meet a growing demand for services. Loan programs such as Wells Fargo's are a way to give proper acknowledgment to the work women do, she says, and provide women with an opportunity to succeed.
    "Had it not been for the boost from Wells Fargo," she says, "staying in business would have been much harder."
    Dolores Braswell, women's program coordinator for the San Diego Small Business Administration, cites national figures showing that loans to women are up 152 percent since 1992, representing nearly $9 billion loaned in the seven years since.
    The SBA sponsors workshops to enable women to get prequalification for a business loan. Through this program, an applicant can fill out loan papers, with the help of participating bankers, and then have the SBA check their credit and the purpose for the loan, and furnish a letter of qualification. With the letter, the applicant can obtain the loan with SBA backing.
    "Certainly the availability of financial assistance is significant," says Buttermere, who notes that several special loan programs in California are giving women here opportunities for obtaining money that may not be available everywhere in the country. One of these is the Bankers CDC Corp., a consortium of banks in different markets. Funds are provided by banks working together, (24 in San Diego) that provide loans of less than $50,000, which are difficult to obtain even with good credit and projected returns.
    But other factors also come into play when considering why women-owned businesses have continued to operate.
    Smith-Konow, owner of Framan-Smith Communications, a San Diego/Albuquerque-based firm, suggests that women are more successful in business because of their dedication. "We go into business to do something we have a passion for," she says. "Sure, it’s to make money, too, but it’s doing something we love that enables us to have staying power.
    "Women are getting into nontraditional businesses," she says, "and girls are growing up not knowing they have any restrictions."
    Bruce Rosenthal, public relations manager for NFWBO, suggests that the way women manage may contribute to their success. A report by the foundation on thinking and management differences between men and women reveals that women provide more benefits, allow more job sharing and make available more flex time for volunteering or meeting family demands.
    "Women have different styles in management and decision making," Rosenthal said. "The way they handle finances, use technology and sell products is more similar to the way men do it." But studies comparing men and women business owners have found that more than half of women emphasize intuitive or right-brain thinking. Some 70 percent of men emphasize logical left-brain thinking. And women tend to reflect upon their decisions longer than men.