Global Trend: Women-Owned Businesses Thrive Despite Pandemic Disruption
Women entrepreneurs have shown tremendous resiliency and ingenuity in the face of pandemic-driven market disruptions, according to a new report, Women’s Entrepreneurship 2020/21: Thriving Through Crisis, from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).
According to the report, about one in three growth-oriented entrepreneurs active in the world today are female, and slightly more than 30 percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed expect to hire six or more employees in the next five years — a marked uptick from 18.7 percent in the 2019 report.
Their agility to adapt to business disruption and changing market realities is one reason why women entrepreneurs are finding ways to thrive. The report states, “North American women (North America includes Canada and the United States) remained active and resilient in navigating the unprecedented business and work–family demands sparked by COVID-19.” Plus, total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rates for women in 2020 remained strong at 13.6 percent in the United States and 13.9 percent in Canada.
Women entrepreneurs have another reason to remain optimistic: in 2021, “… start-ups with female founders … raised more venture capital dollars and have executed more exits at greater values than at any point in the last decade,” according to an article in The New York Times, thanks to more angel investors and other fund partners looking to support female-owned businesses.
All of this is extremely encouraging news for female business leaders like Ginger Sloan, a serial entrepreneur and believer in women.
“During these trying times, women who are the backbone of so many families across the nation have taken the bull by the horns to provide and create their own opportunities for their families,” Sloan says. “In today’s current rocky climate, female corporate leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs must not forget that we are not only the core of the family unit but also a critical component of the international economic landscape. Our strength and leadership is the driving force of every stable economy globally.”
About Ginger Sloan
Ginger Sloan launched her first business at just 10 years old, with a lawn mowing company that quickly expanded to serve over 40 yards. Sloan’s entrepreneurial spirit has continued throughout her life. The University of Oklahoma and University of Central Oklahoma alum built a transcription company that employed more than 90 percent women. Sloan sold that company and founded Encore Medical Services in 1995, a full-service electronic documentation company that was recognized in 2003 as one of the Metro 50 fastest growing companies in Oklahoma. That same year, she saw an opportunity to open a professional janitorial company called Clean Oklahoma.
In recent years, Sloan’s mother was experiencing health conditions, and Sloan dove into the Cannabis world to learn about the laws and science behind the benefits of Cannabis. She founded a company called Zliderz, a CBD and THC cannabis company whose mission is to put the control of personal dosing back into the hands of patients.
Sloan has served on the Greater Oklahoma City chamber, the Edmond Oklahoma Chamber, Oklahoma State Chamber and many other Civic groups. As a Native American woman business owner, Sloan has lived her life to be a force of all-encompassing empowerment to other women entrepreneurs.
Her most prized experience is her involvement in IEEW — Interns for Economic Empowerment of Women. Since 2014, Sloan has opened up her home every summer to house and empower other women in business from other countries. Sloan sees her involvement in women empowerment and employment as a ministry, not just a philanthropy.
“I have never experienced waking up in the morning thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I wish I had the opportunity to do this or to do that.’ For me, I just knew I had to get out there and create it not just for me, but for other women as well,” Sloan said.