Minting Millionaires-Businessweek.com

06/19/2006 08:50
Minting Women Millionaires: The Winners

A look at the 20 winners of this year's Make Mine a $Million Business
Program, which helps women-owned businesses break the $1 million threshold in annual revenues
by Douglas MacMillan

Although women entrepreneurs constitute one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of the small business sector, few of them generate $1 million or more in revenue. Indeed, according to the Washington-based Center for Women's Business Research, while 48% of all privately held U.S. firms are 50% or more owned by women and produce $2.5 trillion in sales, only 3% of them have reached seven-figure success.

With that in mind, last year Count-Me-In for Women's Economic Independence, a New York nonprofit provider of business loans for women, and OPEN from American Express (the financial company's small business division), launched the Make Mine a $Million Business. Their goal is to create a network of 1 million women-owned businesses that will earn $1 million in revenue by the year 2010. The program's winners, a group of 20 women entrepreneurs, each receive a year of mentoring, professional coaching, marketing assistance, technical assessments, up to $45,000 in loans from Count-Me-In, and a $10,000 credit line from American Express.