Page 164 - Introduction to Business

138 PART 1 The Nature of Contemporary Business

EXHIBIT 4.6
Woman-Operated Sole Proprietorships

• The number of women’s sole proprietorships in the United States
increased from 5.6 million in 1990 to 7.1 million in 1998.
• From 1990 to 1998, women’s share of sole proprietorship net income (or
profit) has risen from 16.9 to 21.5 percent.
• In the 1990s women sole proprietors earned almost 70 percent of their net
income (or profit) in the services industries.
• About 87 percent of women’s sole proprietorships were small firms with
gross sales receipts less than $50,000.
• Large sole proprietorships operated by women, with at least $200,000 in
gross sales receipts, represent 2.7 percent of such firms, and their number
is growing.
• About two-thirds of women operators of sole proprietorships were married
in the 1990s and filed joint tax returns with their husbands.
• About 53 percent of woman-operated sole proprietorships were concen-
trated in ten major business activities, with door-to-door sales and child
daycare topping the list.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, Washington, DC. Based on data gathered
from the U.S. Census Bureau.

begin a small business selling refurbished clothing. Eventually, after spending
many hours researching what it takes to start a business and working with the Small
Business Administration, Bernice converted her hobby into a career. She attributes
much of her success to surrounding herself with other women small business own-
ers, family, and local organizations to help solve business problems and gain per-
sonal support.

Ethnic and Immigrant Small Business
Ethnic-oriented small business is widespread. For example, Harry Luna started
Director’s Video over a decade ago in Trenton, New Jersey, to serve the Latin Amer-
ican community there. Due to customer requests, he began dubbing or subtitling
movies in Spanish. While the enterprise employs only a handful of people, it has
been able to compete with large, national video outlets due to meeting the needs of
Latinos in the area. The firm has been an inspiration to other small businesses and
recently received an award from the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. Luna says
that his goal is to empower Latin businesses to assist the development of the
community.
Over the past 200 years, many immigrants have clustered in U.S. communities
in sections of rural areas, towns, or cities. These ethnic pockets laid the foundation
for the development of a spirit of entrepreneurship among minorities, as language
and cultural barriers are typically lower for ethnic-oriented businesses in these
communities. The upshot has been a rich source of innovation and dynamic
change that creates jobs, new products and services, and human capital. Indeed,
U.S.-produced goods and services could never have grown so fast without the
determination and entrepreneurial spirit of newcomers. This is true not only of the
past, but continues today as an American legacy.

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