Let’s face it - being a woman in business can be a bit intimidating and lonely at times - especially when you’re a small business owner. It seems like businesses backed by men get all the attention, all the customers, and most importantly, all the funding.
Well, you wouldn’t be wrong in your thinking there - did you know that only 2.5% of venture capital goes to women-owned businesses, despite the fact that they make up 40% of businesses in the United States? That’s honestly insane.
If you read on, you’ll hear more about how awesome it is to be a women-owned business, and how you can get fast, fair, and innovative funding for your business with a side of validation.
Why female entrepreneurs are awesome
I’m preaching to the choir here when I say that female entrepreneurs face more obstacles to success than their male counterparts. Whether it’s lack of access to capital, problems getting connected to different collaborators, barriers to a male-centric field (like brewing, for instance), or straight-up sexism (in 2022? Seriously?), these can cause your business to slow down and maybe make you doubt your capabilities as an entrepreneur.
However, did you know that women-owned businesses on average generate twice as much revenue as male-owned businesses? The reason for this is precisely what I just talked about above - women face more pushback to their ideas, so they have to fight for them. They also generally have higher levels of emotional intelligence, which goes a long way in business deals and marketing messaging.
Also, women-owned businesses are creative! Women-owned businesses who’ve crowdfunded on Honeycomb have run the gamut, from jewelers and soap makers to compost entrepreneurs and food truck owners.
How crowdfunding can validate your business and grow it!
One reaction we hear a lot from women-owned businesses who crowdfund with us is that after running their Honeycomb campaign, they couldn’t believe how many people believed enough in their business to invest in them.
This was especially true when the women tried to go to a bank for funding and were denied, like Rachel Regula, owner of Little Spark Refill Shop. “I was like, I get that,” says Rachel, about a bank possibly rejecting her for a loan. “But like, we're doing so well in sales - why won’t the bank believe in me, because everyone else does! So then when Honeycomb came back with my offering statement, I was like, this is a dream. Like, is this reality right now?”
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit. So the way a Honeycomb crowdfunding campaign works is that small businesses can take in investments from their community - investments, not donations. This gets entrepreneurs access to capital to grow their businesses, and also strengthens their customer relationships and even boosts their marketing strategy.
Monique Figueiredo, owner of Compostable LA, said, “Someone contributed $5,000 to the campaign and I was like, ‘Someone would put $5,000 into something I created and something I envisioned? What?’ It really validates your vision and says that you’re onto something and your community is into it.” Monique raised $60,000 to expand her compost pickup service’s fleet!”
Additionally, by running a Honeycomb campaign, you can pave the way for other women to invest in your business! Laura Yochum, owner of Prostainable, was surprised about the number of investors in her campaign who were women: “My first 30 or 35 investors were women. And that was super, super cool. And a lot of them were my customers. They were just giving what they could which just blew me out of the park - I had no idea they were even interested. They all had sent me a message or something like that, they've never been an investor before, and they were proud to invest in my company.”
Get empowered and get growing your business
Not only can a Honeycomb campaign empower you as a business owner, but it can give you the opportunity to grow your business, empower other female entrepreneurs, and empower other women who want the chance to invest in small businesses owned by women! Learn more about running a Honeycomb loan crowdfunding campaign by filling out the form below.