michellelowe
Michelle Lowe, owner of Ideally Done Event Planning photo by: Emily Moseley.
Lexington, KY - Unable to continue working “a million hours a week” at her demanding full-time job but not able to quit working completely after the birth of her first child in 2009, Michelle Lowe decided to make her own solution when she founded Ideally Done Event Planning.
Now a mother of two, Lowe was the Lexington chapter administrator for the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and is now the chapter’s public relations and technology chair. Lowe’s business allows her the flexibility needed to be a mother active in the lives of her children.
“You can’t do that working for a larger company, and they expect you to be there all the time,” she said.
Lowe is one of an estimated 97,800 women business owners in the state of Kentucky who contribute roughly $13 billion to the economy, according to a study commissioned by American Express OPEN. Nationally the number of women-owned businesses has increased by 54 percent since 1997, and Kentucky is ranked 24th in growth of number of firms over the last 15 years.
The State of Women-Owned Business Report spokeswoman Alice Bredin, president of Bredin, said the report (commissioned by American Express OPEN) is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, specifically their quinquennial business census, the Survey of Business Owners (SBO), which is conducted every five years in years, ending in two or seven.
Lowe speculated that many women are like her: needing flexibility but also uniquely equipped to own businesses.
“I think women care about their employees,” she said. “I have noticed a couple of people who have come on to NAWBO and say they love working for women better than men. In general, women business owners are going to take that mothering approach to their employees and make sure they’re happy in their positions.”
But they also have unique struggles.
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“We struggle with promoting ourselves — I see a lot of it,” she said. “It’s very difficult for us to toot our own horns, to say what we’re good at and to go after things ... But you have to get out there and say, ‘This is me. This is what I’m good at; let me do it.’ I don’t think it’s ingrained with us. It’s amazing how men just automatically do that.
“But we multi-task; that’s one of our qualities as women that we have. We are great at multi-tasking and being able to take on multiple roles,” she added. “I think as a mom now, raising children is very important, and I also own a business. In this world of technology now, we have the capability to work from home and be as productive as we would be sitting in an office.”
Lowe laughed and said she could be home breastfeeding her infant and then have a conference call 30 minutes later.
“In the past, it was pick one or the other: either be a good mom or a good professional,” she said.
Lowe added that leaving the workforce altogether for a period of time was harder than she expected, since the “business sense” in her did not go away like she thought it might. Lowe added that the tough job market also is probably a factor in the rise of women-owned businesses across the state.
She said she is pleasantly surprised by the amount of female professionals — such as doctors and lawyers — owning their own offices.
“I wish that I could see more technology [among women-owned businesses], but I’m not seeing that in Lexington,” she said, adding that she is happy about the way NAWBO and its members are shaping public policy in Lexington and beyond.
Cathy Stafford, founder and president of Ad-Venture Promotions and immediate past president of NAWBO, was just named the 2012 Kentucky Women in Business Champion of the Year by the Kentucky District office of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Stafford said the increase in revenues created by women in Kentucky is encouraging.
“I’m very excited about it,” she said. “First of all, the biggest thing I can tell you is that I’m excited to see that someone is tracking it and taking notice, because it’s not something that’s happened in the past ... I’m extremely pleased to look at the jobs we’re creating and the revenue we’re creating for our state.”
Stafford said women have not had as prominent a place in the workplace in the past, since more women are now leaving behind traditional roles in the home — by choice or necessity.
“For me, I was forced into the workplace because of the loss of a marriage,” she said.
Previously a full-time mom, Stafford started her successful business in her laundry room, and also survived divorce, stage four colon cancer and a lot of “life turmoil.”
In business now for eight years, Stafford said her business “grew like crazy,” thanks to many early mornings and weekly, meticulous monitoring of income and expenses.
“I know people that do it just once a year when tax time comes,” she said with a laugh.
Stafford added that she studies successful people and follows her motto of “Prayer, perseverance, pearls, pashmina and patent leather pumps.”
She also did her homework and landed big customers, such as the University of Kentucky.
“And for me, one of the secrets of my success was I liked my lifestyle when I married, and I didn’t want to live in a ‘van down by the river,’” she said with a laugh. “I wanted to be able to provide for my family.”
Stafford said she thinks one reason women are uniquely successful in business is because of a strong ability to make decisions and implement ideas.
She added that she sees multiple organizations with women involved in atypical industries across the board — whether it is lawn service, IT, banking or manufacturing — and not necessarily just on the creative side.
But no matter the type of companies women own, Stafford insists that being in business is “not for the faint of heart,” and that in Kentucky a unique landscape exists.
“We have areas that are extremely impoverished and the education is very low. Teenage pregnancy is high. Drug abuse rates are extraordinarily high,” she said. “And then the pendulum swings to thriving metropolitan areas that are a major hub for education and health care that have kept the economy very strong. Women are making strides, even if they’re small steps.”
But the small steps are adding up.
While the recent survey did not look at men-owned firms, data from the census revealed that women owned 7.8 million non-farm U.S. businesses operating in 2007, an increase of 20.1 percent from 2002. These firms accounted for 28.7 percent of all non-farm businesses in the United States, employed 7.6 million people (6.4 percent of total employment) and generated $1.2 trillion in receipts.
Men owned 13.9 million non-farm U.S. businesses (51.3 percent of all nonfarm businesses) in 2007, an increase of 5.5 percent from 2002. These firms employed 41.5 million people and generated $8.5 trillion in receipts.
Bredin thinks the number of women-owned businesses is rising because women are more increasingly prevalent in the workforce, women are encouraged by their peers to start businesses, and they need to out of necessity in an economy low on jobs.