National Women’s Business Council - Grow Her Business

The National Women’s Business Council is a non-partisan federal advisory committee established to serve as an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the Administrator of the SBA, Congress, and the President on economic issues of importance to women business owners.

Grow Her Business

Grow Her Business supports women entrepreneurs’ commitment to growing their businesses by providing information on nearly 200 resources to help along the way.  Use these resources to make strategic decisions about what resources to use, and when to use them to stay on track at each step.

Please view all the resources available here.

About this project: After surveying the entrepreneurship ecosystem for high-growth women entrepreneurs, and conducting many conversations with our stakeholders, the Council identified a need to develop an entrepreneurship resource platform for growth-minded women entrepreneurs in the U.S.  In the summer of 2015, the Council commissioned Optimal Solutions Group, LLC to develop an easy-to-use platform functioning as a data repository for relevant tactical and interactive resources on how to ideate, launch, and grow a business.  The researchers aggregated and mapped best-in-class resources for high-growth women entrepreneurs, and organized them by various factors including business stage, geographic location, and resource type.  Launched in 2016, the Grow Her Business platform is the result of these efforts.  It is intended to provide dynamic and valuable information and guidance for women entrepreneurs seeking to grow and scale their businesses.

In order to build an inventory of premier resources for growth-oriented women business owners, Optimal first established a working definition of the unit of analysis: a resource.  A resource is something a person can apply to, subscribe to, join, attend, schedule an appointment for, or otherwise complete a terminal action to take part in.  Most resources are programs hosted by organizations; others include online tools that guide business development, funding platforms, and additional supports that may not traditionally be considered programs.  Static resources, such as informational articles, guides, and advice, are excluded from this inventory, as are university-based degree-seeking entrepreneur programs and resources that are purchased rather than acted on (e.g., accounting software, legal assistance).

Best-in-class resources were identified by consulting expert sources in the entrepreneurial field and supplementing the sources to ensure that niches occupied by women entrepreneurs were also represented.  Optimal conducted a review of well-known sources of information for entrepreneurs, focusing on those that provided rankings and “best-of” lists published within the last five years.  Additional reviews were conducted to identify expert sources that focused on social or civic ventures, the service sector, and government resources because women-owned businesses are more highly represented in these niches.

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For questions or more information, please call NWBC directly at 202-205-3850.

Source: National Women's Business Council website