Increase in minority firms noted

San Fernando Valley Business Journal, August 1, 2005 by Jeff Weiss

The Los Angeles District Office of the United States Small Business Administration held a press conference in Glendale last Friday to announce that new data from the Census Bureau has revealed that minority groups and women are becoming business owners at a faster rate than the national average.

According to the recently released data, while the number of U.S. businesses increased by 10 percent between 1997 and 2002 to 23 million, the rate of growth for minority and women-owned businesses was far higher, ranging from 67 percent for native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander-owned businesses to 20 percent for firms owned by women.