Minority women set the pace; the growth in business ownership by this segment of the population is passing the rest of the field

Nation's Business, July, 1998 by Sharon Nelton

She says it's "very important as we become successful that we look back and see who needs a helping hand."

But networking with people outside one's ethnic group is important, too. Even though Asian Women in Business was formed to educate and help Asian women entrepreneurs, Wong says, "we have to do business with the wider world."

Her group has held meetings with the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and with African-American and Hispanic groups to increase member contacts with a broader business population.

Access to credit still poses difficulties for minority women entrepreneurs, as do cultural and language differences in some instances. And some say they still have to work very hard to be taken seriously. By most accounts, however, minority women business owners say they are thriving, and by generating more than $184 billion in annual sales and employing nearly 1.7 million people, they are certainly contributing to the U.S. economy.

Says Guadarrama: "I'd like to see that ... as we go into the new millennium, we just overwhelm everybody with how many successful minority women-owned businesses we've got out there."

For more Information

Single copies of the National Foundation for Women Business Owners report "Women Business Owners of Color: Challenges and Accomplishments" are available for $45.95 each from the NFWBO, 1100 Wayne Ave., Suite 830, Silver Spring, Md. 20910-5603; (301) 495-4975. (Members of the National Association of Women Business Owners, with which the NFWBO is affiliated, can obtain the report for $29.95.)

"Trends Among Minority Women-Owned Businesses--1996 Facts on Women-Owned Businesses," a study published. last year by the NFWBO, is also available. It is priced at $70 per copy, or $39.95 for NAWBO members.

For additional information on women business owners and educational programs available to them, visit www.onlinewbc.org, the Online Women's Business Center, a six-language World Wide Web site created by the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Women's Business Ownership. Or check the blue pages of your telephone directory for the Small Business Administration office nearest you.