Enabling women as business entrepreneurs

By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
What brings an international women’s business research consultant and former leader of a national group advising Congress and the President on issues affecting women’s businesses to Empire, a close-knit community on the edge of obscurity? Julie Weeks, owner of Womenable, said it was “D.C. traffic” and “political pretentiousness” that motivated her and her husband, a retired NASA atmospheric scientist, to return to her native northern Michigan. They raised a family and enjoyed fulfilling careers in the nation’s capital but wanted a change of pace.

“I had a bit of trepidation about moving here, but as long as I have a high-speed Internet connection and an airport nearby, I’m okay,” said the busy, current national board member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Vice President of the International Council for Small Business and co-chair of the Public Policy Advisory Committee of the Association of Women’s Business Centers.
Surrounded by the forested hills, lakes and sand dunes of her youth, Weeks helps develop research tools, analyzes data and communicates with the women’s business community, its stewards (organizations) and corporate decision- and policy makers around the world by phone and e-mail. Sometimes, she leaves the north woods to conduct her business in person, flying (so far) to Canada, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Her mission: to improve the political and economic environment for women-owned businesses all over the world.
A Student of Action
The fourth-generation “local,” (her great-grandfather owned property on Long Lake and a grocery store in Traverse City, her grandfather was city editor of the Traverse City Record-Eagle and helped found the National Cherry Festival, and her father, George, is a syndicated political columnist and author living in Glen Haven), developed her passion for politics at an early age. When she was 12, the daughter of the then-press secretary to former Governor Milliken was excited to ride on a state plane in a motorcade behind government officials during the Alma Highland Festival parade.
Growing up, she said she was the “invisible kid,” listening to one end of phone conversations her father had with politicians. In a January interview with the Record-Eagle about philanthropy, she said she inherited her parents’ “if-you-don’t-like-it-do-something-about-it” attitude. While still in high school, she became the Leelanau County coordinator of the Michigan bottle return bill, obtaining signatures needed to place the initiative on the ballot. After her graduation in 1975 from The Leelanau School, she studied political science and economics at the University of Michigan (U of M) and spent two summers working as a page in the Michigan House.
“I saw how laws are really made,” she said. “A lot are by happenstance. I saw how government runs and doesn’t run. For the most part, people are really in it for the public good and how it (the legislative process) could do good.” She saw a lot of “good” things during the Milliken years and thinks “that’s how government should be.”
As a page, she occasionally rode from Lansing to Glen Arbor with former Lt. Governor Connie Binsfeld, her role model and the only woman Weeks felt was “doing stuff” at the time for Michigan.
A Feminist by Nature
After obtaining her bachelor’s and master degrees in Political Science from U of M in 1979 and ‘81, Weeks began her working life in Washington, D.C. as a political pollster, surveying voters about issues and candidates. She followed this stint with another as head of economic research for the Small Business Administration, where she blended survey polling results with economic research.
Her innate feminism led her to the nonprofit Center for Women Business Research where, for nine years, she helped identify U.S. women business owners and addressed “gaps” in support for women-owned businesses. That experience prepared her for a position as executive director of the Women’s Business Council (WBC), a federally-funded advocacy group of bipartisan women business owners and association members that makes appointments and policy recommendations to Congress and the President (what’s going on/what is being done to support women business owners), and hosts meetings to foster collective ideas. WBC was established by 1988 Women’s Business Ownership Act.
“Both were good, natural lead-ins to launching my own enterprise.”
Enabling Women
Weeks founded Womenable in 2005, shortly after returning to the area. “My mission is to help make systems that support women’s enterprise,” she said. She works on policies, evaluates programs and gathers information that “feeds into action,” by working with enablers to women’s business enterprise.
“I work to clear the roadblocks, make the road smoother, educate and be a connector for the women’s business movement.”
A “thought leader,” she has consulted on a number of projects in the United States and around the world. One of these is the U.S. “Make Mine a Million Dollar Business” initiative of “Count Me In.” The program helps connect women entrepreneurs to the tools they need to build their businesses from “micro” to “millions” — no small feat, considering only three percent of women-owned businesses have reached the million-dollar level. Weeks said that what began as a “rah-rah” movement has become concrete support, offering women online training and space, and a combination of mentoring, marketing, money and technology.
“It answers the question: how do I grow to a million dollars? We’re busting a myth that women-owned businesses are smaller because they don’t want to grow. We’re forced to do something that disproves that commonly held belief. We’re putting out information where there is none and watching it grow.”
The goal is to inspire one million women entrepreneurs to attain yearly revenues of $1 million by 2010. Womenable’s involvement includes analyzing what motivates growth-oriented women business owners, and how women of color differ from their Caucasian peers, both in what motivates and satisfies them.
“In particular, women of color are more likely than Caucasian women to be motivated by ‘building a legacy’ — and African Americans and Latinas in particular take greater pride in ‘setting an example/being a role model for my family,’” wrote Weeks in description of the project on her website.
A survey of women by generation, how Boomers differ from Generation Xers, was also conducted. Results showed that motherhood does slow down women business owners, but most have gone into business for more balance.
“My contention,” Weeks said, “is that ‘balance’ is a code word for self-determination and control. It does not mean slacking off. I’m sick of people saying, ‘Oh, the little woman has a part-time job’…”
Womenable projects abroad have included working with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to address barriers that women business owners face in countries such as Liberia or Papua New Guinea, where more than half of all businesses are not registered, do not pay taxes and receive no help from the government.
In Liberia, both men and women business owners surveyed wanted their businesses to be more formally recognized by their governments but didn’t know how to accomplish the task. Additionally, when women made inquiries, they were dissed or harassed. Election of a female president in Liberia two years ago may be a harbinger of change.
Womenable also participated in a ground-breaking study of women business owners in five Arab countries. Working with the IFC-funded Center for Arab Women Training and Research, Weeks helped design the study and analyzed survey data received from Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. One goal is to use the results to disseminate information and increase public awareness, creating a “positive P.R. wave.” Another goal is to tap into policymakers who can create a favorable climate for developing “programming that contributes to women’s economic advancement.”
Weeks said there was good publicity about the study in national and Arabic papers, but it “remains to be seen” how that information will empower and lead to change. One bright note for Jordan is its Queen, who Weeks said is “young, dynamic and very beautiful. A real feminist (who wields) lots of clout for women’s empowerment.”
In England, where one might expect the same ratio of women business owners as in the United States, Weeks said there is a lower rate of enterprise by women. The goal there is to get more women into business by creating “the best kind of pilot program, similar to women’s business centers in this country,” and looking to the U.S. women’s ownership act of 1988, that fosters self-sufficiency and business growth.
Though they may face roadblocks to success requiring greater creativity to overcome than women business owners here, Week’s said the mindset of women looking for economic self-empowerment overseas is no different.
“We have so much more in common than we have differences,” she said. “They are just as empowered. There’s this misperception, ‘Oh, these poor women in the Middle East who must wear head scarves and cannot drive.’ But higher-level women in business and those in women’s associations have the same challenges — access to capital, information and markets, and the need to be taken seriously by the male establishment. The difference is in the degree of severity of challenges.”
Weeks shared that some women in other countries aren’t allowed to own property, so they can’t use their business as collateral for a loan. Some have “obstreperous husbands.” Some can’t have a business meeting with a man, so they must find a male willing to meet with other men for them. No matter where they live, women find ways to get around these cultural roadblocks.
“There’s not a vast difference,” she said. “From a women’s enterprise development point of view, we’re (in the United States) most far along — offering help in the spirit of ‘take what you will.’”
Educator
In 2006, Weeks embarked on a five-city speaking tour in Michigan that addressed audiences of women who had not yet gotten their feet wet as business owners or who were new to business ownership.
“I don’t usually do the rah-rah, I usually speak about my own research, but a friend from the Detroit office of the Small Business Administration invited me. I told them (attendees), ‘Hey, there’s a whole, wide world out there, right under your nose. Come on in, the water’s fine.’”
Last year, she spoke in Traverse City at a sold-out monthly Marigold luncheon of working women, where she discussed the national Women’s Economic Development Outreach program. (Many area women remember her appearance with reverence and enthusiasm.) In June, she presented for the twentieth anniversary of the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988, and what our “foremothers” did for women, at the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) conference.
Though Weeks said her business doesn’t leave room for much outside speaking, she clearly has the communicator’s gift.
When asked for any final words about her business, she thought for a moment then replied with enthusiasm, “Just say that I live locally and act globally.”

For more information about Womenable and Julie Weeks, visit: www.womenable.com. Sign up for a periodic newsletter, watch for a future blog and check out links to women’s business organizations and associations worldwide.
U.S. women business owners celebrate 20 years of government recognition
At its annual conference in June, the National Association of Women’s Business Owners (NAWBO) honored the foremothers who worked tirelessly to bring about the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988. Under this legislation, known as H.R. 5050, the following changes were implemented:
• Elimination of any existing state laws that required women to have a male relative co-sign a business loan. Until 1974, a woman could not obtain credit in her own name. Prior to 1988, women business owners needed a male co-signor on a business loan. The new legislation extended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, (which prohibits creditors from discriminating based on race, color, age, sex, marital status or religion), to business credit.
• U.S. Census Bureau required to count all women-owned firms. To be considered woman-owned, a business must have 51% of its equity or stock owned by a woman or women. Before the act was passed, the census did not count women-owned “C” corporations. Including them doubled the count of employees of women-owned businesses and increased the dollar amount of women-owned business revenue by one-and-a-half times.
• Establishment of the Women’s Business Center program, funding local resource centers across the country. Today, there are more than 100. (Michigan centers have included Ann Arbor, Benton Harbor, Detroit and Grand Rapids.)
• Creation of the National Women’s Business Council, a non-partisan body of women entrepreneurs and organizations that advises the President, Congress and the Small Business Administration. WBC conducts research, holds roundtable discussions and recommends policies and programs.
Since the passage of H.R. 5050, women-owned businesses in the U.S. have continued to grow at nearly twice the rate of all businesses. Corporations and banks have taken notice. As NAWBO Director Julie Weeks said, “We have power.”
(Details on the Act and statistics are from the NAWBO website and Womenable President Julie Weeks, who is also a member of the NAWBO board of directors.)