The small business community continues to thrive in Minnesota, and one of the reasons could be the growing number of female entrepreneurs setting up in the state. The Star Tribune reports that Minnesota ranked fourth among a new study examining the best states for women entrepreneurs in 2017.
The report by small business credit matchmaker Fundera.com, looked at multiple weighted criteria including the percent of women-owned businesses for 11+ years, percent of total businesses owned by women, percent of women-owned businesses with paid employees, and more to score each of the 50 states.
Minnesota’s 4th place ranking is buoyed by its high scores with the percent of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher (22.7 percent), 5-year growth in average revenue of women-owned businesses (32.2 percent), and the overall unemployment rate in the state (4 percent).
An American Express OPEN survey found that in 2016, the U.S. was home to 11.3 million female-owned businesses employing nearly 9 million workers and generating over $1.6 trillion in revenues. The number of female business owners in the country has also been on the rise, with 38% of the country’s businesses owned by women, up from 29 percent in 2007.
