More than 100 business owners and leaders of business organizations attended the recent release event and celebration for A New Vision for Phoenix Entrepreneurship, the largest, most comprehensive survey targeting today’s Arizona women business owners.
Empowered PhXX, in partnership with the National Bank of Arizona, received 300 responses to the online survey combined with town hall meetings and in-depth personal interviews to produce the report.
“Statistics show that Arizona is under-developing the fastest growing population of entrepreneurs in the country—women,” explains Kristin Slice, one of the key organizers of the Empowered PhXX collaborative. “We know that an additional $105.2 billion and 91,000 jobs could be added to the local economy if women-owned businesses grew at the same rate as businesses owned by men.”
A New Vision for Phoenix Entrepreneurship is being used to create a long-term, comprehensive regional strategy for economic development to effectively support women-owned firms. The report focuses on four major recommendations:
- Shift to a more inclusive approach in economic development.
- Incorporate measures and celebrations of diversity as part of a holistic representation of entrepreneurship.
- Strengthen all partners’ ability to address effective business-building strategies for diverse businesses, and directly market to those populations.
- Focus on financial management, investor mindset, and value-building, as well as the capital resources available to diverse populations.
The report release event included a presentation by Annette Zinky, Chief Operations Officer of TheraSpecs, on “The Importance of Ecosystem Building.” Her presentation focused on the importance of adding diversity and innovation to improve businesses.
Ji Mi Choi, Associate Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Arizona State University, spoke at the event.
The event also included a panel discussion with Moderator Stephanie Sims of Finance-Ability; Karen Mildenhall of Elevate; Nancy Jurik, PhD, survey author, Arizona State University; Susan Halvorson Fonseca, MS, survey author and owner of Elemental Initiatives; Odeen Jon Domingo of the Co+Hoots Foundation; Christine Bailey of Chandler Innovations; and Melissa Kovacs, PhD, survey author and owner of FirstEval.
“The full report lists suggested action steps that any business owner or organizational leader can implement,” says Slice. “Everyone left the event with ideas of several steps that they can take immediately.”
For more information or to obtain a free copy of the New Vision for Phoenix Entrepreneurship survey summary or the complete report, visit www.empowered-phxx.com.
Sponsors for the survey release event and printing included: Arizona State University Entrepreneurship + Innovation, National Bank of Arizona, Splash Marketing and Printing, and WOWOB (Women Owned Women Operated Businesses).
Article courtesy of Empowered Phoenix
