Ft Myers Press

April 28th 1999

Women thrive on creative edge

The Associated Press

NEW YORK – To get ahead in the fuel procurement market, entrepreneur  Kristen Schaffner-Irvin computerized her clients’ tanks so she could check inventory from her laptop.  Her rivals were still using wooden dipsticks.

            That’s the kind of creative edge that is driving women-owned businesses toward spectacular growth these days.  Not only are the burgeoning in number, but their sales and work forces are booming.

            In the latest sign of their economic weight, the collective revenues of Working Woman’s Top 500 women-owned businesses grew 12 percent to $80.7 billion in 1998.   The second annual list, released to The Associated Press on Tuesday, will be published in the magazine’s June issue.

            “They’re thriving,” said Sharon Hadary, executive director of the National Foundation for Women Business Owners.  “These businesses are becoming more significant players in the economy.”       

            The number of women-owned businesses leaped nearly 90 percent in the decade ending in 1997, according to the Foundation.  Today, they number 8.5 million – more than a third of all U.S. businesses.

            The businesses are still small when compared to the country’s largest companies.  General Motors, for example, had $161.3 billion in revenues in 1998.

            Yet the growing clout of women-owned businesses is increasingly evident.  Between 1987 and 1997, their total sales grew 161 percent and their work forces grew 262 percent according to the Foundation.

            What’s more, women are displaying the talents that put them on the cutting edge of business world, with technological savvy first among them.

            Consider this 23 percent of women-owned firms have Websites, compared with 16 percent of firms owned by men.  Nearly half of women business owners have Internet access, compared with 41 percent of men.

            Four years ago, Mrs. Irvin became on of the first fuel procurers to equip customer fuel tanks with computers.

            Her Huntington Beach, Calif., company.  Team Petroleum, now monitors fuel consumption, pricing and even leaks by computer then arranges with suppliers to refuel customers.

WOMEN:  They’re gaining foothold

            The company ranks No. 315 on the Working Woman list.

            “I’m sure all the male-dominated petroleum companies will figure it out eventually, but by then we’ll be on to the next thing,” she laughed, adding that women “think out of the box a little bit.”

            One of her customers says that seeing such expertise in a woman still surprises many men.  Larry Kuyper, who handles purchasing for Disney operations, said that when Irvin “starts talking about passive and impassive tank monitors, these guys figure out pretty quickly she knows more that they ever know.”

            Antoinette Allocca’s Stamford, Conn. Based technical writing and consulting firm grew rapidly after she creatively solved a key problem at her firm: she couldn’t afford to hire top salespeople.

            After she began hiring older people who had been downsized, offering them low salaries and high commissions, revenues grew from $1 million in 1996 to $20 million last year at her company, Essential Data.

            “I give people a chance who are overlooked, “ said Allocca, whose company is No. 461 on the Working Woman list.  “I’ve attracted a work force that’s very experienced but still very motivated.”

            Working Woman ranks the companies on its list by revenue.  Companies qualify if women are the largest individual shareholders, holding at least 5 percent of stock in a public company and 10 percent in private firms.