Women small business owners will create 5 to 5.5 million new jobs across the U.S. by 2018, transforming the workplace of tomorrow into a far more inclusive, horizontally managed environment, according to The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute
Based on the Institute’s projection, women-owned small businesses will generate more than half of the 9.72 million new small business jobs expected to be created, and roughly one-third of the 15.3 million total new jobs anticipated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics by 2018. This projection is striking, given that women-owned businesses currently account for just 16 percent of total U.S. employment.

“As a result of the increasing influence and business leadership of women small business owners, the workplace of tomorrow will be far less hierarchical,” said Mark Wolf, director, The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. “This distinctive approach strongly counteracts the top-down, command-and-control style of management long practiced by their male counterparts.”

Importantly, The Guardian Life Index: What Matters Most to America’s Small Business Owners provides new insights about the professional management approach practiced by women small business owners – one that will significantly transform the workplace environment for millions of Americans in the coming years. According to The Guardian Life Index, women small business owners create their own businesses for a variety of reasons, but the most common theme is their dissatisfaction with the corporate track. As owners/managers, they are:

• More diligently engaged in strategic and tactical facets of their business
• More proactively customer-focused
• More likely to incorporate community and environment into their business plans
• More receptive to input and guidance from internal and external advisers
• More committed to creating opportunities for others

“This women-led management approach will have a profound impact on the employees and customers connected to these businesses,” said John Krubski, futurist and research advisor to The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute.

Women small business owners will ultimately create more opportunities for employees to grow in their jobs and inspire others to start their own small business – all while providing customers with superior service.

The Institute’s projections are based on a rigorous analysis of converging factors, including the faster growth rate of women-owned businesses vs. male-owned; higher college graduation rates by women vs. men; and the predicted growth of industry sectors and occupations dominated by women. The projection also reflects the timely fact that women-owned businesses are more often self-funded than male-owned ones and are therefore less reliant on bank financing at a time when many say small business lending practices are more restricted.