Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., member of the Senate Small Business Committee and former small businessman, welcomed a familiar Wyoming face to the hearing room this week to discuss issues important to women entrepreneurs.
Rosemary Bratton of Laramie, Executive Director of the Wyoming Women’s Business Center gave her testimony during the "Expanding Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs" hearing of the Senate Small Business Committee. Enzi introduced Bratton and his opening statement, as well as Bratton’s testimony are below.
Statement of Senator Michael B. Enzi
Senate Small Business Committee Hearing on:
"Expanding Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs"
09/20/2007
I trust that today’s testimony will allow the Committee to better understand how the condition of the programs that assist women in starting and operating their own small businesses. It has long been known that women wishing to start their own small businesses of their own face significant challenges. The Women’s Business Center Program has been successful in improving opportunities for women to enter small business ownership and I hope that this hearing will be able to reveal the areas of greatest need where these programs can be improved.
I am especially pleased to welcome this morning a former small business owner from Wyoming who currently serves as the Executive Director of the Wyoming Women’s Business Center WWBC). Since 1999, Rosemary Bratton has worked to establish and operate the Wyoming Women’s Business Center in Laramie. Starting as a project of the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, the WWBC emerged recently as a distinct and separate organization that has worked to meet the needs of working women across Wyoming. Ms. Bratton will be able to share with us valuable insight about her experience starting a WBC in a rural state like Wyoming and working with the Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership.
My experience as a small business owner tells me that providing consistent and reliable service to your customers is what keeps you in business. Women’s Business Centers have reported success in providing services to women when the centers are given the appropriate resources. Lately, these centers have not received that support in a consistent manner. I trust that these proceedings will provide the members of this Committee with a better idea of how business can be improved with WBCs.
I also look forward to hearing about the status of the Women’s Procurement Program. For some time, the implementation of that program has been delayed and I am interested to know when the set-aside for women-owned businesses will be available. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of providing women-owned small businesses access to federal contracting opportunities. Procurement can be a difficult and overwhelming process for small businesses who have limited resources.
Testimony of Rosemary Bratton
Executive Director, Wyoming Women’s Business Center
US Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
September 20, 2007
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. The Wyoming Women’s Business Center (WWBC) began in 1999 as a project of the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (WCADVSA) while I was Executive Director of that organization. Since its inception the WWBC has been serving economically and socially disadvantaged women and continues in this work today as a separate 501(c)3 non-profit. As an alternative to, or in addition to, accepting positions in low-wage, dead-end jobs, the WWBC encourages entrepreneurs to create their own opportunities by starting small businesses.
I can honestly say that it was my vision and my personal experience that led to the creation of the WWBC. Long before I began my career in the field of working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, I experienced first-hand the economic struggles that many Wyoming women endure and the success that can come from small business ownership. After a failed marriage and faced with caring for my three boys as a single parent with few resources, I started a cleaning service from my home in Story, Wyoming. Mopsy and Dusty, the Cleaning Company, no house to big, no pad to small, from floor to ceiling we cleaned it all. On some days I was Mopsy, other days I was Dusty and on many days I was both. In addition to Mopsy and Dusty to further increase our income I made and sold purses created from recycled jeans. The success of my small businesses enabled me to raise my children and earn a college degree. The experience began a commitment to work as an advocate for women who are socially and economically disadvantaged.
In Laramie, our offices are located on the University of Wyoming Campus and the Laramie Civic Center. Currently one outreach office is located in Cheyenne and another is planned to be located in the central part of the state. The target service area for the WWBC is the entire state of Wyoming. Currently there are three employees, the Executive Director, an Administrative Assistant and our Director of Client Services.
Wyoming has been described as a "small town with very long streets." The state’s 98,000 square miles make it the 9th largest state in land area but its population of less than 550,000 is the lowest in the nation. More deer and antelope inhabit Wyoming than people, 92% of our state is considered rural. The state’s open prairies, intimidating mountain ranges, and long empty roads combine to form a unique geography. Weather conditions can be extreme, with snowfall possible any month of the year. Winters are often long and harsh, with low temperatures, strong winds, and driving snow storms making travel difficult.
This combination of rural character, geographic obstacles and harsh climate creates economic distress for many Wyoming residents. Other than the minerals industry, economic opportunities with large industry are few. Albany, Fremont, Niobrara, Lincoln and Hot Springs counties, as well as the Wind River Indian Reservation qualify as Historically Underutilized Business Zones.
Wyoming’s economy has been improving although the high-paying mineral industry employs primarily men. Work that is traditionally considered "women’s work" (nursing, teaching, office work) is still undervalued with wages for these positions much lower in Wyoming than in other states. The gender-based disparity in Wyoming continues to be the highest in the nation, with the average Wyoming woman earning 57% to 67% of what a man earns for full-time, year-round work.
While Wyoming’s vastness contributes to its natural beauty, it also creates isolation that keeps women business owners from meeting, networking and sharing information. WWBC programs bring women entrepreneurs together throughout the state by sponsoring roundtables located in six communities and participating in other economic related functions, small business expos and conferences.
WWBC’s services and activities offered to Wyoming’s women owned small businesses include:
WWBC’s Microloan Program started in 2000 and provides access to capital through loans for business start-up or expansion to those who are unable to secure financing through traditional means. The majority of the WWBC’s loan capitalization is from the US Small Business Administration’s Microloan program, which makes loans to intermediary relenders, who in turn make smaller loans locally. Most loans are for amounts ranging from $500 to $10,000 although the WWBC can approve loans up to $35,000. Any interest, application fees or late fees are reinvested into the loan program.
Individual Development Account (IDA) Program was started in 2004 by the WWBC. It matches the savings of people with low incomes to encourage them to save towards acquiring specific types of assets, including purchasing or repairing a home, business capitalization or expansion and higher education. The WWBC matches participants’ savings at a rate of 1:1 up to $2,000.
Works of Wyoming (WOW) services include skill-based education and mentoring to help artists and craftspeople achieve mastery of their art, entrepreneurial education and mentoring that empowers women to establish their own art-based and often home based business. As funding allows WOW will promote retail outlets and an online marketplace to position products in niche markets. Any revenues above expenses generated by these sales will be reinvested in the program.
Business technical assistance, training, and counseling are offered to women on a variety of business topics. The goal of these programs is to assist clients to develop their capacity for business planning and management, and ultimately make their businesses more successful. These programs were started in 1999 when the WWBC was still a project of the WCAVSA and provide the foundation for all of the WWBC’s other programs. Minimal fees may be charged to offset the expenses incurred in providing some of these services.
Networking opportunities include roundtables as previously mentioned where participants learn from invited speakers as well as from each other on a wide range of business topics including marketing, business insurance, financing and banking relationships, accounting, time management and organizational skills, employment issues, bankruptcy laws, legal considerations of business structure, business research and business planning. Through the roundtable format, the WWBC encourages more experienced business owners to mentor those with less experience.
Personal financial management training and counseling provides information on various personal financial topics including budgeting, understanding credit, and basic financial products. The program’s purpose is to assist women to solidify the personal financial foundation upon which they build their businesses.
Collaboration is essential to the WWBC’s mission. We work in partnership with the Small Business Administration’s District Office located in Casper, WY, Wyoming’s Small Business Development Center, the Wyoming Business Council, the University of Wyoming, Wyoming State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Wyoming Workforce Services and the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. The WWBC also partners with statewide banks and other financial institutions for support for networking events including space, food and financial contributions for roundtables and conferences. The Wyoming State Legislature through the Wyoming Business Council has generously supported the WWBC during the last eight years and has committed $209,000 to support the WWBC in the coming year.
There is a strong need for rural/frontier Women Business Centers. The WWBC is not only vitally necessary to the economy of Wyoming, but also appeals to personal interests by helping women forge better lives for themselves and their children in the state with the highest gender wage gap in the nation.
Thank you.
