Small Office, Home Office Information

… women owners are more concerned about the future well-being of their business and employees than men according to the findings of a new study that has just been released.

This ground breaking study examines how women business owners approach exiting their businesses, their priorities and their challenges. The research for Exit Strategies of Women and Men Business Owners was conducted by the Center for Women’s Business Research and underwritten by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). The findings were released at the 12th Annual Executive Roundtable of the Center for Women’s Business Research.

“The majority of both women and men (85%) believe that price is the most important factor when selling their businesses,” said Marjorie Alfus, chair, Center for Women’s Business Research. “However, women business owners also take into account a broad range of issues focused on the match between the buyer and the company. Women are more concerned than men owners about the future of their businesses and the well-being of employees.”

Women business owners are considerably more likely than men owners to take into account the buyer’s identity, personality, and background (72% vs. 30%). Additionally, women owners are more concerned than men owners about the buyer’s plans for the business (79% vs. 52%) and plans for current employees (86% vs. 61%).

Women and men owners are just as likely to have had a formal valuation done to determine the price of their business (43%), be familiar with what it entails to hire someone to do a valuation (2.8 out of a scale of 5), and equally likely to say they are prepared to oversee the sale personally (3.8 out of 5).

“Contrary to common belief, women and men owners are equally knowledgeable and confident about managing their exit strategy,” said Elaine Sarsynski, senior vice president and chief administrative officer, MassMutual. “This study demonstrates the maturation of the women business owner segment of the economy.”

Women and men owners are also equally likely to plan to maintain ownership (20%), sell (38%), pass on to family (23%), close (3%) or have no exit plan (16%).

“This study shows that today’s women business owners know how to start, grow and exit their businesses,” said Susan Sweetser, second vice president, MassMutual. “MassMutual is proud to support this research that sheds new light on how women handle the last stage of the business cycle. We are looking forward to future releases that will cover additional analyses of this very rich study.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 7th, 2006 at 4:45 am and is filed under General Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.