According to Biz2Credit’s Women-Owned Business Study, earnings for small businesses owned by women remained steady in 2023 while earnings for businesses owned by men decreased 3%. In addition, a year-over-year comparison showed a 15.5% increase in annual revenue with a higher funding rate (35%) for businesses owned by women in comparison to businesses owned by men (29%).

“Women-owned businesses performed very well in 2023 with significant increases in average annual revenue,” Rohit Arora, CEO and co-founder of Biz2Credit, said. “One major finding of the report this year is the narrowing of the revenue gap between male-owned and female-owned firms. With a 15.5% jump in the average revenue for a woman-owned business, the gap is slowly shrinking. However, women-owned firms still make about 66 cents for every $1 that a male-owned firm brings in.”

In addition to producing higher revenues and earnings, on average, companies owned by men have been in business longer (72 months vs. 62 months) and have higher credit scores (657 vs. 640).

Key Findings

• Average annual revenue for businesses owned by women increased 15.5%, from $391,582 in 2022 to $452,446 in 2023. The average revenue gap in 2023 between women-owned and men-owned businesses was $237,503, a 34% difference.
• Average earnings (annual revenue – operating expenses) for business owned by women remained relatively unchanged ($87,953 in 2022 and $87,634 in 2023), while average earnings for businesses owned by men decreased by 3% (from $152,054 in 2022 to $147,522 in 2023)
• Average operating expenses of businesses owned by women increased 20%, from $303,629 in 2022 to $364,812 in 2023, while businesses owned by men experienced an increase of 12%.
• The average age of business (in months) for businesses owned by women increased 11 months year over year but remained 10 months lower than businesses owned by men in 2023.
• In 2023, the average funding size  received by businesses owned by women of $52,779 was almost $22,000 lower than men-owned businesses ($74,544).
• Financing Applications by State: Florida had the highest percentage (12.5%) of financing applications from businesses owned by women, followed by California (11.7%) and the 2022 leader, Texas (10.3%).
• Financing Applications by Industry: Services (except public administration) was the largest industry represented by companies owned by women (18.4%) in the Biz2Credit study, followed by retail trade (14%), healthcare and social assistance (11.9%), accommodation and food services (10.3%), and professional, scientific and technical service (7.9%).

“We must examine this and all the data we can find in order to shed a light on the true barriers for women to access capital,” Corinne Goble, CEO of the Association of Women’s Business Centers. “Navigating the places where economics and society meet is a journey of discovery with the responsibility to act upon our findings in order to grow our economy for all.”

The dataset for Biz2Credit’s Women-Owned Business Study comes from nearly 53,000 completed commercial funding applications received via the Biz2Credit platform in 2023.