By Aja Witt
In pursuit of the American Dream, more Americans are choosing to go into business for themselves. Including small and nonprofit businesses, in 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners reported more than 27 million firms nationwide.
The census, which releases a business report every five years, has also acknowledged a sizable increase in the numbers for minority and female-owned businesses in this time period, with Latinas leading the way.
From 2007 to 2016, there was a 136.5 percent increase in the number of firms owned by Latinas, according to a 2016 Women in Business Executive report. African-American women, who lead the increase in black-owned businesses nationally, saw a 112.2 percent increase in this time period, and Asian-American women, who lead all other women in employment and revenue growth, saw a 76.4 percent increase.
Female-owned businesses, comprehensively, have seen a 45.2 percent increase in firms from 2007 to 2016. Minority-owned businesses have seen a 39 percent increase in five years, outpacing the growth of non-minority-owned firms.
In Iowa City, there are 5,912 businesses — 1,719 are owned by women and 619 by minorities, according to the census.
Monica Correia, associate professor and the head of 3-D design for the University of Iowa’s School of Art & Art History, would like to open up a design studio focused on depicting the city.
“Last year, I started making some things and also designing a space for the university,” said Correia, who is Latina. “In addition to doing interior, I am working on a series of objects that relate to the prairie in Iowa that I’m hoping to launch in a month and a half.”
Correia said it can be difficult opening up a business with the unspoken competition among business owners in Iowa City, and, in addition, being a female minority.
Caleb Thomas, the founder of Strive for Success, an academic enrichment center aimed at helping at-risk youth in Iowa City, noted finances as one of the hardest obstacles he faced while organizing in 2012.
“We’re a nonprofit, which means in order to get finances, you’ve got to write grants and really get people to believe in you,” Thomas said. “For people who are potentially thinking about nonprofits, my advice would be to seek out other people who have been in the game for a while and educate yourself through research.”
Of the 50 states, Iowa has seen the second-to-least amount of growth in female-owned businesses, according to a 2015 report by American Express. The state saw an increase of only 27 percent of firms owned by women from 2007 to 2015 — much less than the state with the most growth, Georgia, with 132 percent growth.
Susan Felker, the assistant dean for the Tippie College of Business undergraduate program, the numbers for underrepresented minorities enrolled in the business college has not decreased since 2012.
“In the fall of 2012, 7 percent of the college was underrepresented students,” she said. “In the fall of 2015, it was 9 percent, and in the fall of 2016, it was 12 percent.”
