The Annual Women-Owned Business Study, which analyzed 100,000 firms, revealed that revenues and profits for women-owned enterprises took a sharp decline in 2021.
Namely, women-owned businesses earned an average of $88,895 in 2021, which was 26% less than the previous year and significantly lower than their male counterparts ($136,147, to be precise).
The main reason behind this drop was the 4% decrease in overall annual revenue — in 2021, the average annual revenue for women-owned businesses amounted to $475,707 (from $493,401 in 2020). In addition to that, there was also a 3% increase in operating costs.
Moreover, female business owners’ average credit score decreased from 588 in 2020 to 580 in 2021 — 14 points below that of males (594). That said, the average credit score for male-owned enterprises also fell by 16 points. (from 611 in 2020 to 594 in 2021).
What’s more, the weighted average approved amount for women-owned firms under the Paycheck Protection Program (including PPP1 and PPP2) across all SBA lending platforms was 47% lower than that of male-owned businesses ($41,304 vs. $78,229).
Likewise, the weighted average approved amount for female-owned enterprises under PPP1 was 39% lower than that for male-owned firms ($70,017 vs. $114,970).
Regarding the loans, in 2020 and 2021, the average loan size for women’s-owned firms was 33% smaller than that of male-owned businesses — $36,981 vs. $55,061 and $49,712 vs. $83,198, respectively. Additionally, Texas was the most popular state for business loan applications with 10.84%.
Last but not least, the funding acceptance rate for men-owned applicants was almost identical to that for women-owned businesses (41% vs. 40%).
