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Laurie Wideman, owner of Cardinal Travel, is pictured in her North Stafford office. She opened her business 10 years ago.
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By CATHY JETT
Four Fredericksburg-area women spotted a need in long-term health care 10 years ago and decided to fill it.
They formed Bridges--Senior Care Solutions in 1997 to help people decide how best to care for their loved ones.
"We felt that we had the collective expertise to be able to offer people options in health care that they might not have been aware of, particularly in long-term health care," said Carol Ewing, Bridges' president.
Bridges, which has a staff of five, has since expanded into several related areas such as providing eligibility assessments for long-term-health-care insurance and guardianships for the indigent.
"It's been very rewarding," Ewing said. "Challenging, but very rewarding."
Her company is one of a growing number of successful women-owned businesses in the Fredericksburg area and across the country.
According to the latest census figures, the number of women-owned firms in this fast-growing region climbed from 4,208 in 1997 to 5,280 in 2002. That's a 25 percent increase, besting increases nationally of 20 percent and statewide of 19 percent over the same period.
Sharon Hadary, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Women's Business Research, credits three factors with the rise in the number of businesses owned and operated primarily by women.
"One is access to capital," she said. "Banks are beginning to focus on women-owned businesses as good businesses, and they're marketing to them."
Hadary cited as an example a Wachovia ad recently that was targeted specifically at women business owners. It touted the services of managers who could help them find the best financial products for their needs.
She added that women business owners are gaining access to more markets, which, in this area, include military bases and a growing number of federal government offices. They've also been quicker than men to appreciate the impact technology and e-commerce can have on their business, she said.
Cell phones, computers and fax machines make it easy to accomplish many office duties without a large staff, and e-commerce sites can eliminate the need for a heavy investment in bricks-and-mortar sites while exposing products to a wider market.
Ewing, for example, said Bridges opened with an office in the General Washington Executive Center in Fredericksburg, but she soon realized it was easier and cheaper for the staff to put up a Web site, bridges senior.com, and operate out of their homes.
"With faxes and computers and cell phones and so on, it works great," she said. "We're out on the road meeting with clients most of the time, anyway."
The third factor helping to spur women to start their own businesses is increased access to expertise--both through classes geared toward them and through networking, Hadary said.
"Chambers of commerce and business associations are welcoming them and seeking them out," she said. "This gives women an opportunity to meet bankers and potential customers and get referrals."
Locally, the Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center of the University of Mary Washington has quadrupled its outreach and off-site seminars for women business owners since 2003, said Executive Director Brian Baker. It has also teamed up with the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce to sponsor a network for women entrepreneurs.
"It appears that more and more women are taking advantage of networking opportunities," he said.
Laurie Wideman, owner of Cardinal Travel in Aquia Towne Center in Stafford County, said that travel agents didn't network at all when she opened her business 10 years ago.
"You were afraid of everyone because they sold the same thing at the same price," she said.
Wideman said that attitude bothered her, so she made a point of introducing herself to her competitors. She also joined the chamber's North Stafford Roundtable networking group.
"Now I feel comfortable calling another agency if I have a question," she said.
Wideman started the business at the suggestion of her husband, Frank Wideman. The couple put up $20,000 of their own savings for the venture, and Wideman got the rest she needed through a Small Business Administration loan.
"They took a chance on me because I'm a woman," she said. "I qualified as a minority."
Wideman's business operation is small. She's gone from having a staff of one to as many as eight depending on how the travel industry is doing.
"9/11 hurt us a bit," she said.
But her customer base has grown, and some people continue to use Cardinal even if they move out of the area. Eventually, she'd like to expand her business.
Most women-owned businesses tend to be small operations like Bridges and Cardinal Travel, said Erin Fuller, executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners.
"It's really important to realize how young the trend for women to become entrepreneurs is," she said. "Until 1988, a woman would have needed her husband or father to sign a loan if she needed one."
Women owned only 10 percent of all businesses in the United States 30 years ago. Today, women own 47 percent of all businesses, she said, and they're starting to enter such nontraditional fields as agriculture, construction and public utilities.
"That's a phenomenal amount of growth in a short amount of time," Fuller said.
To reach CATHY JETT:
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
