Special Report: Women Entrepreneurs: She Calls All the Shots

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Trying to combine a family life with a career, many women choose entrepreneurship as a way of gaining some control over their schedules. Phyllis Gillis, for example, quit her night job as a waitress in 1982 and started Entrepreneurial Communications, a Princeton public relations firm, so that she could spend more time with her six-year-old son. Says Gillis, author of the 1984 book Entrepreneurial Mothers: "I was willing to spin my wheels for a while and grow my company slowly while my son was small. Now it's full speed ahead."

For many single mothers, starting a company is a way out of poverty. Ninfa Maria Rodriguez Laurenzo, a widow, was looking for a way to support her three youngest children when she opened a tiny Mexican restaurant in Houston in 1973. In that business, she says, "I knew there would at least be food for my family." Last year Ninfa's, her chain of ten Texas restaurants, grossed $20 million.

Janet Wells took over the Sistersville Tank Works in West Virginia to save her job. Wells, a bookkeeper, bought the company in 1984 in partnership with her daughter Darlene just as the firm was about to fold. Says Wells: "The men didn't think we would last for six weeks. But there weren't any other jobs around, so they stuck with us." The company, which builds storage tanks and provides field services for Amoco, DuPont, Union Carbide and other clients, has more than tripled its sales under the ownership of the two women, from $1 million in 1984 to $3.5 million in 1987.

To build companies, entrepreneurs need capital. But financing remains a major problem for women, whether they are founding new businesses or trying to expand successful ventures. The majority of companies currently owned by women were started with less than $5,000. One reason: because many of the companies are service firms, their founders usually have few hard assets to pledge as collateral for loans. In 1979, when Kathleen Fay Jensen and Angela Franklin were raising money to set up the Professional Reliable Nursing Service in Modesto, Calif., they had nothing but a 1936 Pontiac and a silver tea set for collateral. They managed to get a $9,000 loan, but most women entrepreneurs are not so fortunate. A surprising number of bankers remain skeptical that women can successfully run any kind of company, regardless of experience or credit history. Christine Bierman owns three companies, including Colt Safety, a distributor of hard hats and other equipment. But she told the House committee, "I have been turned down for a loan by every bank in St. Louis."

Many banks will not extend commercial loans to women unless their husbands or other men in the family cosign the application. "Everyone thought it was funny that I wanted to start my own asphalt-paving company," says Carolyn Stradley, 42, who founded C&S Paving, an Atlanta firm (1987 revenues: $2.5 million) after helping run a similar company. "Bankers would tell me, 'Honey, you can't make a living in that business.' " Stradley finally got a loan after her brother, who was unemployed and had once been bankrupt, cosigned for it.