Owning a business is anything but a hobby for most women entrepreneurs.
Contrary to stereotypes that women’s businesses are often side hustles, 62 percent of female founders rely on their ventures for their primary source of income, according to the Spring 2018 edition of SCORE’s “The Megaphone of Main Street: Women’s Entrepreneurship.” SCORE provides workshops and mentors to entrepreneurs in the United States with support from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“Research now challenges the old assumption that women entrepreneurs are more likely to run ‘lifestyle businesses’ that provide additional income as opposed to serving as a primary source of revenue,” says the report, which was published in April.
While male business owners still outpace their female counterparts on this metric — 69 percent of men earn their primary living from their ventures — these findings “nonetheless suggests that women-owned businesses are much more than casual hobbies.”
Data for the report was collected between Oct. 20 and Dec. 1, 2017. A total of 25,117 SCORE clients took part in the survey out of 280,956 who were invited to do so.
Related: Read about an entrepreneur who built her business with help from SCORE.
Related: Find information about SCORE and other resources in The Women Entrepreneurs’ Toolbox.