Women’s Equality Day: Turning a Century of Resolve into Market Success

1. From Marching to Market Share

On August 26 1920 the 19th Amendment was certified, and in 1971 Congress designated Women’s Equality Day to commemorate it. Today a century later, the same disciplined coordination powers highgrowth, the same spirit of coordinated effort is required in the marketplace, where women‑led companies are multiplying but still encounter structural friction points.

Learn the history of Women’s Equality Day

2. The Current Landscape in Numbers

14 million women-owned firms now represent 39 % of all U.S. businesses, employing 12.9 million people and generating $3.3 trillion in annual revenue.

In 2024, women founded 49 % of all new businesses—up from 29 % in 2019.

Yet female founders remain ~75 % less likely to secure equity capital than male peers, driving many to rely on personal debt.

The data show momentum, but also a funding and infrastructure gap that makes scaling harder for women‑led brands once demand exceeds the founder’s personal bandwidth.

Explore more statistics

3. Three HighImpact Service Levers

Service Category	Purpose	Typical Outcomes
Fractional Sales Leadership	Part-time access to senior sales executives who build retailer relationships, negotiate terms and create forecast models.	Accelerated national listings, disciplined trade spend, reliable cashflow projections.
Commercial Execution	Analysts integrate POS data, supply chain capacities and promotional calendars to stress-test every major order.	Fewer out-of-stocks, healthier gross margin, smoother production ramp-ups.
Education & Activation	Specialist trainers convert product stories into sell-through by educating retail staff and e-commerce teams.	Average 15–30% sales lift within 60 days of a training cycle (internal benchmarking across natural channel launches).

Discover Fractional Sales Leadership

4. Education in Action—Highlights from Beyond Education

The sister learning platform BeyondEducation.net curates bite‑sized lessons that brands can share with store teams or internal staff:

“Visual Storytelling: Elevating Your Brand with Professional Photos & Videos” breaks down how imagery influences conversion and teaches founders to build reusable visual assets.

“The Benefits of Natural Deodorants” explains ingredient safety and sustainability talking points—content many buyers now require for category reviews.

Modular library lets founders cherrypick only the lessons they need; live webinars add realtime Q&A.

Visit Beyond Education

5. Why Fractional Sales Leadership Works

A fulltime VP of Sales is costly, a fractional model:

Audits margin structure before bigbox negotiations.

Runs “whatif” promo scenarios to protect cashflow.

Sequences channel expansion to avoid inventory whiplash.

Contracts flex up during line reviews and down postlaunch, preserving working capital.

Fractional Sales Explained

6. Commercial Execution: Turning Demand into Reliable Supply

A national PO can be a gift or a gutpunch. Rigorous execution:

Confirms component leadtimes vs. delivery windows.
Builds dashboards pairing velocity forecasts with manufacturing capacity.
Negotiates net30/45 terms to shrink financing costs.

This rigor transforms the “big break” into repeatable revenue rather than a one‑time spike followed by out‑of‑stocks

The Cost of Opportunity

7. Educating the Last Three Feet

Customers buy benefits, not features. Our salestraining programs teach teams to:

Engage shoppers with benefitfirst storytelling.

Handle objections confidently.

Use body language & questioning to surface needs.

Effective training goes beyond memorizing product details. It teaches employees how to engage customers, handle objections, and create a seamless shopping experience. A sales team that understands the psychology behind customer purchasing decisions is more likely to drive conversions. This includes body language, tone of voice, and strategic questioning to uncover needs and motivations. 

Boosting Retail Sales

8. Resources Beyond Professional Services

Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) — 160+ U.S. locations offering counseling and capital matchmaking.

WBENC Certification Toolkit — Opens supplierdiversity doors at Fortune 500 companies.

Find your nearest WBC
Download the WBENC Toolkit

9. How Stakeholders Can Accelerate Equality

Stakeholder	Practical Step	Impact
Retailers & Distributors	Audit assortments against national 39% benchmark; adopt net 30 payment as default for certified diverse suppliers.	Improved cash flow supports faster reorders and innovation cycles.
Professional Service Firms	Offer sliding scale or micro-retainer options tied to revenue thresholds.	Extends expertise to pre-seed brands without heavy overhead.
Investors & Lenders	Recognize that women-owned firms show equal or better ROI; adjust due diligence templates to remove bias indicators (e.g., overindexing on founder pedigree versus traction).	Broadens the funnel of fundable deals.
Consumers	Look for the Women-Owned shelf tag or WBENC seal; subscribe for recurring deliveries to stabilize demand forecasts.	Higher baseline velocity encourages retailers to expand shelf space.

10. SixPoint Checklist for Founders at Scale

Staff — Hire missiondriven talent early.
Shared Values — Codify culture through training.
Structure — Recruit seasoned leaders; founders can’t do it all.
Speed — Balance promo velocity vs. margin.
Scope — Expand only when supplychain buffer exists.
Series X — Build agility for downturns or market shifts.

Track KPIs weekly (velocity), monthly (margin), and quarterly (inventory turns) to adjust strategy—not just tactics.

Scale Your Business Effectively

11. FAQ: WomenLed Business Growth

Women founders often face smaller networks, implicit bias in investor decisionmaking, and fewer large exits that recycle capital back into femaleled funds
A flexible arrangement where a seasoned VP of Sales works parttime (815 hrs/week) to build retailer relationships, forecast demand, and negotiate terms—costeffective expertise without fulltime payroll.
WBCs provide free or lowcost counseling, access to capital programs, and networking tailored to women entrepreneurs at 160+ locations nationwide."
Yes. Certification unlocks eligibility for Fortune 500 supplierdiversity programs, national retailer setaside assortments, and government contracts, often leading to faster revenue growth.