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Prestigious Kauffman Foundation
Funds Project Tsunami "Global Headquarters" for Women Entrepreneurs ATLANTA - October 28, 2002 - Project Tsunami, a new Atlanta-based, non-profit corporation with a global reach to accelerate the growth of women's small and medium enterprises (WSME), announces a major investment grant. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the country's largest and most prestigious foundation studying and supporting entrepreneurial success, has provided the seed funding for this effort. "Women entrepreneurs from around the country and the world will view Project Tsunami as their global headquarters," said Project Tsunami's CEO Linda Muir. "Project Tsunami will be a physical and electronic gathering place for women business owners from New York to Los Angeles and Atlanta to Boston to Denver. "Our goal is to create a dynamic environment in which women entrepreneurs can successfully establish and grow their enterprises and thereby assist their state's and the nation's economy," Ms. Muir added. Women-owned businesses now employ one in four U.S. workers. And, according to the Center for Women's Business Research, there are 6.2 million women-owned businesses nationwide which generate $1.15 trillion in revenues. In the U.S., women-owned businesses represent 38% of all businesses but capture only 18 percent of the available purchasing dollars and generate only 16 percent of business revenue. Project Tsunami will aid existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs to access capital and credit, technology, education and training, as well as create a national and global marketplace for best practices in entrepreneurship. In his keynote address at a Department of Labor event earlier this year, President George W. Bush said, "When it comes to entrepreneurship and job creation, ours is an increasingly women's world. The truth of the matter is women-owned businesses are growing at twice the rate of all other United States firms." More than 150 million people are engaged in entrepreneurial activity around the world but women participate in entrepreneurship at one-half the rate of men, according to the landmark Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report conducted by The Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. The study, which included 29 nations representing 2.5 billion people and 1.4 billion of working age, concluded that a nation can undertake no greater economic growth initiative than to develop women entrepreneurship. This GEM research, in part, led to the establishment of Project Tsunami. The three entrepreneurs who founded Project Tsunami have decades of experience in fostering the growth of WSMEs and share a passion for seeing that women business owners are included in new economic strategies and policies. They are:
Circles of business leaders will be brought together in a Virtual Global Forum using online conferencing, webcasting, online videoconferencing and other tools. In addition, the clearinghouse will provide a first -- an extensive database of current and new research, policy and best practices for the WSME sector that is easily accessible in one place. A Global BrainTrust is an integral part of Project Tsunami's accelerator approach with partnerships, collaboration and networking to link and connect currently disparate WSME leaders and groups. The first 200 members of the Global Brain Trust will be recruited from 75 countries and will include the change agents for women's entrepreneurship from finance, corporations, government and international institutions, NGOs, associations and business schools around the world. Initial members include Marie-Florence Estime, Principal Administrator of the SME Unit of the OECD who serves as an ex-officio Project Tsunami advisor and Canada's Consul General in Atlanta, Astrid Pregel. Project Tsunami encourages anyone interested in accelerating the growth of women's entrepreneurship around the world to direct inquiries to:
Project Tsunami
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The following are some highlights from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor's (GEM) Executive Report
The GEM study ranked the 29 countries surveyed in several categories, including Total Entrepreneurship Activity, Opportunity-Based Entrepreneurial Activity and Necessity-Based Entrepreneurial Activity. The Top 10 Countries for Total Entrepreneurship Activity ranked as follows:
- Persons per 100 Adults, 18-64 years old (95% Confidence Interval) Two other categories, "opportunity entrepreneurship", which represented 54% of the 150 million entrepreneurs, or 80 million people, is reflective of those who pursue a business opportunity voluntarily, while 43% or 63 million people were engaged in "necessity entrepreneurship", as they had "no better choices for work." Necessity Entrepreneurship is more common in developing countries.
The Top 10 Countries for "Opportunity-Based Entrepreneurial Activity" ranked as follows:
- Persons per 100 Adults, 18-64 years old (95% Confidence Interval)
The Top 10 Countries for "Necessity-Based Entrepreneurial Activity" ranked as follows:
- Persons per 100 Adults, 18-64 years old (95% Confidence Interval) According to the GEM study, men are more than twice as active in entrepreneurship as women; and 25- to 44- year olds represent the most active age group. The most activity for women entrepreneurs by country were:
- Persons per 100 Adults, 18-64 years old (95% Confidence Interval) |