Alabama Public Radio has spent the last year looking at why skilled and educated workers are leaving the Gulf coast for other parts of the country. Our series is called “Should I stay, or should I go?” The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council says close to forty percent of companies in the U.S. are female owned. That figure is reportedly a lot lower here in Alabama at less than four percent.
The National Women’s Business Council also crunched the numbers on a state-by-state basis for female entrepreneurship. The study says Alabama does poorly even among rural states—coming at number ten in that category behind Mississippi, Kentucky, and Vermont among others. A report from Women’s Business Enterprise National Council put Alabama at number five for worst state in the nation for women business owners…
“I think I think that number may be correct,” said Doctor Valerie EW James. She’s past President of the National Association of Women Business owners. James grew up in Mobile but spent most of her professional life in Los Angeles. She says when she moved back to the Alabama Gulf coast, it was easy to see how badly women business owners were treated here compared to L.A.
“And I was networking, had some great networking opportunities and resources with the chamber and other community associations, but nothing specific to women owned businesses, and I've had that resource in Los Angeles,” she said.
APR has spent the past year looking into keeping skilled and educated workers from leaving the Gulf coast. This is part fourteen of our series we call “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.”
But, you knew that. Today, we’re focusing on what the Mobile area can do to attract and keep female business owners and entrepreneurs. Earlier in our series we reported about the so called good old boy attitude along the Gulf coast that turns some workers off. James says women business see that as a problem, too…
“Yes, that plays a big part of it,” said James. “And also when they see us they may not necessarily think that we're the decision maker, that we may be a part of the business doing the administrative work.”
That’s why James brought the National Association of Women Business Owners to Mobile, and not just as an afterthought. The group’s is now headquartered here to help its female membership with networking and opportunities. APR asked around to find out what the Gulf coast is doing to help women business owners. No one could point to a of specific ideas…
“Not that I'm aware of,” said Stacy Wellborn. She teaches at Springhill college and runs an incubator for up-and-coming businesses called the Container Yard. Wellborn also keeps her thumb on the pulse of female owned businesses and entrepreneurship in the Mobile area. She says local government is offering incentives, but not specifically for women.
“There's a lot of effort around the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Wellborn observed. “There are also a lot of efforts around Minority Business Development within our ecosystem, which are great programs. However, I don't see much targeted to women specifically. And I do think there's an opportunity that we're missing out on.”
Wellborn does more than teaching and running her business incubator. She also owns a company that helps clients with brand development, website design, and social media. Wellborn says one thing the Gulf coast business community needs to accept is that women business owners run things differently compared to men…
“And, I believe that there is data and research out there that shows that women in general women in business are more relational, whereas men, and this is kind of gross, you know, assumptions, but in general, I believe women are more relational in business and men are more transactional,” said Wellborn.
Remember how Dr. Valerie EW James moved from Los Angeles to Mobile? Well, she’s not the only transplant to return to the Gulf coast. And James isn’t alone when it comes to having a poor opinion of Alabama compared to life in L.A.
“I really felt supported by my city, government and my state government in a way that I don't feel here,” said Devin Ford. She runs a photography business and also owns a website called FOCUS which encourages, educates, and empowers businesswomen. Ford doesn’t mince words when it comes to how she sees conservative politics making Alabama an unwelcoming place for women.
“People can say whatever negative things they want to say about in California, but they really put their money where their mouth is to support you,” Ford insist. “One of the big stark differences to me is people talk about Jesus a lot here. But I felt like I lived in West Hollywood, that that was a much more Christ like community.”
Ford believes actions by Alabama lawmakers to outlaw abortion are basically pulling in the welcome mat, not only for women, but also big international companies that benefit the region.
“They strongly support a women's a woman's right to choose,” said Ford. “They strongly support the LGBTQ community. So if we want to attract more businesses like that, we have to be more inclusive and not feel that we have the right to force our beliefs on other people.”
One glimmer of hope comes from Valerie EW James. We heard from her at the start of our story. Without naming names, James says one major international contractor in Mobile invited the National Association of Women Business Owners to come to its factory to talk about female entrepreneurship.
“So that's really helpful to going out and kind of listening to kind of listening to the needs. And then having conversations from there versus just going out and say, Here we are, this is who we are, find out what the needs are and how we can help support fulfilling those needs,” said James.
James says her group came away with a possible path for women owned businesses in the Mobile area to sign contracts as suppliers.
As we mentioned, Should I stay or should I go is an ongoing series to investigate why skilled and educated workers are leaving the Gulf coast. So, far we’ve examined why people leave the Mobile, why others stay, and how a conservative state like Kansas is working to overcome its image as a red state. We’ve looked at local businesses growing their own talent pool on the high school or University level. You can listen back to all of these stories at apr.org.
