Fast
Company
5/1/2005 - 25 Top Women Business Builders
…What they're doing is striking out on their own, launching companies at a higher rate than any other group.
25 Top Women Business Builders
You know the party line about women today: They're "opting out" of business, fleeing the confines of the corporation in droves, unwilling (or unable?) to make it in the big leagues. But if all these smart, ambitious, experienced women are leaving, we wondered, where are they going?
Turns out that while many left corporate America, they've hardly left business behind. What they're doing is striking out on their own, launching companies at a higher rate than any other group. According to the Center for Women's Business Research, from 1997 to 2004, the number of women-owned businesses grew twice as fast as all businesses in the United States. One in 18 adult women in the United States is a business owner. Women-owned companies generate $2.5 trillion in annual sales and employ nearly 20 million people.
So who are these women? What kinds of companies are they founding? What have they learned--and what can we learn from them? To find out, Fast Company teamed up with the Women Presidents' Organization (which offers help to women owners of companies with more than $2 million in annual revenue) to launch a search for the Top 25 Women Business Builders. Female business owners in North America were invited to apply on our Web site and tell us their stories.
And women answered the call: Nearly 600 applied for these first-ever awards. They represented industries as varied as fashion, agriculture, manufacturing, and armored security. They included one-woman shops struggling to turn their first profit as well as--in the case of one eventual winner--companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
Each applicant was scored based on revenue, revenue growth, and level and consistency of profits. We culled a group of 52 finalists, and our panel of judges (page 76) helped us choose and rank our final list of 25 winners (27, actually, since two of our winning spaces are shared by cofounders).
We think these women, and their accomplishments, will inspire you: Each one's story offers lessons--whether it's how to spot a marketable idea, how to distinguish yourself from the competition, how to hire and train the right people, or how to put customers front and center. They haven't really left corporate America behind. They're just building their own version.
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38, CEO and designer
Taryn Rose International, Los Angeles, California
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42, CEO,
Rose International, Chesterfield, Missouri
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46, founder and CEO
Tastefully Simple, Alexandria, Minnesota
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President and CEO
Icon Information Consultants, Houston, Texas
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45, president and CEO
American Nursing Services, Metairie, Louisiana
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53, founder, president, and CEO
United Medical Resources, Cincinnati, Ohio
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56, chairman and CEO
SmileCare, Santa Ana, California
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51, president and CEO
Tennessee Bun Co., Dickson, Tennessee
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49, president and CEO
T3 (The Think Tank), Austin, Texas
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58, president and CEO
APCO Worldwide, Washington, DC
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67, founder and CEO
FlexCorp Systems, New York, New York
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38 and 37, CEO and president, respectively, cofounders
Circles, Boston, Massachusetts
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43, CEO, AGAR Supply
Taunton, Massachusetts
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33, founder and CEO
Pinnacle Technical Resources, Dallas, Texas
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55, president and CEO
CFj Manufacturing, Fort Worth, Texas
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52, founder and CEO
Lasertone, Littleton, Massachusetts
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60, founder and president
The HomeMaker's Idea Co., Glendale Heights, Illinois
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50, president and CEO
Atlas
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48, CEO, Nest Fresh Eggs
Denver, Colorado
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40 and 28, chairman and president, respectively, cofounders
Range Online Media, Forth Worth, Texas
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47, president and CEO
Epic Divers and Marine, Harvey, Louisiana
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37, president and CEO
SiloSmashers, Fairfax, Virginia
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63, CEO
Omega World Travel, Fairfax, Virginia
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36, president
Artech Information Systems, Morristown, New Jersey
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