If you would have told a young Angie to fast forward 18 years to a time when my business would have workflows that can stand on their own so that I have time for stewardship in my calendar, or that the business would financially support multiple employee families, I would have been dumbfounded. Yet, here I am writing my first Message From The President, and I am so excited to sit at the table as the President of NAWBO Chicago and be a spokesperson for women business owners, the fastest growing segment of the US economy.
It certainly does take vulnerability and courage to launch a new business and stand at its helm, hoping to financially support yourself and your family, but also to potentially do the same for those around you! Over 11.6 million women in the USA have had the courage to take that leap to business ownership and I am blessed to be among them. Here at NAWBO, that’s what we do: help other women business owners to be visionaries, innovators and trailblazers in entrepreneurship.
Over the course of the next year, I hope to connect with many of you to walk collectively in the sisterhood of NAWBO, as we work together to be leaders in our communities and to overcome obstacles in business ownership and in all areas of life. We will need courage to do so, and I wish to help other women business owners build up their courage muscles. In my 18 years of business, I found that some of my biggest fears stemmed from pushing myself to step outside my comfort zone and ask the hard questions, braving my way through intimidation, and facing the humiliation of failure. This year, let us be courageous together: courageous to help another woman overcome her imposter syndrome, give another entrepreneur a tip on how to manage the household and a business simultaneously, or share a resource that helped you personally or professionally to overcome a challenge.
Coming from the bookkeeping and accounting industry, my goal is to share the message of financial confidence with my fellow NAWBO sisterhood. I want all NAWBO Chicago members to be able to tell the story of their financials so that they can make informed decisions to run a profitable and sustainable business. Less than 4% of all women-owned businesses generate revenue of $1 Million or greater, and my aspiration is that we could grow that to 5% or even 6%!
In doing so, we lift each other up and we might even be able to make it easier for women to qualify for financing. Since so many women are STARS (skilled through alternative routes), it has always been a struggle for women to qualify for traditional financing. So rare is it that I cannot, in my years of business, think of any women biz owners who started a business in a more traditional loan environment rather than self-funding. Perhaps we can lean in a little more and elevate our financial literacy game so that we can give back to ourselves, our families, and our community. Whether that means leaning into financial confidence more, or challenging the expectations in our home environment, or doing something that scares us, with the NAWBO Chicago sisterhood, I know we can rise to uncharted territory – because we’re stronger together!
Angie Noll
NAWBO Chicago President
Founder of Reconciled Solutions