Women entrepreneurs are a lot more optimistic about the economy than their male counterparts, according to the most recent Spark Business Barometer Survey from Capital One.
In the survey released this month, 63 percent of female business owners said they think current economic conditions are excellent or good. That percentage is 11 percent higher than for male business owners.
At the same time, men in small firms are more likely to take a negative view on current business conditions, with 46 percent saying they are fair or poor compared to 35 percent of women.
Certainly, there are plenty of male and female business owners who agree business conditions are healthy. The survey, which covered the current quarter, found that 57% of small business owners overall consider them to be excellent or good. And in one reflection of this upbeat mood, 46% of respondents say they plan to give raises in 2015.
"One of the things we’ve seen is just continued positive sentiment around the economic outlook," says Keri Gohman, head of small business banking at Capital One. "Both women and men view current business conditions as improving."
Nonetheless, it is hard to ignore the noticeable gender gap in the perception of how good the economy is. The survey didn't dig into exactly why the difference exists, though the bank is planning to look into it further.
One possible driver is that women are feeling very positive about entrepreneurship in general right now.
"More than one-third of business owners are women," says Gohman. "We're seeing a growth rate at about one and a half times the national rate."
In addition, Gohman notes, "Women tend to be growing in the ecommerce and digital sectors, which we know are growing. That could have some influence."
But there seem to be other factors at play. The survey found that 21 percent of men feel their organization is in worse financial shape than last year, while only 12 percent of women-owned businesses say the same thing.
"Women are saying their financial condition is better than it was about a year ago," noted Gohman. "About 40% said it’s better than a year ago compared to 32% of men."
And 57% of female business owners expect to see better financial performance in six months, compared to 48% of the total pool.
Women's greater optimism on this front may reflect different habits in managing cash, though it's unclear what the connection is. Generally, the research indicated that male entrepreneurs are being more aggressive about investing in their businesses while women are holding onto cash more, she said.
Capital One just started looking into the differences between male-owned and women-owned small business owners several months back in this particular survey. And the sample size for the Small Business Barometer is relatively small -- it tapped 400 representatives of firms with revenue of $10 million or less. I'm hoping the bank does a deeper dive into this topic.
While my guess is that male and female entrepreneurs have more in common than differences, understanding where and why their experiences diverge will shed some interesting light on what kind of support they each need to reach their potential. We need all of these job-creators to thrive.
