One Year of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub

Entrepreneurship is a proven pathway for women to generate extra income and achieve economic empowerment. So one year ago, Women Employed launched our Women’s Entrepreneurship HUB (WE Hub), a first-of-its-kind free tool to provide women across Illinois — and especially Black, Latina/x, and/or low-income women — with information and resources to help them launch and grow their own businesses. Within that time, we’ve had 367 people, a little more than one per day, sign up to achieve their own vision of success!

“The Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub has guided me in next steps to pursue in my business journey.” –WE Hub User

As we celebrate wehub.org’s anniversary this week, we’re reflecting on what we — and our users — have been able to achieve, and looking ahead to what’s next.

Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs, with Latina/x women close behind, but both face greater barriers to success in business ownership. And low-income women also face particular obstacles to going out on their own. So we built WE Hub with them in mind, and have targeted our outreach to ensure they’re hearing about our tool. And we’re thrilled to report that nearly two-thirds of our users are Black and/or Latina/o/x!

Some additional insights on the people using WE Hub:

• WE Hub users range in age from their 20s to 70s.
• Their education levels run the gamut, nearly evenly split between high school or lower, post-secondary certification, bachelor’s, and graduate.
• The household income of WE Hub users also shows a wide range, with 16 percent earning less than $10,000 per year and another 16 percent earning more than $101,000. Overall, 51 percent live in households that earn under $50,000 annually, and 49 percent earn more.

The takeaway? Entrepreneurship truly is for everyone. You’re never too young — or too old — to become your own boss. You don’t need a degree to pursue your dream. And a modest household income doesn’t have to hold you back. And WE Hub is empowering people all across the spectrum to take that next step.

What’s particularly gratifying is that, in a survey of WE Hub users, two-thirds reported they log into the site several times a month, working on their business, whether they are in the ideation stage or managing business they may want to grow.

“WE Hub is Giving me advice, giving me insights from experts, giving me information that is very helpful in my journey.” –WE Hub user

And we’ve got a lot in store for year two! We’re working on exciting new resources like a money finder tool to help more women find the resources they need to succeed, making improvements to the site so it’s even more user-friendly and tailored to the needs of women logging in, and constantly updating and adding new resources from trusted partners all across Illinois to ensure we’ve got the best, most current information available to our users.

Click here for more information on our WE Hub, and to get started today.

Questions? Please contact WE Hub Manager, Shelby Flores at sflores@womenemployed.org.