Business advisers say more people in Wisconsin are seeking advice on starting or expanding a business. Interest among men and women has been about even over the last decade - but last year, the number of men seeking advice grew more quickly.
Kim Kindschi is executive director of the Entrepreneurship Division at UW-Extension. Kindschi says men comprised 52.5 percent of those looking for business advice last year statewide. He says the reason for the slight increase is likely the recession. Kindschi says there were more layoffs in 2009, and they likely included manufacturing or other jobs for men compared to women.
However, those results were not typical everywhere. Jan Gallagher is the director of the Small Business Development Center at UW-La Crosse. She says at the UWL center, more women are thinking about going into, or expanding their businesses.
She says a local support group encouraging women entrepreneurs may have played a role in that. At any rate, both Gallagher and Kindschi agree there is a more level playing field between genders in business this day and age.
Gallagher adds she's seen a drop off with incentives or grants for women-owned business in the last decade. According to the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Network, around 1,800 people sought counseling from Small Business Development Centers statewide last year--up from nearly 1,600 in 2008.
