More Women Starting Small Businesses, Using Square Business Tools To Succeed

SAN FRANCISCO – August 26, 2014 –Women’s Equality Day commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment and recognizes the impact women make in the communities where they live and work. In 1920, the year women were granted the right to vote, 21% of all gainfully employed persons were women. Today, new data reveals that accessible business tools are helping women-owned businesses succeed:

• 50% of businesses using Square are owned by women, compared to 30% of small businesses in the U.S. 
• Women continue to diversify into all industries. The greatest number of women-owned businesses (25%) using Square is found in retail,followed by service-related businesses like legal, financial, and delivery services.
• 61% of Wyoming businesses using Square are owned by women — the highest ratio of any U.S. state, followed by Montana (60%), North Dakota (59%), Iowa (57%), Nebraska (57%), Idaho (56%), Alaska (56%), South Dakota (56%), Maine (56%), and Kansas (55%).

“I decided to open my dojo as a place where families could gather and become stronger,” said Deb Cupples, founder of Community Karate and Fitness. “Families can grow strong not only in the physical sense through martial arts training, but also in the social sense as we work together and help one another.”

Today there are more than 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States.

Molly Neitzel, owner of Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, gives advice to women starting a business: “Learn about as many aspects of your industry as possible. When I worked in an ice cream shop, I started as a scooper, but also learned to make ice cream and wrote the schedule for employees. If you’ve only worked in one area, you won’t know the full picture. Learn how to look at things from many different angles.”

Today, women comprise only 20% of software developers. To inspire, educate, and empower the next generation of women in technology, Square built a four-day, in-house immersion program called College Code Camp. The program uses leadership sessions, coding workshops, and a hackathon to bring together women engineering students and build a stronger community of women in technology.

About Square, Inc.
Square helps anyone take care of their business. Square's complete register service is a full point of sale with tools for every part of running a business, from accepting credit cards to sales, inventory tracking, and small business financing. Customers also use Square Order, a new way to pre-order food and drinks for pickup and individuals use Cash, the easiest way to send and receive money. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, Square is currently available in the United States, Canada, and Japan.