Why Buy Women-Owned? The Real Case for Shopping and Hiring Women-Led Businesses

Every dollar you spend is already going somewhere in order to build something. The question you need to ask yourself is whether it’s building something you believe in.

That’s the whole idea behind buying women-owned. It’s not a feel-good slogan, it’s a way of life. When you choose a woman-owned business for your next gift, your next hire, or your next everyday purchase, you’re redirecting money into one of the fastest-growing, most under-resourced, and most underrated but powerful engines in the entire economy. You don’t buy women owned to do anyone a favor, but rather it’s a smart choice you make that happens to make a huge impact in the life of an individual.

Here’s the case, the data behind it, and how to actually do it without turning every purchase into a research project.

What counts as a “women-owned business”?

A women-owned business is generally one that’s at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by one or more women. That definition is the standard used by formal certifiers, but in everyday terms it simply means a woman is the one calling the shots: setting the vision, taking the risk, and reinvesting the reward.

Women-owned businesses aren’t a niche, they’re everywhere. From the skincare line on your shelf to the coach who helped you land the promotion, the web designer who built your storefront to the bakery down the street. This is exactly why “buying women-owned” is neither a sacrifice nor a stretch. It’s a lens you can apply to purchases you’re already making.

The economic case: a $3.3 trillion force

If you think supporting women-owned businesses is a small, sentimental gesture, the numbers will change your mind.

According to Wells Fargo’s 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report, there are now roughly 14.5 million women-owned businesses in the United States — nearly 40% of all U.S. firms. Together they generate about $3.3 trillion in annual revenue and employ close to 13 million people.

And they’re growing faster than almost anyone else. The number of women-owned businesses climbed about 17% between 2019 and 2024 — nearly double the growth rate of businesses owned by men. On an average day, more than 1,800 new women-owned businesses open their doors.

This isn’t a movement that needs your pity. It’s a movement that’s already reshaping the economy — and your spending decides how fast it grows.

The gap your dollars help close

Here’s the part that turns “nice to support” into “important to support.”

Despite all that growth, women-owned businesses still hit walls that have nothing to do with the quality of their work. Female founders receive a tiny slice of venture capital (routinely cited at around 2% of all funding, a margin that’s getting slimmer and slimmer as time goes on). The average loan approved for a woman-owned firm is smaller than the average loan for a man-owned one. The result is a revenue gap so large that if women-owned businesses simply earned what comparable men-owned businesses earn, the U.S. economy would see an estimated $10.2 trillion in additional annual revenue.

Capital gaps take years and policy to fix. But there’s one form of funding that doesn’t require a pitch deck, a bank, or anyone’s permission: revenue. Every time a customer chooses a woman-owned business, that founder gets the one resource she’s most often denied: money in the door, on her terms. Your purchase is the most direct investment in a woman entrepreneur you can make.

That’s the shift worth embracing: buying women-owned isn’t charity, it’s economic development.

It’s not just products, it’s services, too

When people picture “shopping women-owned,” they usually picture *things*: candles, jewelry, coffee, a great tote bag. Yes products are a large chunk of women owned businesses, but some of the highest-impact dollars you’ll ever move toward a woman founder are spent on services.

Think about who you hire to build the thing you’re building: the brand designer, the bookkeeper, the business coach, the web developer, the copywriter, the social media strategist, the PR lead. Those are often five-, six-, and seven-figure relationships and every single one of them is a chance to put real money behind a woman-led business instead of a faceless corporate firm.

There’s a quiet advantage here, too. Women-owned service providers consistently earn praise for the things that actually make a partnership work: communication, care, and a collaborative style that treats you like a partner rather than a ticket number. You’re not trading quality for values because when you buy women owned, you’re getting both.

Ready to shop women owned? See our guides to women-owned business coaches and women-owned services for every stage of your business.

What you actually get when you buy women-owned

Beyond the big-picture impact, buying women-owned tends to come with benefits you feel personally:

Women-owned, always.

No guessing about where your money lands. You know it’s going to a woman who is building something that will create a ripple of impact into her community and into the world at large.

Quality and craft.

Founder-led businesses live and die by their reputation, so the person who made (or personally stands behind) what you’re buying actually cares whether you love it.

Your purchase does more.

The same money you were going to spend anyway now funds a woman’s payroll, her family, her growth, her community and the next woman she’ll hire, mentor, or buy from. Data has shown that women circulate money more into their communities, which means that your one purchase compounds into way more than you will ever know.

How to shop and hire women-owned (without the guesswork)

The most common reason people don’t buy women-owned more often isn’t resistance, it’s friction. It can be hard to know *which* businesses are women-owned, especially online. And in today’s day in age, who has time to do all the research to find out which brands to purchase from or not. Here’s how to make it easy:

1. Start with your existing needs. Don’t invent new purchases. Look at what you already buy and hire for, and swap in a woman-owned option one category at a time.
2. Use a curated source. Instead of vetting businesses one by one, shop and hire from a place that’s already done the verifying for you (such as Built By Us!).
3. Buy the gift and the service. Gifts are the easy on-ramp — browse our women-owned gift guide — but don’t stop there. Your next contractor or coach is where the bigger impact lives.
4. Tell people. Recommendations are how women-owned businesses grow. When you find one you love, send it to a friend. That referral is worth more than a five-star review.

This is why we created Built By Us

We got tired of the friction, too. So we built a marketplace where every single business is women-owned: no badges to decode, no guesswork, no wondering. Products, coaching, courses, and services, all from women entrepreneurs who are building something worth supporting.

Because an economy built by us gets stronger one purchase, one hire, and one referral at a time.

Click here to explore the marketplace and put your next dollar in a purposeful place where it means more and makes a bigger impact.

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Frequently asked questions

What counts as a women-owned business?

A business that is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by one or more women. In practice, it means a woman holds majority ownership and leads the key decisions.

Why is it important to support women-owned businesses?

Women-owned businesses make up nearly 40% of U.S. firms and generate about $3.3 trillion a year, yet they still receive far less funding and capital than men-owned businesses. Choosing to buy from them is a direct way to close that gap — your spending is one of the few forms of funding a founder can access without a bank or an investor.

Is buying women-owned more expensive?

Not inherently. Women-owned businesses compete across every price point, from everyday essentials to premium goods and services. You’re choosing where your money goes, not how much you spend.

How do I find women-owned businesses to shop or hire?

The easiest way is to use a curated marketplace or directory that verifies businesses for you (such as Built By Us), so you can browse by category — gifts, coaching, marketing, web design, wellness, and more — without vetting each one yourself.