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89–448 PDF 2015

S. HRG. 113–593 

EMPOWERING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: 

UNDERSTANDING SUCCESS, 

ADDRESSING PERSISTENT CHALLENGES, 

AND IDENTIFYING NEW OPPORTUNITIES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

JULY 23, 2014 

Printed for the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington, Chair 

JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho, Ranking Member 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire 

KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

TIM SCOTT, South Carolina 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin 

JANE CAMPBELL, Democratic Staff Director 

SKIFFINGTON HOLDERNESS, Republican Staff Director 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS

Page 

Cantwell, Hon. Maria, Chairwoman, and a U.S. Senator from Washington ...... 1 

Risch, Hon. James E., Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from Idaho ................. 3 

Hagan, Hon. Kay R., a U.S. Senator from North Carolina .................................. 4 

Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., a U.S. Senator from Maryland ................................. 4 

Fischer, Hon. Deb, a U.S. Senator from Nebraska ............................................... 5 

WITNESSES

Panel I 

Contreras-Sweet, Hon. Maria, Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration, Washington, DC ...................................................................................... 6 

Panel II 

Corcoran, Barbara, Founder, The Corcoran Group and ABC’s Shark Tank, 

New York, NY ...................................................................................................... 18 

Meeder, Lori, Senior Loan Officer, Northern Initiatives, Marquette, MI ........... 24 

Davis, Veronica O., P.E., Partner and Principal Planning Manager, 

Nspiregreen, LLC, Washington, DC ................................................................... 31 

Panel III 

Gala ́n, Nely, Founder, Gala ́n Entertainment and Adelante Movement, Marina 

Del Rey, CA .......................................................................................................... 44 

Wortberg, Victoria, Program Manager, Washington Center for Women in 

Business, Lacey, WA ............................................................................................ 52 

Sylvester, Susan, President and Chief Financial Officer, Absolute Resource 

Associates, Portsmouth, NH ................................................................................ 61 

Sutton, Lynn, Chief Executive Officer, Advantage Building Contractors, Atlanta, GA ............................................................................................................... 67 

ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

Bennett-Santos, Cathy 

Letter dated August 6, 2014, to Chairwoman Cantwell ................................ 89 

California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity 

Letter dated July 23, 2014, to the Committee on Small Business and 

Entrepreneurship .......................................................................................... 94 

Cantwell, Hon. Maria 

Opening statement ........................................................................................... 1 

Report titled ‘‘21st Century Barriers to Women’s Entrepreneurship’’ ......... 100 

Contreras-Sweet, Hon. Maria 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 6 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 9 

Corcoran, Barbara 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 18 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 21 

Davis, Veronica O. 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 31 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 33 

Fischer, Hon. Deb 

Opening statement ........................................................................................... 5 
Page

IV 

—Continued 

Questions for the record ................................................................................... 88 

Gala ́n, Nely 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 44 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 47 

Levin, Hon. Carl 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 86 

Meeder, Lori 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 24 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 26 

Sutton, Lynn 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 67 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 69 

Sylvester, Susan 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 61 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 63 

Wells Fargo 

Letter dated July 23, 2014, to Senators Cantwell and Risch ....................... 97 

Wortberg, Victoria 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 52 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 54 
(1) 

EMPOWERING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: 

UNDERSTANDING SUCCESS, ADDRESSING 

PERSISTENT CHALLENGES, AND IDENTIFYING 

NEW OPPORTUNITIES 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014 

UNITED STATES SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:45 p.m., in Room 

216, Hart Senate Office Building, Hon. Maria Cantwell, Chairwoman of the Committee, presiding. 

Present: Senators Cantwell, Cardin, Shaheen, Hagan, Risch, and 

Fischer. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL, 

CHAIRWOMAN, AND A U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. The U.S. Senate Committee on Small 

Business and Entrepreneurship will come to order. 

Today we are having a hearing on empowering women entrepreneurs and understanding the successes and addressing the challenges of identifying new opportunities. 

I want to welcome everyone who is here in the audience today 

for this very important hearing and look forward to hearing from 

our tremendous panelists. 

Just 26 years ago in 1988 Congress enacted landmark legislation 

that established as the law of the land a woman’s ability to establish business credit without requiring a signature of a male relative. 

Today our Committee is releasing a report, 21st-Century Barriers to Women Entrepreneurship Helping Women Break the Entrepreneur Glass Ceiling. 

It is also important that we make policy recommendations based 

on this report because our report shows that even 26 years after 

the Women’s Business Ownership Act significant barriers still exist 

for women entrepreneurs. 

The report finds that women entrepreneurs still face challenges 

raising capital for their business in the right amounts at the right 

time, face challenges of getting relevant business training and 

counseling and face challenges in getting equal access to compete 

for federal contracts. 
2 

As Congress, particularly this Committee, looks for ways to help 

entrepreneurs strengthen our economy, we want to make sure that 

women are enabled to play a very important role. 

The National Women’s Business Center reports that there are 

more than 7.8 million women-owned firms. In addition to providing 

work for the individual employers, they employ more than 7.6 million additional people and generate 1.2 trillion in total revenues. 

Between 1977 and 2013, the number of women-owned businesses 

in the United States grew by 59 percent but women-owned businesses still face real barriers and only make up about 30 percent 

of small businesses in the United States. 

So, our Committee report shows the following things. One, 

women small business owners face challenges getting access to capital. The Urban Institute reports that only 4 percent of the total 

dollar value of conventional small business loans go to women entrepreneurs. 

Women are forced to rely on personal credit, loans from family 

and friends, high credit card rates instead of getting traditional 

bank lending. Just a tiny fraction use business loans from the federal, state, or local government or government guaranteed business 

loans. 

I am sure we will hear from the Small Business Administrator 

about this issue. 

I want to point out an additional study that was done by the 

Harvard Business School that tested the effect of gender in entrepreneurial pitches. 

The study set up an investor to hear a pitch from a male and 

female voice accompanying the picture. The content of the pitch 

was exactly the same. The only difference was the gender in delivering it. 

The study found, quote, a strong gender gap in how the pitches 

were received. Investors chose the pitch by men 68 percent of the 

time. The men used the exact same words. It was just a matter of 

who was delivering them. 

So, we want to make sure we flatten any barriers. 

Second, women-owned businesses still face challenges in getting 

loans in the right size and the right amount of business counseling. 

Women-owned businesses secured more than 50 percent of our 

microloans that we make which are $50,000 and under, and we 

have had great success from our colleague Senator Levin in supporting an intermediate loan program. 

The bottom line is we need financial—— 

[Pause.] 

That was a dramatic pause for this statement. 

[Laughter.] 

Okay. Are you ready for it? 

We need financial products that are tailored to meet the needs 

of women entrepreneurs of the 21st-century. Women-owned businesses need to have more access to credit. The small business 

microloans program is helpful and the intermediary loan program 

which is designed to help in the gap between $50- and $200,000 

has proven to be very beneficial. 

The report acknowledges the success of this SBA intermediary 

loan program and the work that was done in the Small Business 
3 

Job Act. We want to take that from a pilot program to a permanent 

program. 

The third point of the report, the Committee finds that women 

entrepreneurs face challenges in getting relevant business training 

counseling. Although the Women’s Business Centers, which are 

well represented here today, were created by the women’s Business 

Act of 1988 to specialize in counseling and training for womenowned businesses, they have not been reauthorized since the 1990s 

and funding has been flat since the 1990s, something that we have 

to change. 

Fourth, the Committee report shows that women business owners still face challenges in getting equal access to federal contracts. 

The U.S. government has never met its modest goal of awarding 

5 percent of federal contracts to women-owned businesses. If they 

did, women-owned businesses would have access to market opportunities up to an additional $4 billion annually. So, the report proposes changing the federal law to give women-owned businesses 

the opportunity to sole-source federal contracts. 

I want to thank all of my colleagues for being here today to listen 

to these witnesses and to hear from women entrepreneurs about 

the report and about these proposals. 

Now, I would like to turn to my colleague, Ranking Member 

Risch for his opening statement and thank him for being here 

today and helping with this session. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES E. RISCH, RANKING 

MEMBER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM IDAHO 

Senator RISCH. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chairman. 

As you and I have agreed and a number of times, issues facing 

small business, the small business community is not a partisan 

matter. It is bipartisan. It is nonpartisan, and we are doing our 

best to pull the wagon together to see that we resolve issues that 

wind up being barriers for small businesses and. 

I want to thank you, Madam Chairman, for holding this hearing 

and we want to always and continually examine any barriers there 

are to loaning to women. Any gender bias has no place whatsoever 

in the lending process. 

As far as your remarks and observations regarding the training 

for women, we have in Boise, Idaho, a Women’s Business Center 

ably led by Shari Herrera, who is here with us today, and these 

are the kinds of things that are very helpful for women businesses 

around the country. 

So, with that, I want to welcome the Administrator, Ms. 

Contreras-Sweet. We are delighted to have you. The small business 

community certainly is at a great advantage when the President 

appointed you to be the Administrator. 

So, we are glad to have you with us today and with that, Madam 

Chairman, I am anxious to hear the witnesses. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much. 

I want to give my colleagues Senator Hagan and Senator Cardin 

and Senator Fischer any chance they want to make an opening 

statement. 
4 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. KAY R. HAGAN, A U.S. 

SENATOR FROM NORTH CAROLINA 

Senator HAGAN. Thank you, Chairman Cantwell. 

This is obviously a very important hearing just by seeing the 

number of people here today and hearing the number of women 

and their very, very interesting backgrounds and stories. So one, 

thank you very much for holding this hearing. 

To really highlight the obstacles that our female entrepreneurs 

face when trying to access Small Business Administration financing and to come before Federal Government contracts, this is incredibly important. 

Thank you also for the excellent report that details ways to address this problem. I also want to thank our SBA Administrator for 

being here. 

I do want to recognize Ms. Briles Johnson, who is with us today. 

She is the Director of the Women’s Business Center of North Carolina. Recently the SBA honored the Women’s Business Center in 

my State as a Women’s Business Center of Excellence for 2014. I 

want to congratulate Ms. Johnson. 

Thank you. 

[Applause.] 

And for the Women’s Business Center for receiving this well-deserved recognition, the counseling, the training, and the resource 

that our centers provide. They have a long track record of helping 

women-owned businesses to grow and create jobs. 

Thank you, Chairman Cantwell, for holding this important hearing and I look forward to the testimony from all of today’s witnesses. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. Thank you very much. 

Senator Cardin. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, A U.S. 

SENATOR FROM MARYLAND 

Senator CARDIN. Madam Chair, let me thank you and, Madam 

Administrator, thank you for being here and we thank you for your 

leadership on behalf of the small business community. 

We use this room when we have a very important hearing. It is 

the largest hearing room in the United States Senate, and I think 

it is appropriate that this hearing today is dealing with small business and opportunity for women in small business. 

So, it is appropriate that you are here and it is appropriate that 

the subject is being taken up by our Chair and thank you very 

much for arranging this. 

I want to welcome the Marylanders who are here. I know there 

are a lot in the room. 

[Applause.] 

This is an enthusiastic group. 

First and foremost, this subject of opportunity for women-owned 

businesses is about the values of America, what we believe in. We 

believe in equal opportunity for all citizens. Therefore, we know 

about historical discriminations, about women being able to compete, held down by a lot of bias in our community and opportunities. 
5 

It was right for us to set up programs and to provide the tools 

necessary so that women did have a fair opportunity. I appreciate 

very much the report by our Chair that was released today because 

that shows we have made some progress but not enough progress, 

that there is still a road that we need to travel. 

The second thing we do this for is our country. When women 

have full opportunity, our country does much better and our economy grows and we all benefit from it. So, it is in our economic interests. 

There may have been a day where the United States could say 

we did not have to operate on all cylinders and we still could compete, but we know globally today that we have to be at our best. 

Therefore, it is critically important that we have your creativity 

and innovation that comes out of small businesses so that we can 

answer the challenges of today’s marketplace. 

So, I think this is an extremely important hearing and I thank 

the Chair for convening it and I really do look forward to the witnesses to help us chart a future for tomorrow that will be brighter 

than today and help all of our women. 

Thank you. 

[Applause.] 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much. 

Senator Fisher. 

I wanted to say I am so enthusiastic with everybody being here. 

Anyway. 

Senator Fischer. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DEB FISCHER, A U.S. SENATOR 

FROM NEBRASKA 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you. I would appreciate applause as 

well. 

[Applause.] 

Thank you, thank you very much. 

Thank you, Chairwoman Cantwell, and Ranking Member Risch 

and thank you, Madam Administrator, for being here. 

This is a very exciting time for our country. This is a very exciting hearing that we are having today because it is going to give us 

an opportunity so we can focus on those pressing issues that female 

entrepreneurs face. 

You know, if America is going to achieve a robust and a very full 

recovery, American businesswomen will be the ones playing an important role in that. 

I introduced recently a microfinance bill which I think will help 

not just women entrepreneurs but all Americans in helping small 

businesses to grow and to be able to work with our Small Business 

Administration in strengthening our economy. 

I would like to thank all the witnesses for joining us today and 

I look forward to hearing you share your expertise with this Committee. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much. 

[Applause.] 

So, not to cut anybody else off from applause recognizing that 

hearing decorum is to refrain, but you guys have done such a good 
6 

job. So hopefully that has expressed your enthusiasm; and if we 

could just go through the rest of the hearing as a normal process 

without outburst will be great. 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. Oh, darn. 

[Laughter.] 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. And then at the end of all of it, we can 

cheer as loud as we want. How about that? 

So anyway, I want to thank the Administrator for being here 

today. She will be our first witness. And as a former businesswoman herself and banker, she is going to talk about the importance of the SBA and women in small business. After that we will 

follow with two different panels. 

But again, Administrator Contreras-Sweet, we thank you so 

much for joining us. 

STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CONTRERAS-SWEET, ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, WASHINGTON, DC 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. Thank you, Chairwoman Cantwell and 

Ranking Member Risch, Ms. Fisher, Mrs. Hagan, and Mr. Cardin. 

It is so nice to see you once again. I want to thank you all again 

for helping me get through the confirmation process. I am now approaching or I have just exceeded my 100th day but there is so 

much more to get done. 

I thank you for the opportunity to testify today about the SBA’s 

work to empower women entrepreneurs. We all know that one in 

three of the jobs are created in America by the small business community. Small business has employed one half of the private workforce. 

Women-owned businesses in that are growing at an unprecedented rate. More than one in four U.S. companies is old or led by 

a woman and these firms employ more than 7.8 million Americans. 

While those statistics are an indication of progress, women still 

do not have equal access to economic opportunity. Senator Cantwell, as your report demonstrates and my life experiences informs 

me, there is still so much work to be done. 

Women remain underrepresented in the C-suite. Women have 

difficulty accessing capital and they faced barriers in winning contracts. It is critical that everyone in this room and across the Nation commit to clearing these obstacles to enable our country to 

reach its very full potential. 

Twenty-six years ago Congress passed the Women’s Business 

Act. It was a watershed achievement because it allowed women to 

get business credit without the signature of a male partner or a 

relative. 

I experienced that discrimination personally. So, this is very personal to me. Congress recognized that women are builders, building 

businesses, building jobs. Now, it is up to us to ensure that the 

next generation of women can build their entrepreneurial dreams. 

We all have a shared responsibility to champion diversity and 

workplace flexibility to help women succeed. We must give women 

the choice to be what their skills and hearts desire, be it a homemaker who stays home with the kids or a homemaker who owns 
7 

the construction company that is building the next residential development. 

The SBA is deeply committed to fostering economic opportunity 

for women. Through our work in the area of accessing capital, 

counseling, and contracting opportunities, we can do much work. 

Since 2009, SBA lending from women-owned businesses has gone 

up 31 percent across our three lending platforms. That is the 7(a), 

504, and microloans. In America, gender should never impact 

whether you can get a loan; only your creditworthiness should. 

Last month, I announced an effort to simplify and streamline 

SBA underwriting to attract more lending partners and broaden 

access to capital for women. No excuses for the financial institutions. 

Effective this month, SBA’s new credit scoring model is going to 

be helping us provide more equitable access to capital. Our Office 

of Women’s Business Ownership helps entrepreneurs start and 

grow their business and compete in global markets. We oversee a 

network of more than 100 Women’s Business Centers nationwide, 

many of them represented here today. These centers provide valuable, insightful management and technical assistance, especially to 

the socially and economically disadvantaged. 

Our WBCs are doing extraordinary work. Since 2009, more than 

two million women have received assistance through these centers 

and SBA. Those who receive our assistance are more likely to start 

a business and successfully secure financing critical to growth. 

We are opening doors to more women entrepreneurs to compete 

for federal and commercial contracts. We are aggressively promoting in the women-owned small business contract program 

through our ChallengeHER events. 

I saw this program in action in Boise, and, Senator Risch, thank 

you for being such a wonderful and gracious host. It was rewarding 

to see how some of Idaho businesswomen have grown their companies through this program. 

Nationally, women entrepreneurs still receive less than 5 percent 

of federal contracts, however. So, I am accelerating a study of industries in which women-owned businesses are underrepresented 

in federal contracting. Women entrepreneurs are now considered 

underrepresented in only 83 of 260 industries. Our study will examine whether this number should be adjusted. 

I urge Congress to approve sole-source contracting authority for 

women-owned businesses which would put them at parity with 

HUBZone and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. When we 

empower women entrepreneurs, we are also lifting millions of 

workers that they employ. 

In June, I participated in a White House summit that brought 

together women leaders and workers from across the country. It 

was inspiring to hear their commitment to offer innovative benefits 

and flexible workplaces to attract and retain the best possible talent to their companies. 

Our workplace policies must be adaptive to the reality that both 

parents in a majority of American households are now working. 

More than 40 percent of mothers are now the sole or the primary 

breadwinner in their household, but many cannot access flexible 

hours, paid leave, job sharing, and other worker-friendly policies, 
8 

allowing them only one other choice, to start their own business. 

We must build business ownership. 

When women are able to ascend to leadership positions, they can 

apply their experiences to support all business owners, not just 

women. We need more women in the boardroom and in private equity making investment decisions that drive business growth. 

We need more women in banking to help entrepreneurs access 

capital and financial counseling in order to build business ownership and more jobs, and we need more women as senior procurement executives in the contracting space to help the government 

meet and maybe even exceed its small business targets. 

I have seen how diversity begets diversity. There is no substitute 

for having a seat at the table. As the SBA Administrator, I want 

the letters now for SBA to stand for smart, bold, and accessible. 

We must use smart systems to remain current and be responsive 

with technological advances. We must be bold and allow for new 

markets for small businesses to be promoted, and we have to be accessible, inclusive to all. 

I am passionate about using all of the tools of my office to help 

America realize the benefits of women’s intellectual capital, insight 

and ingenuity. Again, SBA will now stand for smart, bold, and accessible. 

Fifty years ago was the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Martin 

Luther King said, what is it, what is the value of being able to sit 

at an integrated counter if you cannot buy the hamburger. 

With the SBA now, we can not only buy the hamburger. We are 

helping women buy the restaurant 

[Applause.] 

Thank you so much for holding this August group together so 

that we can continue to learn and continue to be responsive at the 

SBA. Thank you for allowing me to share my views, and I am 

happy to answer any questions you have. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Contreras-Sweet follows:] 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you, Administrator Sweet, and 

thank you for your testimony. 

I want to start with talking about the senior contracting positions within the government. One thing I very much appreciate is 

that the President has elevated your position to a cabinet level position. So, do you get to look your peers in the eyes and say why 

have you not met this 5 percent goal? 

What do you think it takes, obviously we are going to pursue a 

sole-source contract position, but you could outline a few things. If 

you could expound on how you think that the senior contracting officials could help this process. 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. One is just, thank you for pointing out 

that the President elevated this position so I now get to sit at the 

table across from DOD and DOE and every other department and 

we have collegial conversations about this. 

But what I want to tell you is again from the top when the President says that this is a priority, it heralds all the way through the 

agency. 

So today my buying officers at key buying activity centers are 

waging, you know, their voice and speaking out loudly, very ardently. We have challenged, we have already challenged many instances where we think that the opportunity could have gone to a 

small business. 

We need to continue to make certain that our business counseling centers, when I talk about smarter systems, Senator, I also 

think that it is important for us to make sure that the counseling 

programs are systematized so that women can understand how to 

go about the process. 

The other point that I am really delighted to see is that the 

President passed prompt pay in 15 days because so many times 

women would say I want to get the work but once I get the work 

I cannot afford EBITDA, the cash flow. 

So, with the 15-day program, we are now able to get more 

women into the pipeline. Just last week we announced a concomitant program called the Supplier Pay Program where we now have 

challenge the private sector to match the goals that we have in 

government. I was pleased to say that already 28 corporations have 

signed up to follow the government lead. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. So, you think it is just getting the right 

people in these positions who are knowledgeable that we need to 

meet this goal? 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. I think it is the counseling so that 

women know how to navigate through the labyrinth of government. 

I think it is the access to capital and that is why we have zeroed 

out fees for loans under $150,000 through the Community Advantage Program. 

It is why we put in the total SCORE program that allows us for 

loans under $350,000 to expedite and streamline the process for 

which to get capital and I think it is again getting the word out 

about contracting opportunities. 

I am delighted to see Barbara Corcoran here because I think she 

can help brand and expand the knowledge and awareness about 

these opportunities. So many women do not have a rich uncle that 
14 

can open the door. SBA has got to be their Uncle Sam who is going 

to open that door. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Tell me about your view on why those microloans at $50,000 are so important. I am almost asking you 

now to put your banker hat back on for a second. 

Do you have a viewpoint about why both the intermediate and the $50,000 loan is such a critical thing to women’s businesses? 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. When you are starting a business, you 

just want to begin to build your plan, to hire up your work team. 

Even when I started my own bank, you know, I did not need the 

$50 million on day one. I needed to get there incrementally. 

So just to begin to seed your plan and get your materials together, you need that first small loan. Large institutions, I can 

share with you as a banker, when I would give my lenders a goal 

of say $15 million a year, their interest was in putting out three 

$5 million loans. 

When I said to them, you are going to get to the $15 million by $50,000 increments, they were loath to do it because of the underwriting, the technical assistance, the servicing of the loan. It takes 

just as much effort to do a $50,000 loan and in some instances the 

paperwork is not as defendable, as reliable as audited financials of 

a larger institution. 

So, for asset quality reasons and others, banks are reluctant. 

That is why I think the technical smart systems that we are putting in place will be more effective. 

And so, women want that initial seed capital to just begin and 

they want it at competitive rates. That is why with SBA, so that 

is one point. 

Another point is that the reason we are having so much success 

with now the microloans, 40 percent of our loans are going to 

women so already we see the trajectory, the upstream in that program; and it is because we have technical assistance in those programs. 

We need to make certain that our counseling centers continue to 

provide technical assistance all the way up the ladder of the credit 

pipeline. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. 

Senator Risch. 

Senator RISCH. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

Administrator, thank you for the passion and the enthusiasm 

you bring to the job. 

Madam Chairwoman, we have a lot of witnesses to get to and I 

will have some questions but I will submit them for the record and 

so I will yield back my time. 

Thank you so much for being with us today. 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. Thank you. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. 

Senator Cardin. 

Senator CARDIN. I will try to follow Senator Risch’s model of 

brevity but I do want to ask you a question as it relates to the tools 

that are available. 

You mentioned the microloan program and 40 percent you just 

said go to women. We have the Women’s Business Centers which 

have been in existence now for some 25 years. You mentioned sole- 
15 

source as an area to increase opportunities for women-owned businesses. 

Could you just tell us what you think the most important tools 

that you have currently under the SBA that could be strengthened 

that could help improve the numbers in regards to loans and into 

contracts and startups for women-owned businesses? 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. I think, depending on the stage of, you 

know, whether it is a small-cap, mid-cap, large-cap business, depending on the stage, there are different solutions for them. 

But the common denominator, Senator, is that I do not think 

that the public is fully aware of the fullness of the SBA programs 

that you have all created here. 

So not only do we have an answer at every intersection of capital 

need, we also have, for example, when you go to bid for a contract, 

Mr. Senator, often times what they need is a surety bond. They 

need a performance bid or a bid or performance bond. The SBA 

also has that. 

Sometimes women do not have enough to collateralize the loan. 

The SBA has private equity through our SBIC programs, and 

sometimes women want to invent something and the SBA has the 

SBIR program and the STTR which is the small business transferred technology with the colleges and universities. 

But it does not matter how many times I say that. I need for all 

of you. I need for everybody in the room to elevate the conversation 

and to help get the word out because I think that if more of us 

knew, more of us would be partaking, and America would win. 

Senator CARDIN. Well, I agree with you. This Committee was responsible for increasing the limits on the surety bonds and the 

SBIR program was reauthorized. There are a lot of tools that we 

have dealt with and we have done it to help small businesses. 

But we want to make sure women get their attention in regard 

to each of these programs, and I think your testimony here today 

indicates that the range of tools that are available can help various 

women-owned businesses but they need to know about it and they 

need to engage early. 

You do provide technical assistance through the Women’s Business Centers. Do you have enough resources there? 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. I am always happy to take more so I will 

never argue but I want to tell you one thing about the SBA and 

that is the return on investment. 

Taxpayers can be proud about the value that they are getting out 

of the SBA. When you consider that our brand product, the 7(a), 

is at zero subsidy and when we note that the 504 which is the second in demand is tapering down in terms of subsidy, I am heartened that these programs are paying for themselves increasingly so 

and providing the great return on investment. 

Senator CARDIN. Thank you. 

Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. 

Senator Fisher. 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Thank you again, Madam Administrator. It is so good to see you 

and I do appreciate your enthusiasm that you have for your job. 
16 

Recently the Women’s Chamber of Commerce released a report 

that states that almost half of the firms that have self-certified in 

the women-owned small business contracting program were found 

to be fraudulent. I find that very concerning. 

I want to make sure that we are out there helping the people 

who these programs are designed to help. Have you seen that report and what would be your response to that? 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. As a businesswoman, I take fraud and 

abuse, waste and abuse very, very seriously. So, any time I see 

anything like that it is disconcerting. 

But what I can tell you is that the women business owners themselves are engaged. There is self-policing involved, and the numbers, Senator, that we see, when you think about the millions and 

millions of transactions that are taking place and the de minimis 

number that that report indicates, I can assure you that the system is not broken. 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you. Also at your confirmation hearing 

I asked about a time line for the confirmation, the nomination, of 

a deputy director. Where is that process headed now? 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. Thank you. And I shared with you that 

I wanted a certain skill set, and I still feel that that is true. 

It is one thing to talk about the policies, and I am grateful for 

the good programs that you put in place. It is another thing to execute them. 

And so, I think it is important that I have a team partner that 

is able to execute and operationalize the programs and even below 

the line metrics. I am very much about performance management 

and accountability. 

So, in that regard I am delighted to tell you that I have been 

interviewing and I am heartened by those outcomes. 

Senator FISCHER. Oh, wonderful. I look forward to meeting the 

person who is going to be your partner in that. Also in my introductory comments, I mentioned a microfinance, a microloan bill 

that I introduced called the Access Act. 

It deals with raising that threshold from $50,000 up to $100,000 

for the small businesses so people can access that. I think it would 

help more and be more realistic in meeting operational expenses, 

business expenses that small business people face and that the 

SBA can certainly help with. 

Have you had a chance to look at that wonderful bill that is out 

there and maybe give an opinion on it? Do you think that that 

limit really should be raised, $50,000 for operational expenses, and 

to get a big business going or a small business going, that is kind 

of tough, do you not think? 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. Thank you, Senator. I am always happy 

to have more tools and so I am always, you know, encouraged by 

your interest in providing us more tools. 

And as I said, this Committee can take as much ownership as 

anybody over the bounty, over the programs that we have at the 

SBA. Our work team is ready, and I think they have already engaged in working with you to access the opportunities and will continue to do so to make certain it is complementary and not 

cannibalizing to any of the products that we have in place. 

Senator FISCHER. Great. Appreciate that. Thank you so much. 
17 

Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Well, Administrator Sweet, thank you 

so much for your testimony and your hard work. 

Oh, my colleague, Senator Shaheen is here. Do you have a question? Sorry. 

Senator SHAHEEN. That is okay, Chairman Cantwell. Thank you. 

Sorry to miss your testimony, Administrator Sweet. But I understand that you completed your first hundred days as Administrators so thank you very much for taking on this task, and clearly 

we have a lot of support in this audience with all of these womenowned business owners and supporters of the work of the Small 

Business Administration. 

I understand that you recently stated your support for providing 

sole-source authority for a women-owned small business contracting program. 

I wonder, obviously this is something that I think is long overdue. I have legislation that would address this. I wonder if you 

could talk a little bit about how you think this might help us meet 

our 5 percent of contracts to women-owned small businesses, the 

goal that SBA and we have for providing business to women-owned 

small businesses. 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. Thank you for your leadership. I thought 

it was terrific to see you introduce that legislation. So, thank you 

for doing that. 

It is important. If I can just take you down to the granular. 

When a buying officer is at a buying activity center and they conduct some research and find that there is a woman that is uniquely 

qualified to do that work, this would allow them to go and get that 

woman and get her on the job to fulfill that contract immediately 

without having to go through an arduous process and, you know, 

having the paperwork to complete that and go through a competitive process. 

And so, it is another important tool and it just puts women on 

par with the veteran-owned programs and our HUBZone programs. 

So women deserve parity in that regard. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Well, thank you. Hopefully we can move that 

legislation as part of the Chairwoman’s package for women-owned 

businesses. 

Thank you. That is all. 

Ms. CONTRERAS-SWEET. I just wanted to say, Chairwoman, I 

know you were about to turn my mic off, I just wanted to say that 

I am heartened by your leadership. 

I know that you and I began at the same time; and although I 

have completed my hundredth day, I know that you have too, and 

it has just been an incredible process and journey to have worked 

with you and your leadership and that you are holding this hearing 

to serve half of America’s workforce. 

Remember Warren Buffett said that the reason he is so successful is he has only had to compete with half of America’s intellect; 

and so, you are leveling the playing field and all of the Committee 

is for women. Thank you for that ardent leadership. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. Thank you so much. 

[Applause.] 
18 

So, we will let the Administrator go on to advocate in all those 

places and we will call our second panel. We are so excited to have 

Barbara Corcoran with us today who turned a $1,000 loan into a 

$66 million real estate business and now is investing in startups. 

She will be joined by Lori Meeder, a Senior Loan Officer with 

Northern Initiatives in Michigan and is involved with both the SBA 

program as well as the intermediary lending program, and she will 

be able to speak to the importance of SBA’s microloan programs in 

providing capital to women and how important it is this intermediary step. 

They will be joined by Veronica Davis from Washington, D.C., 

who will speak about the SBA microloan program and her ability 

to acquire capital for small businesses who could not secure loans 

from traditional institutions. 

So, all of these witnesses, we are so glad to have you here, and 

we are going to start with you, Barbara. Thank you very much for 

being here, and we so appreciate your testimony. 

You just might have to punch the microphone. There is a red 

button on there so everybody can hear you. 

STATEMENT OF BARBARA CORCORAN, FOUNDER, THE 

CORCORAN GROUP AND ABC’S SHARK TANK, NEW YORK, NY 

Ms. CORCORAN. I would like to thank the Small Business Committee for having me here and all you guys for being out there. I 

have never seen a real Senator before. 

[Laughter.] 

I did prepare some remarks. I usually just talk off the cuff, but 

you have me intimidated like crazy so I am going to look at my remarks if you do not mind. 

You know, when I started my business, I was 23, and I was a 

waitress, and I got a very, very lucky break. I had a handsome guy 

walk into my counter and say you are adorable, can I give you a 

ride home. And of course, he offered me $1,000 to start a brokerage 

business simply on the basis that he said you have got a great personality. I bet you would be great in real estate sales to which I 

replied I have tried everything else why not, you know. 

If not for that $1,000 that he loaned me and he took 51 percent 

of the ownership of the business from day one which he was entitled to, it was all his cash and I had no other option. I was very 

happy to take the money. 

If not for the $1,000, I would have never had a lucky break. I 

do not know if I would have stayed a waitress my whole life. I enjoyed the job. I would not have minded that honestly, but I do not 

think I would have had the amazing opportunity that I had no idea 

what was going to happen. 

So, I had that lucky break of 1,000 bucks, and that was my first 

lesson in learning how important it was to get your hands on some 

cash because a door swung open for me, and I had another option 

in life. 

When I got to New York City to open my little shop in a subleased space, I found that every competitor in town, huge companies, owned by sons of men who had started the huge company a 

century before, I found it enormously difficult to compete with the 

men, and I was particularly surprised because 95 percent of all the 
19 

women at that time probably a total of maybe a thousand women 

were the sales people in the business, but the entire business was 

owned by men. No problem. 

But I found it particularly difficult when I tried to build my business because I had no access to capital whereas the men were able 

to get as much money as they needed to compete with one another. 

So, I was kind of left on the sideline watching growth in a very 

painful way, doing what I could, but it was not so easy. Then thank 

God how heavens part sometimes, and I ran into a guy at a social 

event who was a young banker at Citibank who was a mama’s boy, 

and he told me about his mother for a whole hour straight. 

I recognized the opportunity and hit him for a loan. 

[Laughter.] 

Hey, you get what you can, right? 

He sold that credit line for me which was a total of $150,000. 

Now picture this. I already had almost 250 salespeople working for 

me. I had three offices. I was a respectful businesswoman. I could 

not get a credit line, and I was making a profit every month. 

But he changed all of that. Gave me the credit line and then the 

next five years I was able to take 250 people and build them into 

1,100 people and take the number one position in my real estate 

market. 

Without that money I would have never, ever been able to even 

dream about it, never mind do it, and then my final lucky break 

having money coming in was, of course, someone offered me $66 

million for my business. I took that money and ran like hell. 

[Laughter.] 

Today I sit in an interesting position on the other side of the 

fence. I am a shark investor as they call it on a new show, well, 

five years old, not so new, on ABC called Shark Tank. 

And on that show it is so odd for me to sit on the other side of 

entrepreneurs and be in charge of whether I want to give them 

money or not. I bend over backwards to give anybody money who 

seems the least bit capable, and I never worry about creditworthy. 

My eyes are on are they capable. If they are capable, I lend them 

money all the time, and thank God of the 32 businesses I have lent 

money to, seven are clear home run hits. The others are losers, but 

the winners, as they say, make up for the losers. 

But an interesting thing happens on that show. I sit with, in 

most days on the show with four male investors, sometimes now, 

after Season Two, thank God, I have a second female on the panel, 

Lori Greiner, and it is interesting to always see a female or male 

come on to the set. 

I automatically know when a woman is standing on that set that 

she has got only a 50 percent shot at getting any money from those 

guys. Why? Good reasons. They all want to buy businesses. Nobody 

has an ulterior motive at all, but the way it goes is when they start 

pitching a female, they are cute. They always pick out pretty girls. 

They are well endowed. They always picked out a well endowed 

woman. So, I am not sure the men are even paying attention to the 

numbers or those numbers. 

And what happens is men cannot relate to the products women 

pitch. They go, you know, I really know nothing about fashion. I 
20 

really know nothing about children’s bicycles. I really know nothing 

about all the same things that women always know about. 

And so, only 50 percent of the women at the rate leave that set 

with money compared to double that number with all the best intent in a modern day show when anything goes. 

And so, I guess my point here is that I never, ever thought that 

women had a bad rap or ever felt disadvantaged ever in my life. 

I always wore my skirts higher than the guys and wore bright red 

suits to be noticed like a girl, and I had no shame. 

But what I am saying is my life experience both building my 

business and now as an investor, angel investor on and off the set 

of Shark Tank, I can tell you that women have only half the shot 

at best in any situation getting their hands on the cash. 

As talented as anybody could possibly be in whatever they are 

pursuing their dream in life, I am telling you that you need the 

cash to do it. 

So, if there is anything that you could do to make the Vaseline 

on that, you know, road of getting the money to the girls a little 

bit easier, they deserve it, not because they deserve anything more 

than the next guy but because it really is doubly hard to get cash. 

It is as simple as the reality of living or at least so far the life that 

I have lived, and that is it. 

Thank you for listening. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Corcoran follows:] 
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Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much and you can see 

that not only is she talented, she is good at timing too because that 

was five minutes precisely off the top of your head. 

Ms. CORCORAN. Oh, it felt longer. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. Thank you so much. 

[Applause.] 

Next we are going to be joined by Lori Meeder, and I have to step 

away to vote in another Committee for a few minutes. I am going 

to ask my colleague, Senator Cardin, to take over, but I will be 

back for questions. 

So, Senator Cardin, thank you. 

Lori, go ahead. 

STATEMENT OF LORI MEEDER, SENIOR LOAN OFFICER, 

NORTHERN INITIATIVES, MARQUETTE, MI 

Ms. MEEDER. Okay. Thank you, Chairwoman Cantwell, Ranking 

Member Risch, and Members of the Senate Committee on Small 

Business and Entrepreneurship, for the opportunity to testify in 

this hearing on ‘‘Empowering Women Entrepreneurs.’’ 

I appreciate the chance to discuss the work we do at Northern 

Initiatives, which is greatly enhanced by SBA programs, to finance, 

support, and strengthen women entrepreneurs and other start up 

and growing businesses. 

I am Lori Meeder, a Senior Lender with Northern Initiatives. We 

are a non-profit Community Development Financial Institution, 

created in 1992. We provide business lending, investing, and technical assistance to businesses throughout northern rural Michigan. 

I spent much of my career in commercial banking so I have a 

good perspective from both sides of lending, both conventional and 

alternative. 

Launching and growing small businesses is essential to the 

health of our rural communities. Since we have launched its small 

business lending program in 1994, we have made over 750 loans 

totaling nearly $40 million, half of which were microloans through 

the SBA microloan program. Of our total loans, roughly a third 

have been to startups, 40 percent to women-owned businesses, and 

a third to manufacturers. 

As an SBA microlender, since 1994 we have borrowed $3.7 million from the SBA through the intermediary program and lent out 

$6.1 million. Our average loan over all of our programs is only 

$46,000. So, we are truly a microlender. We currently have 55 SBA 

microloans in our portfolio right now totaling $1.2 million. 

We truly are a microlender. A large loan for us is a half a million 

dollars. Anything above that, we utilize the USDA B&I program. 

We are thrilled with the community advantage 7(a) program that 

we have utilized significantly since its inception. 

The SBA is a key partner and the SBA tools to allow us to reach 

and serve viable businesses that are really outside of the economic 

mainstream. There is a significant need for lenders like us to have 

the various SBA programs that really can be sewn together to create and help launch businesses. 

The type of lending that we do is very vital to our rural communities. Everyone is not bankable. That is always going to be the 

case. Some lack cash, some do not have sufficient network to pledge 
25 

collateral, some have had bankruptcies, and in rural communities 

it could be an unexpected illness that created medical expenses. It 

could be poor credit perhaps associated with a job loss, and many 

others just simply lack experience. 

Our role is to assess character, verifying the conditions that created the blemishes that they have and figure out how to help them 

accomplish their business growth. 

One of the things I am very proud of is our relationships that 

we have with our bankers. They understand what we do very well, 

and we work together on projects. They know what we can do and 

what we cannot do. 

We started, we have helped many businesses start that have 

then graduated to conventional banking. To me that is a real home 

run. 

I shared many stories in my written testimony about some examples, but I would just want to share one with you. Utilizing the 

microloan program, we helped Juli and Jody Sauve start Right 

Away Cleaning and Restoration in Alpena, Michigan. They had 

worked in the industry for many years. 

The business they worked for was purchased by a larger company out of the area and within 12 months abruptly closed. They 

suddenly found themselves without jobs. They knew they could create a business that was successful if given the opportunity but 

were challenged with credit issues and personal finances due to the 

loss of the jobs. 

We partnered with a local bank and another nonprofit and to- gether we came up, we used a $30,000 microloan and together we 

put a financing package together of $100,000. We helped them get 

QuickBooks training. We understand that it is critical for these 

small businesses to understand their financial reporting, how to 

read their financials, how to manage that. 

So that is a big piece of the technical assistance that we like to 

supply. We also help create Web sites, and we teach our clients 

how to use e-commerce practices to overcome the distance to market. 

We are in rural America, the seasonality and the isolation associated with doing business in rural America. We support the 

microloan program changes in the Women’s Small Business Owner 

Act. I also want to voice strong support for Senator Levin’s SBA 

Intermediary Lending Program Act and ILP provisions included in 

Senator Cantwell’s bill. 

This is such an important financing tool to enable small businesses. It really is a great natural stepping stone to the SBA 

microloan program. We have been able to take microloan clients 

and put them in this product as they are growing. 

Our tagline is prosperity. That is our business. As we think 

about the state of women-owned businesses in our service area, 

these programs and tools are important to building a new generation of entrepreneurs. These tools will continue to positively impact 

women in search of opportunity and prosperity. 

Every day I am amazed by the passion of my small business clients. Every day I am humbled by the work that they do to make 

their businesses succeed. 

Thank you very much for allowing me to share my perspective. 
26 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Meeder follows:] 
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Senator CARDIN [presiding]. Ms. Meeder, thank you very much 

for your testimony. 

Mr. Davis. 

STATEMENT OF VERONICA O. DAVIS, P.E., PARTNER AND 

PRINCIPAL PLANNING MANAGER, NSPIREGREEN, LLC, 

WASHINGTON, DC 

Ms. DAVIS. Good afternoon, Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member 

Risch, and Members of the Committee. My name is Veronica O. 

Davis. I am the co-owner of Nspiregreen, LLC, a small environmental engineering and urban planning consulting firm located in 

the District of Columbia. We are a 100 percent women-owned, minority-owned small business. 

Nspiregreen was an idea formed over twelve years ago, created 

out of the collision of the minds of two young, idealistic graduate 

students. Fast forward to 2009. 

Despite the fact that we had great paying, stable jobs in a challenged economy, my business partner, Chancee Lundy, and I decided it was the time to jump out the window and start a business. 

We stepped out on faith to devote ourselves full-time to bringing 

our vision of ‘‘facilitating the empowerment and transformation of 

every community on the planet’’ to fruition. 

As we approach our five-year anniversary, the lights are still on, 

and we employ three people: two engineers and one urban planner, 

all women. 

I am here today to share that the road was not easy. Despite 

having great credit and personal savings, we were denied credit. In 

fact, Nspiregreen was one of 8,000 small businesses whose loan applications are denied every day in the United States. 

To put it simply, the banks did not see our vision nor did we 

have the collateral that they required. Not letting that stop us, we 

financed our business through personal savings, credit cards, liquidating retirement accounts, and some assistance from family and 

friends. 

However, after two years, the money was running dry. We were 

struggling to pay bills, dodging calls from creditors, and eating rice 

and butter for dinner, literally. 

During this time, we met the wonderful people at the Washington Area Community Investment Fund, WACIF, located here in 

the District of Columbia, which is a member of the Association for 

Enterprise Opportunity. 

Despite our challenged financial position, they saw our vision 

was clear and our faith was unshakable. They gave us a $25,000 

microloan and a line of credit. It was the boost we needed to keep 

going. 

When it was time to expand our staff, they were there to increase our line of credit, even if it meant working over the Christmas holiday to process paper work. 

Our business has grown such that we were able to pay back our 

microloan a year early. 

As my story illustrates, the loan we received from WACIF was 

exactly what we needed at a critical moment for our business and 

our dream. Unfortunately, many women-owned businesses do not 

get that boost and are forced to turn off the lights. 
32 

When it comes to women accessing capital, the available data 

paint a stark reality for women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs seeking their first loan. For example, according to a 

November 2013 report by Congressional Research Service, women 

account for just 16 percent of the total number of conventional 

small business loans, accounting for just 4.4 percent of the total 

value. 

Another statistic comes from the Kauffman Foundation, which 

found that women seeking first-year financing to get their companies off the ground receive about 80 percent less capital than their 

male counterparts. 

In my view, the microloan program is the most important government-supported capital access program for women-owned businesses. It certainly was for Nspiregreen. 

Since its creation, the microloan program has been a lifeline to 

women, low income, veteran, and minority entrepreneurs seeking 

to obtain small dollar amount loans for their businesses. 

According to that same CRS report, women-owned firms receive 

more than half the microloans issued in Fiscal Year 2013. For minority-owned firms that number is 43 percent. And it does this efficiently, effectively, and at a low cost to the taxpayer. 

With that in mind, I would like to suggest a few changes that 

the Association for Enterprise Opportunity believes should be made 

to enhance the program. One, make technical assistance grants 

more flexible to allow lenders to access the proper use of that grant 

funding. 

Restricting lenders to a rigid formula is both inefficient and 

forces lenders to adhere to arbitrary guidelines instead of focusing 

on the needs of the borrower. 

Two, program components should be modernized to boost lending 

and efficiency. The program’s interest rate caps and fee structure 

should be updated and lending requirements streamlined. These 

would reduce administrative burdens and eliminates unnecessary 

costs, allowing lenders to increase in efficiency and productivity. 

Thank you for inviting me to testify today and share my story 

to discuss how important the microloan program was for me and 

the vital role it plays for women entrepreneurs all across the country. 

I understand that the Committee under Chairman Cantwell’s 

leadership has been hard at work on these recommendations and 

are working to include them in legislation. I would be happy to answer any questions the Committee may have at this time. Thank 

you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Davis follows:] 
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Senator CARDIN. Ms. Davis, thank you for your testimony. 

It is my understanding that Ms. Corcoran needs to leave shortly. 

So, we are going to ask you one or two questions and then you will 

be excused and then we will come back to the other two panelists. 

I have one question and that is. On Shark Tank, you do not have 

to go through the type of screening and vetting and all the security 

that someone who needs a loan needs to go through. You make 

your gut decisions based upon whether you think this is a worthwhile investment or not. 

You indicated that you had successes and you had failures. I 

think it was like a two to one ratio. I did it quickly. And then you 

said that the winners very much offset the losses. Did you mean 

literally that the profits there overcome the losses, or did you mean 

it from the point of view of feeling good and emotion? 

Ms. CORCORAN. Well, feeling good worked for the first two years. 

[Laughter.] 

Only in the last season which was our Fifth Season that we have 

completed, that we are in our Sixth Season now. Yes, they did exceed my losses; and if you had asked me two years ago if that 

would have ever happened, I would tell you you are smoking dope. 

No way. Okay. 

But, yes, they did. And more important than that, more importantly than that, or whatever the right English is on that, the jobs 

that were created on the view that succeeded, the roughly onethird—you are correct on that—have been in excess of 150 jobs. I 

did not see that one coming either. 

But, if I could just add, listening so carefully to what the other 

women here are saying, I have to say that of my winners most of 

them went out for funding from a local bank for another food truck 

if they are in the food truck business or to move offices and get 

computer equipment, not one was granted a loan no matter where 

they went. 

And the reason for that is they did not have the credit. Just as I did not have the credit when I got my first $1,000. That is a real 

issue with these small businesses. 

Senator CARDIN. Thank you. 

Senator Shaheen. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Well, thank you all very much for being here. 

Ms. Corcoran, since you have to leave, let me start with you. 

Ms. CORCORAN. I understand now that in Washington if you keep 

saying you have to leave you get really important, right? 

[Laughter.] 

Senator SHAHEEN. Well, you get to go first any way. 

Ms. CORCORAN. Actually the plane is not important, but I get a 

ferry that only runs through a certain hour. Forgive me for that. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Certainly. I know that on Shark Tank not 

only do you provide money but you provide assistance to the contestants. Obviously that capital piece is very important. But how 

important is that technical assistance to people as well? 

Ms. CORCORAN. It is interesting. I thought the assistance was 

more important than the capital, but it is an interesting study in 

entrepreneurship. 

I find my real winners ask my advice. I give my best advice, and 

then they do exactly as they please. I found that my people that 
39 

were not so good in the end always asked my advice, wanted to 

take careful notes on every piece of it, execute it beautifully and 

failed. 

Not a good report card on me, but I think it just speaks to the 

spirit of the entrepreneur. They are pretty pigheaded. They always 

think they are right, and they barrel ahead no matter what you are 

going to tell them to slow up. 

So, I like to think my advice is important. I work every day of 

the week giving my best advice and putting myself behind them, 

but I am not sure it is so important anymore. 

Senator SHAHEEN. That is very interesting. 

Senator CARDIN. I am going to turn it back to our Chair. You are 

certainly excused to leave. You also get the privilege of being called 

out and saying that you can leave before the panel is over. 

Ms. CORCORAN. But here is my question. Can I take this home 

with me? 

Senator CARDIN. We have very tight budgets here. You might not 

have heard. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. CORCORAN. It is wet. May I take that? 

Chairwoman CANTWELL [presiding]. Can I just ask? 

Ms. CORCORAN. Of course. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Did someone follow-up on this issue 

that you so eloquently pointed out that the men do not relate to 

products that women pitch? Did someone follow-up on that? 

Senator CARDIN. No. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. If I could just get your—what do you 

think needs to happen on that? Is it get women in front of women 

who understand those products, is that the solution? 

Ms. CORCORAN. Well, obviously if a woman is pitching a product 

that women buy and understand, not a golf club necessarily but a 

baby carriage or a household product, a cleaning product, whatever 

it is, if you have women judging it, you are going to get more enthusiasm just in the same way that Lori Greiner and I on Shark 

Tank wholeheartedly get what women are talking about. 

So that is an asset. But the reality is is that in the angel investment world and the venture capital world it is 92 percent male. 

And so, how are you going to change that overnight? 

There are entirely female angel groups out there that only fund 

and listen to female-owned businesses. That is a start. But I think 

it is a long road and women do need that advantage somehow in 

there, you know. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Great. Thank you so much. 

Ms. CORCORAN. A pleasure and I appreciate it. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you so much. Okay. We will follow up with questions for Lori and Veronica. 

Do you want to start, Senator? 

Senator CARDIN. Thank you. Let me thank both of you again. I 

want to go into a little bit of the microloan and the intermediate 

loans and how valuable you thought that was. 

How many did you take? Did you take more than one of those? 

[Laughter.] 

Just checking. They check these numbers every night when we 

leave here. 
40 

[Laughter.] 

I know that you have to go through what banks go through, what 

lenders go through in order to make sure that person is creditworthy. 

The numbers are pretty encouraging from the number of womenowned businesses that qualify for microloans, those numbers look 

pretty encouraging. Is there a reason for that or what do we need 

to do so that we can get more businesses qualified for these small 

loans? 

We have heard how critical that is to getting started. What can 

we do to make it easier, recognizing there has to be a business 

plan, there has to be discipline, but what can we do to make this 

easier for someone to get a loan? 

Ms. MEEDER. I think really it is critical to get the communication 

out there. In the case of where we are at in northern Michigan, 

educating the bankers about the programs is huge because that is 

where these people go first. 

And so to make sure that they understand what we can do. The 

way we look at it, you know, banks are looking at kind of the five 

Cs of credit, and everything has to be perfect. That is not the case 

with us. 

If they have got an issue with credit or maybe they do just lack 

experience, we are working with partners all the time to help them 

build that business plan, build that business model, do the market 

research, does this make sense? 

You know, it is one thing to underwrite a credit, and it is another thing to look at it and say, okay, is it is viable because the 

last thing that any of us want to do is, you know, put money out 

there that maybe is not a viable business model. 

So, really it is just bringing all the partners together to make 

sure that we are communicating to our communities, our bankers, 

our CPAs, our attorneys what we have to offer. 

Senator CARDIN. Thank you. 

Mr. Davis, let me just quickly. First of all, you started a business 

in 2009. So, the year you started was not exactly the best economic 

time to start. 

So, you not only had to overcome the obstacles of starting a business but you picked the year that was very challenging. So, congratulations. You must have a very successful operation. But you 

mentioned technical assistance. What can we do to make technical 

assistance more available? I think you are absolutely right. That is 

a critical ingredient to getting started. 

Ms. DAVIS. I think that, you know, community-based organizations like the Washington Area Community Investment Fund are 

great for being able to provide that technical assistance for mainly 

because, one, they work with smaller businesses, they are based in 

the community, and many of the employees live in the community. 

They understand the business environment that many of us are 

operating in. I think that technical assistance is key. We meet with 

them at least quarterly just to go through our financials making 

sure that we have everything set up correctly, making sure that we 

are growing our business. 

I think it is absolutely critical to have that technical assistance. 

Senator CARDIN. That is a good point. 
41 

Ms. DAVIS. At the end of the day I am an engineer. I am not an 

accountant. 

Senator CARDIN. And you cannot put someone on staff to deal 

with these issues. 

Ms. DAVIS. Exactly. 

Senator CARDIN. You want to do the business not with the bureaucratic issues that we require. Thank you. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Senator Shaheen. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. I would like to follow up a little 

bit on that question, Ms. Meeder, but sort of look at it from the 

other side of, and that is, how do we get banks to provide more 

support for women-owned businesses? 

I appreciate that many of these challenges are about more than 

just the numbers on the piece of paper, that they are also cultural. 

And so, are there things that we can do to encourage the traditional banking sector to look more favorably on women-owned businesses in terms of access to credit? 

Ms. MEEDER. Yeah. I am not in commercial banking anymore but 

working with them there are pockets of bankers that are doing 

very good things, that are being very good and community banks 

that are, you know, kind of centered in their community, I think 

they are doing that. 

I think the SBA Director said it best in that the challenge they have is they have a $15 million bogey to hit every year, and you 

cannot do that with $50,000 microloans. It is just difficult. 

I do not know the answer to that. But I think again there are 

pockets. I am not sure how we could, you know, other than us 

partnering with them to build a business from start to get them a 

track record so they can go back to their bank. And we have done 

that many times where we help them start. We help them grow. 

The bank takes out, and again that is kind of a win for us. 

Senator SHAHEEN. You know, in northern New Hampshire we 

have a Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network, a program that 

does microlending. It sounds very similar to what you have in 

northern Michigan. 

As we think about the role that the Small Business Administration could fill in terms of looking at microlending, is there more 

that you think SBA should be doing around microloans. 

Ms. MEEDER. I love the microloan program. Love it. I think some 

of the things that they are going to tweak this time around are 

huge. The technical assistance piece, when somebody comes to us, 

we need to service our business community whether they end up 

being a loan client or not that is hard to say but there are a lot 

of people who need technical assistance right up front and we are 

there to coach them through the process, have you thought about 

this, are you ready for this. These are things you have to think 

about. 

And so, allowing of that pre and post technical assistance limit 

I think will make a big difference. I think the technical assistance 

in such a critical piece. We have now started kind of, we are doing 

business assessments up front now. 

How ready are you for this and this and this? If you are an existing business are you thinking about this, this, and this. So that we 

and they can kind of developed that, yeah, I have not thought 
42 

about putting that kind of system into place. But it is very laborintensive. As you know, technical assistance and nurturing these 

people and growing these businesses, it is a lot of really good time 

and time well spent. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Mr. Davis, can you talk a little bit about your 

experience in trying to obtain financing before you found the 

microloans program? 

Ms. DAVIS. Yes. When we started the business, we absolutely 

looked great on paper financially. We had a significant amount of 

personal savings. We had great retirement. We had great credit 

scores. We both owned homes. You know, we looked great on paper. 

And, you know, you would go to the bank and we said, okay, we need a loan for $50,000. And then they will say, okay, well, you 

need $50,000 in collateral, and it has to be liquid collateral. Well, 

we do not quite have liquid collateral. 

So then they say, well, let us give you this loan paperwork, and 

you can fill out the paperwork. You get mired in death by paperwork, and you never quite get there, and then you get denied. 

For us, this was something that was important to us, and we just 

kept going, and we gave it every ounce that we had, and we are 

here today. I think it is very important to have more microloans 

programs, and even with the microloans program it is a much more 

streamlined process. 

It is a lot easier on the paperwork than a conventional loan. For 

a conventional loan, you have to give everything including your 

DNA just to get some money. 

But I think for the microloans program, it is much more userfriendly, and as someone mentioned earlier business owners do not 

really have a lot of attention span. We are constantly pulled in different directions, and we really want to be about the business and 

providing service to our clients, not being mired in paperwork. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. We are going to go to the 

second panel but I wanted to ask about crowdsourcing. I do not 

know if either of you addressed it in your testimony. 

But we had a hearing, a field hearing out in our State, and we 

saw women entrepreneurs who—the microloans issue, we want to 

further promote and obviously the internet is a way in which we 

can further educate people on those opportunities. 

But I have seen women who are jumping right into small business. One woman said we are going to create an organic cranberry 

business because we grow cranberries. Nobody had an organic 

cranberry juice product in the market, and so she just went online 

and crowdsourced for the crusher, the presser that was going to 

make the juice. 

So what role do you think that plays in, you know, the internet 

communicating and crowdsourcing in general. 

Ms. DAVIS. I think for women who have product-based companies 

it is a great way to get started, get the product out there. However, 

we have to remember there are many of us who are on the professional services side, and it is not quite easy for us to get that level 

of funding that way. 

I think that particularly in this STEM field what we are seeing 

is that a lot of women engineers are leaving the large engineering 

companies and starting their own business and mainly because 
43 

particularly with the engineering field, you have got to climb the 

corporate ladder and still get to the glass ceiling. 

Women are saying you know what, I will just build my own 

building, and I think that we are seeing that more and more. I do 

not know that crowdsourcing would work in that type of an industry. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you. 

Lori. 

Ms. MEEDER. We have actually kind of partnered on a couple different projects with crowdsourcing, and one of the things it does especially if it is a consumer-based product, it is a great test market. 

Right? 

I mean really they are going to find out quickly if there is no real 

interest. So, an example, we helped a new business financing tooling to get their product prototyped. 

Then they went to the crowdsourcing and were able to then kind 

of take it to the next level to then begin, you know, more mass production of it would be an example. 

I have got another one now that is a 100-plus year old theater 

in a little town in northern Michigan that really needs that theater, been in the same family forever, nephew, great grandson of 

the original owner crowdsourced $100,000 to fix some of the building. 

We are going to come in and help him with reroofing and seeding 

it. He needed that digitization. So, I think there are ways we can, 

you know, kind of work together on that. I think it is a really cool 

thing. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Great. Great. 

Well, thank you both very much for your testimony today. We 

leave the record open so that the members who were not here can 

ask questions, and hopefully you can get us answers. Thank you 

so much for your testimony. 

We are now going to go to our next panel which is going to be 

led by Nely Gala ́n, who is the first Latino president of a television 

network who built her own media production company. She now invests in the success of young Latinas. 

She will be joined by Victoria Wortberg of the Washington Center for Women in Business from Lacey, Washington. We thank her 

for being here. She is going to talk about the importance to targeted business development services for women to address the 

unique challenges women face in starting businesses. 

And we welcome Susan Sylvester of Absolute Resource Associates in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 

And Lynn Sutton, who is with Advantage Building Contractors 

from Atlanta, Georgia, who will testify on women small businesses 

and the challenges they face when competing for federal contracts. 

So, welcome all of you. We are so appreciative that you are here. 

Ms. GALA ́ N. You said it correctly. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. All right. Great. Nely, you are on first. 

Thank you. 
44 

STATEMENT OF NELY GALA ́ N, FOUNDER, GALA ́ N ENTERTAINMENT AND ADELANTE MOVEMENT, MARINA DEL REY, CA 

Ms. GALA ́ N. Thank you, Chairwoman Cantwell, Ranking Member 

Risch, and Senator Shaheen. Thank you so much for having me 

here. I am honored to testify on behalf of Latinas and on behalf of 

women of color around entrepreneurship. 

As an entrepreneur myself. I am an immigrant from Cuba. I 

came here when I was five years old, and I have started a business 

in media, which is 20 years old, and I am the first Latina to be 

president of a network. 

My entrepreneurship gene began like many immigrants as a girl 

in junior high who started to sell Avon in school to help my parents 

pay for school. Later on when I got into television, I was a station 

manager, which is a very down business, and I work for a gentleman that owned the station, and I built it up from five employees to two 200 employees for three years. 

And one day when I walked into work, my boss said to me, oh, 

we sold the company, we sold the station and I was so angry at 

him and I questioned him and I said how could you do this, why 

did you not tell me it was up for sale? I felt that it was my baby. 

And he said these words to me that changed my life. He said, 

‘‘Young lady, those are my chips; go get your own chips.’’ And I was 

very upset, but he sparked in me something that maybe my family 

as immigrants could not do at the time, and I decided to start a 

business. 

Really there was nothing out there for me that told me how to 

do that, how to go about it. For the first four years of my business, 

I did not make one penny. You can imagine what that is like for 

immigrant parents that want you to get married and move on and 

they are telling you stop this entrepreneurship thing, and I really 

had a hard time. 

But my boss had said to me once in one of our meetings, when 

I was your age, I started a business and for 10 years I did not 

make money. 

So, thank God I did not give up, and I hung in there. Then in 

the fourth year I started making some money, and after that I 

went through the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship with very 

little help. 

A couple of years ago I go on Celebrity Apprentice with Donald 

Trump. They asked me. You know, I had been in television for 

many years, and they said we need a Latina in there. 

When I went on as someone who has been behind the scenes 

building a business for so many years, I did not realize so many 

Latinas, so many women of color would call me and say how do we 

do it, how did you do it, we do not know where to get the information still. And even though there are so many organizations out 

there we still need more information. 

So, I decided to do something about it myself. Now that I am in 

a very different place financially, I thought this is something I 

should take on. I have always thought the private sector should 

also help our communities and deal with entrepreneurship. 

So, I founded something called the Adelante Movement. Adelante 

in Spanish means adelante, move forward. I like to say it is 

adelante, let us get going. 
45 

Really the Adelante Movement is a grassroots movement that 

unites, educates, and supports Latinas in their journey of economic 

empowerment through digital content, community workshops, 

events, and meeting other Latinas that have already done it so 

they learn how to go get their own chips. 

Again as someone in the private sector, I am lucky because I was 

able to fund a lot of this myself, and I was blessed to come across 

Coca-Cola, who helped me seed this through their 5 by 20 Global 

Initiative to enable the economic empowerment of five million 

women by the year 2020. 

I just want you to know a little bit about our Latinas. They are 

the fastest-growing entrepreneurs in America. They control most of 

their households’ budgets, and they are the key decision-makers 

with regard to their children’s education. They are the pillars of 

our community and will only grow in influence as more and more 

come of age in each year. 

Latina women are expected to become 30 percent of the total female population in this country by 2060. I have been on the road 

meeting all my Latinas, and I can tell you they are all engaged 

completely in entrepreneurship and really are looking for more 

help. 

The Adelante Movement is the beginning of that, and again, I believe in a private sector approach and I am willing to put up my 

own money and go find money from the private sector. 

However, I believe the Federal Government must also invest in 

Latinas’ success by crafting policies that support and help to grow 

women-owned businesses. 

As such, it should reauthorize the Women’s Business Center Program and authorize sole-source awards to women-owned small 

businesses to increase the number of women as federal contractors. 

These actions would bolster our economy and provide increased 

opportunities and access for women in general and Latinas in particular. Reauthorizing the Women’s Business Center Program, 

which provides counseling and training services to women business 

owners, is crucial to our Nation’s equitable success. 

The WBC Program is the only entrepreneurial education program with specific responsibility to reach out to low income and socially disadvantaged women. 

My Latinas need this information. Counseling and training is 

crucial, and I have seen firsthand what it can do. At Adelante 

training and workshops, women learn how owning their own businesses can improve not only their life but enrich their community 

and the lives of their children as well. 

Women leave energized, informed, and with the skills and tools 

necessary to make their dreams a reality. However, as I just said, 

we can only do so much through Adelante. It takes a government 

that is committed to the future economic success of its citizens to 

invest on a larger scale in programs that will incur a positive return on investment. 

Increasing the level of investment in the WBC program will ensure that all women regardless of social status or income level have 

access to the training, mentorship, and capital required to become 

job creators and influential community members. 
46 

If women in general, and Latinas in particular, are given the 

tools to build their own path, America’s best days truly lie ahead, 

and I say adelante. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Gala ́n follows:] 
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Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much for that testimony and we will wait until all the witnesses have given testimony 

and then we will ask questions. 

Ms. Wortberg, thank you very much for being here. 

STATEMENT OF VICTORIA WORTBERG, PROGRAM MANAGER, 

WASHINGTON CENTER FOR WOMEN IN BUSINESS, LACEY, WA 

Ms. WORTBERG. Thank you for inviting me. 

Good afternoon, Chair Cantwell and Members of the Committee. 

My name is Victoria Wortberg. I am the Program Manager of the 

Washington Center for Women in Business in Lacey, Washington. 

I am testifying today on behalf of the Association of Women’s 

Business Centers. Over my career, I have had a chance to serve in 

a number of leadership and management positions including a multimillion dollar ad agency. 

But before I did all of that, I started by purchasing a small graphic design firm for $40,000 with an SBA loan. I was able to 

diversify and grow my firm to national prominence with sales of 

$13 million. 

However, as my firm grew, I struggled with making the move 

from being a start-up to being a scale up and a growth company. 

I learned quickly that I needed stronger management skills and financial skills, and this is at a time when I really needed to be positioning my business to move from stage I to stage II. Those skills 

were essential to me. 

In short, I could really have used a women’s business program, 

but none existed at the time. It was this experience, the struggles, 

the excitement of owning and managing my own business that encouraged me to apply and become the Program Director at the 

Washington Center for Women in Business. It is an honor to be a 

part of that program. 

Our Women’s Business Center was established in Fall 2013. We 

provide services to 34 of the 39 counties in the State of Washington. And since we opened our doors about six months ago, we 

have provided over 100 different webinars, workshops, and training 

events to over 200 clients and provided business coaching to over 

150. Seventy-five percent of our clients are women. Their ages vary 

greatly from 20 somethings to 70 something, and approximately 25 

percent are ethnically diverse. 

In our community, the WBC, the Small Business Development 

Center, and SCORE all work cooperatively. We strengthen our 

economy one business at a time by working together. Our collaboration avoids duplication of services. It also lets our clients enjoy 

the strong skills that we all bring to the table. 

There is a whole network of 106 different Women’s Business 

Centers just like ours that come to work every day to meet the 

needs of women entrepreneurs in every state across this country. 

I am very pleased to share some wonderful statistics about the success of the WBC program based on information from the SBA. 

In Fiscal Year 2013, WBCs counseled and trained nearly 134,000 

entrepreneurs creating 640 new businesses. We do this at a very 

low cost. On average, each Women’s Business Center serves about 

1,300 entrepreneurs at a cost of approximately $137 per entrepreneur. 
53 

Women’s Business Centers also have a history of outperforming 

program goals, and last year the WBC program exceeded our performance goal by 34 percent. 

When Congress established the Women’s Business Center Program in 1988, it did it as a part of landmark legislation, H.R. 5050. 

The Congress felt that women faced discrimination and mandated 

that services provided by the centers include socially and economically disadvantaged women. In fact, the WBC program is the only 

SBA resource partner that is actually required to serve this population. 

Chair Cantwell, we understand that under your leadership, the 

Committee has been working to reauthorize and update the WBC 

program; and on behalf of all of the women in the room, thank you. 

We are here to show our support. 

We urge you to consider including the following recommendations. One, the total amount of the grant available to qualified 

WBCs is now $150,000 a year. Adjusted for inflation, according to 

the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that amount in 2014 would now be 

$301,648. The AWBC believes that a reasonable allowable grant 

level should be $250,000 per center. We suggest increasing the program’s funding authorization to $26.75 million. 

Two, we recommend Congress direct the SBA to promulgate a 

single, comprehensive set of rules that govern the program so that 

it can be administered efficiently and effectively. 

Three, Women’s Business Centers must match the federal grant 

with private contributions; and as any nonprofit executive will testify, raising money is difficult enough during the best of times but 

in an economic downturn the challenges are far greater. 

We recommend the Congress put in place a waiver for those lean 

years but limit it to no more than two consecutive years. 

We also recommend that center directors be given the ability to 

fundraise for the nonfederal match without restriction. It is time 

to modernize the program and think bigger. Women deserve better, 

and the program that serves them needs to move from being just 

big enough to make an impact but really too small to reach our potential. 

On behalf of the newly revitalized Association for Women’s Business Centers and the Association of Women’s Business Centers we 

stand ready to work with the Committee to bring the program into 

the 21st century. 

From one business owner to another, I want to thank you very, 

very much. I am happy to answer any questions. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Wortberg follows:] 
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Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much for your testimony, and we want to ask you about some of the details of your 

specific recommendations but we are going to hear from our other 

witnesses. We want to welcome Susan Sylvester. Thank you very 

much for being here. 

STATEMENT OF SUSAN SYLVESTER, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF 

FINANCIAL OFFICER, ABSOLUTE RESOURCE ASSOCIATES, 

PORTSMOUTH, NH 

Ms. SYLVESTER. Thank you for having me here. 

Chair Cantwell, Senator Shaheen, thank you for the opportunity 

to present testimony in support of the hearing today. I am going 

to tell you a few stories about our company, some of our success 

stories. 

Our company has a long and successful relationship with the 

SBA. It is a relationship that began the day that I bought the company back in 2000. After 15 years of working for large national 

firms and witnessing many consolidations, mergers, and acquisitions, I decided I would rather rise or fail based upon my decisions, 

not those that were happening in a corporate boardroom. 

I had a solid business plan, a strong team to support me, and the 

passion to succeed; but, as with the common thread today, what I 

needed was funding to purchase the business. I had no banking relationships and could not find a bank that was interested in loaning us money. 

But in 2000, I met with a woman at the Women’s Business Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, and the business counselor 

there helped tweak the business plan and get a good cash flow 

analysis that was tight, and she actually got me appointments with 

three banks. 

As a result of that support from the WBC, we did find a bank 

to loan the money. We still work with that same banker today. The 

loan was an SBA guaranteed loan. 

In 2000, the company that I purchased was doing half a million 

dollars a year and had seven employees. Today, we have tripled in 

size, doing over two million dollars a year and employing 22 hardworking citizens. 

Due to our growth, we needed more space and equipment. So, 

once again, in 2012, the SBA was involved in funding our needs, 

and we now have a 504 loan that helped us not only increase our 

capacity but also allowed us to incorporate some energy savings 

into our operation. Our lighting and ventilation systems have both 

been upgraded, and we are saving 40 percent on energy bills in our 

new space. 

Our industry, like many, has been affected by a tight economy. 

It has been challenging, but we have been able to show slow, 

steady growth. A big part of that growth comes from our designation as an 8(a) disadvantaged business and through our efforts to 

increase our work with the Federal Government. 

Through the 8(a) program, we have been awarded several small 

contracts; and once our performance was proven, the contracts usually increased in funding and scope. We have also been awarded 

one contract based on our economically disadvantaged womanowned small business status. 
62 

And our big news is just last week, we were awarded a womanowned small business four million dollar IDIQ with the Navy at 

the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. 

Jackie Johnston, the Acquisition Branch Head and Small Business Specialist at PWD Maine, awarded five of these contracts to 

Woman-Owned Small Businesses. And I believe that if all contracting officers were like Jackie, I am sure we would meet our 

goals. 

These programs allow our small but very capable company the 

opportunity to show what our capabilities are, despite the fact that 

we do not have the breadth of experience that the large federal 

contractors have. 

Our employees are some of the best in the business, and we 

stand behind our service 100 percent, but without these small business programs, we would not have a chance to throw our hat in the 

ring. Through programs like 8(a) and WOSB programs we can. 

We have participated in SBA programs for 7(j) training programs. We use PTAP services daily, attend matchmaking events, 

in addition to using the SBA resources for capital and customers. 

We find these services extremely valuable. Without these programs, our company would not have had the ability to do the good 

work we do and create the 15 jobs we have created so far. 

In closing, I just wanted to say that although I am the majority 

owner of our business and happen to be a woman, I would not be 

sitting here today without the tremendous support from our fabulous employees and our loyal customers, and so, I just wanted to 

on behalf of all of them thank you for the opportunity to tell our 

story. 

I support the efforts to enhance the woman-owned small business 

program by putting it on par with other contracting programs including Senator Shaheen’s Women Small Business Contracting 

Parity Act. Providing sole-source authority for the woman-owned 

small business program would put women business owners on the 

same playing field as the other contracting programs and help the 

Federal Government meet its contracting goals for woman-owned 

small businesses for the first time. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Sylvester follows:] 
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Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much and congratulations on your recent success. We will have some questions for you. 

Ms. SYLVESTER. Thank you. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Last but not least, Ms. Sutton. Thank 

you very much for being here. 

STATEMENT OF LYNN SUTTON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, 

ADVANTAGE BUILDING CONTRACTORS, ATLANTA, GA 

Ms. SUTTON. Thank you. 

Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member Risch, and distinguished Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity for me to testify here this afternoon. 

My name is Lynn Sutton. I am CEO of Advantage Building Contractors, based in Atlanta, Georgia. We provide construction services to the Federal Government and are a certified EDWOSB, an 

8(a) program participant, veteran-owned, and in the process of getting our HUBZone certification. 

I am representing Women Impacting Public Policy, WIPP, a national nonpartisan public policy organization advocating on behalf 

of this coalition of 4.7 million businesswomen including 79 business 

organizations. 

My company entered the federal marketplace after working in 

the private sector for seven years. We became certified in SBA’s 

8(a) program, and after three years we have gone from knowing 

practically nothing about doing business with the Federal Government to successfully compete on multimillion dollar IDIQ contracts 

which is indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contracts. 

Much of that success has been due to our participation in the 

8(a) program and its ability to sole-source contracts to us. 

Speaking before you today on improving contracting opportunities for women, it is entirely fitting because in 2011, my company 

won the first construction contract that was set aside for EDWOSB 

firms in the WSB Procurement Program. 

As you know, women advocates across the Nation fought for 

more than a decade to implement the WSB program. This delay 

came at a tremendous cost. The lost decade translated into 94 billion and missed contracting opportunities for WSBs. 

Today less than 1 percent, in fact, only 1⁄100 of a percent of federal spending has been awarded through this program. My firsthand experience in the effectiveness of having sole-source authority 

in the 8(a) program leaves me to call for two changes in the WSB 

procurement program. 

One, provide sole-source authority, and two, expand the program 

to more industries. 

The Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity Act, S. 2481, 

introduced by Senator Jean Shaheen and cosponsored by Chair 

Cantwell, Senators Gillibrand, Murray, Cardin, and Markey makes 

these two critical changes. 

Senators, thank you for your work on this front. 

In my role as CEO, I can attest to the value of sole-source contracts; $5 million of our revenue is generated through contracts 

with the Federal Government and 60 percent of our federal contracts in Fiscal Year 2014 were awarded through 8(a) sole-source 

authority. 
68 

Contracting officers are able to reach out to us and negotiate directly to achieve fair and reasonable pricing for services as well as 

being assured we are capable of doing the work. 

In turn, these contracts allow my company to expand while 

strengthening our past performance so we are able to successfully 

compete on the open market. Without sole-source authority through 

8(a), my business would have joined thousands of other womenowned businesses that fail each year. 

A simple tenant of fairness would make this tool available to all 

the WSBs who participate in the program. After all, the other 

major small business contracting programs such as 8(a), the veteran-owned, and HUBZone have this ability. 

S. 2481 also addresses the second change. Expanding the program. This cannot happen unless a new disparity study is completed. I know this Committee is also working on legislation that 

would address procurement changes as a part of the larger women’s businesses ownership bill. 

It is encouraging that women in the Senate are leading this 

charge. For my part, I will continue advocating on this issue and 

bringing my services to the government customers. 

WIPP is actively improving the environment for women in the 

contracting arena as well. Through their ChallengeHER and give 

me five star programming, WIPP educates women across the country about the potential opportunities available in the federal market. 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, if we are going to see real development in the world, then our best investment is women. Through 

release of its report and holding this hearing, this Committee is investing in women. 

I thank you for that and am happy to answer any questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Sutton follows:] 
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Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you very much for your testimony. I am actually going to start with you because one of the 

things I want to drill down on is why the sole-source contracting 

matters so much. You talked about it as it related to what I think 

was the 8(a) program. Is that where you are from? 

Ms. SUTTON. Yes. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Could you just unpack this issue a little 

bit? Why does it matter so much? What are the barriers that are 

stopping us? 

Ms. SUTTON. Well, I can speak from my own experience to say 

how it made a difference with our company. When we entered into 

the federal arena, we could not get any Federal Government work 

at all. 

Our first Federal Government contract was a project that was sole-sourced to us. It happened to be a $1.5 million project with the 

CDC to replace their roof. 

At that time, all we did was roofing. We did such a great job they 

said can you do this, can you do that. So, it gave us the opportunity 

to get more jobs. 

Before we completed our first job, they had already assigned 

other jobs to us. We were able to negotiate a loading dock. It was 

our first time taking on that type of job. We did an interior build 

out. We did another roof. They were happy with the performance, 

needed some other work and they gave us a chance. 

We would not have had, you have to have past performance or 

you are not going to get the work. Everyone wants to do business 

with someone that they know. You have to have the past performance as well to be able to show them that the government is spending their money where they need to spend it. 

So, we were given that opportunity the first time around. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. So, basically you are looking at the Federal Government who is doing sole-source contract work and obviously that is an incentive for someone. Is that what you are saying? 

I mean, you were competing in other areas where there were not 

sole-source contracts? 

Ms. SUTTON. Yes. We are always competing even today. We 

spend about 120 hours a week just with putting, you know, bids 

together for what we are doing on the competitive side. 

But when it comes to the sole-source work, we were given that 

opportunity. If we were not given that opportunity as sole-source, 

we would not have gotten the job to get started. 

It is just about getting the first step. Once you are able to show 

that you can perform, then the other agencies will have faith that 

you can do the job. You bid on the work. You do good work, you 

will get more work but you have to get it. Sole-source authority 

gives us the opportunity to do that. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Does anybody else want to comment on 

that? 

Ms. SYLVESTER. In my experience, the sole-source work is, it is 

very difficult to get. You have to find that opportunity before it gets 

out to the federal biz ops and general public. 

So, you have got to be almost two years before they want to 

spend that money. You have got to be developing a relationship 

with that office. You have got to be contacting them sometimes 
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once a week just to stay in touch trying to get those visits with 

them so you can demonstrate your capabilities and what your performance is and then they will keep you in mind when an opportunity comes along that they feel is a good fit for what you have 

demonstrated your capabilities are. 

Just as Lynn said, you need experience, you know, for federal 

work. Everybody wants to have some experience. So, to think that 

we are just sitting there waiting for a sole-source to come our way, 

that is not in the way that it works. It is a lot of effort. 

It is almost easier to bid on competitive work because you just 

wait for the solicitation to come out and you bid on it. In this work, 

we are doing groundwork two years sometimes ahead of time before that sole-source and talking to that contracting officer and convincing them that we are the best value for that project is my experience. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Okay. Anybody else want to answer on 

that? Did you have something else, Lynn, you wanted to add? 

Ms. SUTTON. I would like to add to that. One important factor 

is that to begin with what people are comfortable with, people want 

to do business with people that they know and that they know can 

do a good job. 

When Susan was talking about the work that goes into it, for us 

it starts with investigating on FPDS, finding out what agencies, a 

lot of work goes into knowing what agencies are sole-sourcing work, 

who is friendly to 8(a) so we can get it, who are the decision-makers, establishing a relationship, doing the capabilities briefings. 

It takes at least 18 months before you really get your foot in the 

door. So, the sole-source relationships that I have now started in 

2010. When they have a particular situation because of time constraints or mission critical situations, they reach out to us directly 

and they say here is a statement of work. We have to negotiate 

that statement of work with them that can also take two months 

just in negotiating the work. 

The government saves money because they are not putting the 

RFP out and going through that process. They are getting fair and 

reasonable pricing from us because we have negotiated it, and we 

are also able through that negotiation to give them options that actually save them money that might deviate from their statement 

of work that comes out to solving their problem, and we just have 

a different way and a more cost-effective way of doing it. 

So, they benefit in many ways by sole-sourcing this to us as well. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Thank you for that qualification. 

Senator Shaheen. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you all very much for being here and 

special thanks to Sue Sylvester, who is from Absolute Resource Associates. I have had the opportunity to visit there and to see and 

hear your success story. 

I want to explore a little bit more the line of questioning that 

Senator Cantwell had about the sole-source business because, 

Lynn, thank you for your comments as well on that. 

But one of the things that I think may not be clear to people listening is why being able to benefit from sole-source contracting is 

so important to your business. What percentage is it of what you 

look at as you are thinking about doing work, trying to do work for 
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the Federal Government and why is this, Sue, you mentioned that 

sometimes it is easier actually to bid on a competitive bid than a 

sole-source contract. 

So, talk about why this is important for you as a woman-owned 

business. 

Ms. SYLVESTER. Our business is probably, up until this year, was 

probably 80 percent commercial work, you know, 20 percent was 

federal, and really the only opportunities, the initial opportunities 

we got for work were through the 8(a) program. That was the way 

we were able to get our foot in the door and show our performance. 

Most of the other awards are small business awards. I mean, it 

is part of the 8(a) program. They want to get you the experience, 

help you along the way, but they expect you to graduate and move 

on. 

I think the same thing would happen with women-owned small 

business programs that that same process would happen. You 

know, that is what we expect to happen. We do not expect things 

to be handed over to us. They never have been. But getting your 

foot in the door and being able to show your performance is huge 

and that is what the program really does for you, the sole-source 

program. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Great. Let me also ask you. You commented 

on the contract you recently got from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and congratulations on that. That is terrific. 

Ms. SYLVESTER. Thank you. 

Senator SHAHEEN. But you also talked about your contracting officer there and the fact that she was so good. Can you talk a little 

bit about what made that experience maybe better than some of 

the others you have been through? Do you see her support for 

awarding contracts to women-owned small businesses coming from 

a directive at the top saying, I am thinking about, how do we 

change the culture for contracting officers through DOD and other 

federal agencies so that they have that uppermost in their mind? 

Is that something we can mandate or does it come through training? Was there anything there that you saw that made that a better experience? 

Ms. SYLVESTER. Jackie is unique. Pretty much all of the contracting officers that we deal with, she is always trying to think of 

new ways to bring in new contractors to the shipyard. 

There is plenty of work at the shipyard. There are a lot of people 

who are there that have just been there for 10 or 15 years. She 

feels very strongly that there is plenty of work to go around and 

how can she bring some new vendors into this organization, you 

know, out to the shipyard and do good work. 

And through us, she expects us to bring in new subcontractors 

to get some new faces out there. So, she is constantly thinking 

about what is in the best interest of the shipyard and making sure 

that businesses that are able to do the work there and offer good 

value get the opportunity and they are not locked out. 

Senator SHAHEEN. And again how do you think we can get other 

contracting officers to have that approach? Do you have any 

thoughts? Do any of you have any thoughts about that? Victoria. 

Ms. SYLVESTER. I do not. It is the million-dollar question. 
79 

Ms. WORTBERG. As part of our program, we are housed with 

PTAC and SCORE and SBDC; and the advantage of that is that 

our PTAC officers work day in and day out with our WBC clients 

as well. 

So, they are going out to the people who are buying these services and actively marketing on behalf of our clients. So by getting 

organizations to work closely together, we get our PTAC program 

to understand the special needs of our were women business owners and then they are able to go out and help the contracting officers understand the issues as well. 

So, I think through the coordination that the SBA has been talking about, it is a very effective way of changing attitudes and educating and creating relationships. 

Senator SHAHEEN. And we certainly expect Administrator Sweet 

to push on that in her new role. 

Let me ask you, Ms. Gala ́n. You talked about the role of the Federal Government in setting policy that can help Latina womenowned businesses. 

One of the challenges I think we have as Senators is most of us 

on this Committee have a good idea of what we would like to see 

that could encourage some of those policies. I think one of our challenges is building support for that in the rest of Congress. 

So, I know that WIPP is interested in this issue. How do we get 

women to advocate with the Congress in support of these policies 

that we know are important as we are trying to encourage womenowned businesses? 

Ms. GALA ́ N. Well, I think what I am trying to do with Adelante 

is to partner with organizations like WIPP, like Count Me In, that 

are already there, that are already established and trying to join 

forces and bring the Latinas to the table to advocate for some of 

these things because I think we do not realize that, you know, ever 

since the bad economy Latinas were already entrepreneurs. 

As I said, we were kind of natural entrepreneurs. But with the 

bad economy, a lot of our husbands have lost their jobs and the role 

of the breadwinner in the family has now gone to the Latina head 

of household. 

So, these women are ready to go but they are not really integrated in the United States system of how going and raising money 

through the government works at all. 

So, I am lucky to have found organizations like WIPP and others 

that have helped me also, you know, learn the system and the processes, and I am hoping to bring these women to the table. 

I agree with you that we need to be part of the table. We need 

to be at the table and we need to fight to be part of the system. 

It is very important. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Thank you, Chair Cantwell. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. I wanted to follow up on the difference. 

You know, one of the changes that we are talking about from the 

report is just making sure we really focus on the adequate particular training to women. 

Obviously, Victoria, you are here representing the Women’s Business Centers but I want to talk about what are the differences because I can already hear some of the debate that we are going to 
80 

have about, well, why cannot SCORE just do this and why cannot, 

you know, some of the small business centers just do this. 

So, can somebody talk about the differences between these services or what do you think are the critical relevant services that 

women businesses need? 

Ms. GALA ́ N. Well, I think for starters, I will speak for Latinas. 

I think we take for granted that Latinas really do not know yet the 

system, do not even know how to find out what is offered. 

It is very complicated. If you go on the Web sites to even go there 

and start from scratch, it is very difficult. And so from my point 

of view, I feel like one of the things I hear them say is, we also 

need to figure how to learn to partner with other women. 

We need to build bridges between women that are already further along and create mentorship programs to bring these women 

through the system and through what is offered because it is very 

complicated. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Anybody else want to talk about that 

particularly about SCORE or the Small Business Development 

Centers and the difference between what the women’s centers are 

doing? 

Ms. WORTBERG. I would love to. You know, when you start a 

business what you are trying to do is get a product market match. 

So, what you are doing is you are understanding the unique needs 

of your customer segment and you are designing a product that 

meets those unique needs. That is what Women’s Business Centers 

have done. 

They understand what women entrepreneurs need to be successful. We make sure that in all of our centers we offer those services. 

So, for example, mentoring is a major part in most Women’s Business Centers. 

That is not true for the other two programs you mentioned for 

women in that we have specialized programs specifically to hook 

women up with other women in a mentorship capacity. 

We also understand the unique training needs of women entrepreneurs, and there are some unique training needs particularly in 

the areas of finance and understanding financial statements and 

how to make strategic decisions. 

We found that it is really important to cater to the specific interests of women entrepreneurs and where they stand in their confidence gap because most women entrepreneurs can be highly successful if given the support that they need. 

So, our training is specifically designed for our target group. But 

we do partner with the other programs constantly. We do co-counseling. But they send to us their women entrepreneurs who need 

the ongoing business advice, they meet every week to talk to the 

business advisor that is qualified and capable of helping. 

So, since we are housed with SCORE and SBDC, we see the differences every day in the programs and how the three are working 

together to help women be successful. 

I hope that answered the question. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Well, it is interesting that you are saying that SCORE is sending people to you. 

Ms. WORTBERG. Yes. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Okay. Very interesting. 
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Ms. WORTBERG. All the time, yes. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Which would just point that then obviously SCORE is not the solution because if they are sending people 

to you, they are not the solution. 

Just if I could make sure I got this because Barbara Corcoran 

said earlier men do not necessarily relate to the products women 

are pitching. So if they do not relate to it, why are they going to 

fund it? 

But you are saying that they might not relate to mentoring either, that there is an amount of mentoring that needs to go on and 

that your product that you are offering with the Women’s Business 

Center is more tailored to what the types of mentoring that are 

successful with women. 

Ms. WORTBERG. That is absolutely true and we are pulled in to 

SBDC counseling for special issues that our women clients face and 

it is absolutely testimony to how our program is different that in 

one building we are always being called in to help those women clients in even if SBDC has a woman client they always have cocounsel. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Can you categorize what that is? Is it 

about product? Is it about—— 

Ms. WORTBERG. Sometimes it is about lifestyle issues. A lot of 

women have lifestyle issues that they have to deal with in addition 

to running their company. 

Sometimes it is about understanding financial statements and 

being able to ensure that the woman is able to apply what she 

learns. Sometimes it is simply that women relate well to other 

women counselors. 

We have found that women business advisors tend to help other 

women feel safer in opening up to say we do not know, we need 

help, can you guide us. And sometimes in our situation, we have 

strong marketing backgrounds so we are asked to come in to counsel even on those male clients sometimes. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. That is great. Anybody else want to talk 

about that, about SCORE and its relationship with Women’s Business Centers? 

No. Okay. I think that is all. 

Jean, do you have another question? Go ahead. 

Senator SHAHEEN. One of the things you mentioned, Ms. Gala ́n, 

is that often women do not know that these services are available. 

I am sure you hear the same thing, Victoria and Sue and Lynn. 

You probably have had similar experiences. 

So, what more can be done to make sure that women have an 

understanding of what services are available and how we encourage them to take advantage of Women’s Business Centers? Hopefully if we can pass this legislation, the programs will be more 

available as a result of that. 

Ms. WORTBERG. If I may, to be honest we need money. When you 

have $150,000 and you are serving 34 out of 39 counties with two 

staff people, you do not have a lot of money for marketing. You put 

all of your money into programs services. 

We cannot afford to go out and tell our story because we are 

barely paying the minimum amount to even provide services. That 
82 

extra money will help us develop a marketing campaign to engage 

women in helping other women to grow women-owned businesses. 

Ms. GALA ́ N. I am always surprised, as someone who comes from 

a marketing background, that we create all of these incredible programs and they are not marketed; and if they are marketed, they 

are not marketed to specific communities. 

So, it is almost like we are building a machine that no one knows 

is there, and so what is the point of that. We do need to market 

and market to specific groups in specific ways that they can hear 

that, and to make them feel like they are part of this country, that 

this is here for you and, you know, again those of us in sort of the 

private sector it is like we have got to become the marketing arm 

for these projects, and we really need to do that better I think. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Lynn. 

Ms. SUTTON. Thank you. I would like to add I have utilized 

SCORE. My local SBA office in Atlanta, Georgia, has workshops all 

of the time. They are PTAC. So, I have taken advantage of it and 

I actually thought that a lot of people are aware. 

I have WIPP. We have resources. There is online. There is information. Women are empowered. We are at the table. We do know 

it is there. 

It is about where do we go from here. Okay. We are aware. What 

is important is that all of the hard work that you Senators are 

doing needs to be implemented. What you already have rolling has 

to be implemented and it will solve all of our problems. 

I am very much aware. Everyone here is very much aware. That 

is why all these women are here right now. Everyone is aware. 

What are we going to do with it? This has to be implemented. 

We talk about, you know, you can like, not like, whatever it is 

with the sole source, use it, do not use it. It does not matter. More 

than half of the people who have sole-source authority do not even 

get a contract in the entire time. 

What is important here is that the WOSBs and the EDWOSBs 

have the same thing the other small business programs have. We 

need access just like the 8(a) oh, the veteran, and the HUBZone. 

[Applause.] 

Ms. WORTBERG. Absolutely. 

Ms. SYLVESTER. We agree. 

Senator SHAHEEN. So, all you WIPP members contact your Senators. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Well, thank you. That is a great place 

to end. I want to make sure I thank Senator Shaheen because she 

has been a real leader on this issue and her laser focus on small 

business in general has been so helpful to the Committee but particularly on this sole-source issue. So, we thank you. 

We are going to put legislation together and your testimony has 

been very helpful on that front. We have heard you loud and clear 

that you need more access and that particularly by tailoring the 

training, that you could do much more. 

I am going to ask you to go away with an assignment of helping 

us. I think some of the things that people have been talking about 

hearing your testimony, we may be, let us just say, under, you 

know, targeting the amount we need. 
83 

I would really like to know from you what amount you need for 

the Women’s Business Centers and for the microloan program, not 

the package at 50 and 250 but the amount of money that really 

could go into this program and return benefits to our U.S. economy. 

I think upgrading it a little bit is interesting but we are here to 

ask women all across America to help grow our economy. That is 

why we are having this hearing, and you are coming to tell us here 

about the challenges that we face as we try to grow the economy. 

So, let us put a real number to it based on these experts who 

were here, who have been working in the field. Give us a number 

that you think really represents what microlending we should be 

doing. 

I have said many times as the Chair of this Committee I think 

small is the new big. By that I mean, the structure of an information economy is about people who can be very expert at their given 

field and the more that we empower them the more they can innovate and the more we innovate the more jobs we grow in our economy. 

So, we want to empower small businesses all across the United 

States and certainly we want women to be able to have access to 

those resources. We want you to be able to design products. Coming from Washington State, which has two female Senators, I can 

tell you that we definitely want more products designed and delivered for women and we know—— 

[Applause.] 

We know that if women businesses are empowered to do so, they 

will design those products. 

So again, we want to thank all our witnesses today and everybody who helped participate in this great forum. It is so heartening 

to see so many people here. We know that in your real lives you 

will help us lead the charge on this issue. We do expect to have 

legislation on all of these fronts, sole-source contracting, empowering women through these microloan increases and intermediate 

loans, also supporting the training programs and making sure that 

the access to capital is there. 

So, thank you all very, very much for a very moving afternoon 

and what did you call it? 

Ms. GALA ́ N. Adelante. 

Chairwoman CANTWELL. Yes. We are adjourned. Thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 3:55 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 

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