STILL A MAN’S WORLD?
Businesses owned by women have lower revenues in first year than male counerparts.
Women-owned small businesses operating in their first year have lower revenues, experience slower growth and are less likely to receive external financing than those owned by men, according to a report issued Thursday.
Despite those hurdles, good cash management strategies over time generally allow womenowned businesses to achieve the same survival rates as male-owned small businesses, according to a study by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Those strategies include the ability to hold emergency cash.
Average first-year revenues of women-owned small businesses in Houston are 40 percent lower than their male counterparts: $47,000 for women compared to $79,000 for men, the report’s author’s found. Nationally, they found women-owned small businesses have 34 percent lower first-year revenues than male-owned small businesses, or $50,000 for women and $75,000 for men.
The report, from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, a think tank funded by the banking giant that frequently focuses on economic trends, used transactional-level data on daily revenues, expenses and financing flows of 138,000 small businesses founded in 2013. The report explored the outcomes of small businesses broken down by their owner’s gender, age and location.
The report did not consider types of industries when examining the disparity in first-year revenues. According to the Small Business Administration, women are the primary owners of businesses in child care, healthcare and administrative services. Those sectors are often lower paying.
Fed boosts BBVA Compass rating
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta gave BBVA Compass an overall “outstanding” rating when reviewing its compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA.
The CRA encourages banks to meet the credit needs of the communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, in which they operate. BBVA Compass received a “needs to improve” rating in 2014.
BBVA Compass, the fourth-largest Houstonarea bank in terms of deposits, responded by beginning a five-year, $11 billion commitment to lending, investment and services that support the low- and moderate-income individuals and neighborhoods it serves.
Since the late 2014 announcement, BBVA Compass said it had exceeded its $2 billion goal for community development lending, reaching $5 billion of a $6.2 billion goal for lending to small businesses. BBVA Compass said it made $22.5 million in charitable sponsorships through the bank and grants from the BBVA Compass Foundation for community-based programs and events over the 2015-17 CRA exam cycle.
The bank received an “excellent performance” for the CRA review’s community development lending and investments categories, and “high satisfactory” for the service category, which translates to the overall “outstanding” rating, according to the news release.
Alabama competitor sues Buc-ee’s
Less than a month after the first Buc-ee’s outside of Texas opened in Alabama, the convenience store is facing a lawsuit claiming gas prices at the new location are unfairly low, according to the petition filed in federal court last week.
The Oasis Travel Center claims in the lawsuit that the Alabama store’s gas prices are “predatory” and harmful toward its business. The travel center appears to be located about four miles east of the new Buc-ee’s location in Baldwin County, along Interstate 10 and Country Road 64.
The lawsuit claims the store violated the Alabama Motor Fuel Marketing Act by selling gas below the threshold imposed by the law. The complaint says the store opened on Jan. 21 offering gas at $1.79 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. Since then, prices for regular gas at the store have fluctuated between $1.79 and $1.87, the lawsuit says.
“This price is dramatically below cost as defined by the (Alabama Motor Fuel Marketing Act),” according to the suit.
According to GasBuddy, the lowest gas prices in Baldwin County on Wednesday was $1.81, while the average price was $1.97. The price at Buc-ee’s was listed at $1.89.
Oasis Travel Center, which says the Buc-ee’s gas prices have already hurt business, is seeking an immediate injunction to stop Buc-ee’s from selling gas at those “predatory” prices, according to the lawsuit.
“Buc-ee’s has always provided our customers with the best experience on the highway, from the world’s cleanest bathrooms, to great food,” company General Counsel Jeff Nadalo said in an email. “Part of this experience includes high quality fuels, priced fairly and competitively, and we will always strive to be our customers’ choice in the markets where we operate.”