Event features industry leaders including, Rebecca Minkoff, Facebook, Square, Yelp and Authorize.Net, to shine a light on national and Atlanta small business realities

According to Visa’s (NYSE: V) new “State of Female Entrepreneurship” report, 79 percent of American women entrepreneurs feel more empowered now than they did five years ago, yet many still face a number of obstacles to growing their businesses. Focusing on a range of interests and priorities derived from the report, Visa is hosting its first She’s Next, Empowered by Visa event today in Atlanta, one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. for women-owned small businesses¹.

“Women-owned small businesses are essential to our economy and Visa wants to provide these incredible women with tools and resources that can help them grow and advance their businesses,” said Suzan Kereere, global head of merchant sales and acquiring, Visa.

Visa surveyed female small business owners across the U.S. and specifically in Atlanta. The full study is available here and key findings include:

• Entrepreneurial motivations. The top three motivators for women, nationally, to start a business are pursuing their passion (48 percent), having financial independence (43 percent) and flexibility (41 percent).
• Funding does not come easily. Three quarters of women entrepreneurs (73 percent) report difficulty in obtaining the funding they needed to start their own business, with 61 percent self-funding their businesses. Results were similar for Atlanta-based female small business owners, with 83 percent citing funding difficulty and 63 percent self-funding their businesses.
• Open to new technology. Thirty-two percent of women would direct additional funding towards newer technology, such as digital or social media tools. In Atlanta, female small business owners would like to improve digital marketing (59 percent), social media (50 percent) and be able to conveniently make and accept payments (32 percent).
• Biggest challenges. Nationally, women said their top concerns include assembling a good team (37 percent) and finding the right business management tools (36 percent), also citing keeping up with industry challenges (24 percent) and building a support network (23 percent). In Atlanta, women shared different challenges: 37 percent of female founders reported not being able to grow as fast as they need to, developing an online presence (34 percent) and raising funding and capital (32 percent).
• Battle of the sexes. Most women feel that business challenges are equally difficult for both women and men. However, some believe that negotiating contracts and raising funding come more easily for men than women, particularly when it comes to raising funding (34 percent), negotiating contracts (35 percent) and making tech decisions (20 percent).

She’s Next, Empowered by Visa – Atlanta Event

Days away from Super Bowl LIII, more than 150 Atlanta-metro area female entrepreneurs will attend the She’s Next inaugural event. The event centers around support and education through dynamic programming: town hall with industry leaders including, Facebook, Square, Yelp and Authorize.Net, keynote from Female Founder Collective leader Rebecca Minkoff, Instagram Story School, networking groups and much more.

At the event, contactless-enabled vending machines will create a unique shopping experience featuring select items from Atlanta-based, women-owned small businesses. In addition, 100 percent of the purchase price of products sold from these machines will benefit Women’s World Banking, a non-profit providing low-income women entrepreneurs around the world the financial tools and resources they need to thrive and pursue their dreams.

Attendees will receive a resource-filled She’s Next toolkit which includes information on how to run and improve your business from industry leaders, key resources and a description of Visa’s full suite of payment services designed for virtually every business need. The toolkit will soon be available to download online for small businesses nationwide.

“Having help from a company as large as Visa, and having its resources in our hands is really powerful,” said Melissa Gallagher, Owner and Operator of Atlanta-based, COCO + MISCHA. “She’s Next, Empowered by Visa, is a great way of creating local community and broader national community, for women in business.”

For more information on the She’s Next, Empowered by Visa initiative, visit www.visa.com/shesnext.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device, and a driving force behind the dream of a cashless future for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog.html and @VisaNews.

¹ https://www.georgia.org/small-business/women-owned-small-businesses

Methodology: Visa commissioned a survey of 650 adult, female small business owners to assess their attitudes toward entrepreneurship. The online survey included women in the United States (400) and Atlanta (250). The survey was conducted by Logica Research on behalf of Visa in December 2018.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190130005634/en/