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OKLAHOMA CITY – A new analysis shows one of the most dramatic economic shifts since the pandemic has been the surge in entrepreneurship driven largely by women. Among the top 10 metropolitan areas with a substantial increase in female entrepreneurs, Oklahoma City ranks second.

The research is the result of economists at Gusto, a human resources platform, who have gathered data over several years to analyze the trend. From 2019 to 2023, the percentage of female business owners in Oklahoma City grew from 24% to 30%.

Jennifer Edwards, REI’s Women’s Business Center program manager in Oklahoma City, said the pandemic shutdown gave women the desire to be in control of their income and time free from other distractions to think through and develop their business ideas.

“It has been an exciting time for women in business to open something they’ve thought about for years,” Edwards said. “The jump in new clients – startups – has been trending up the past few years.”

The research shows women are more likely to create companies in personal services and in community services, firms that often help solve pressing challenges in the communities where they operate. In 2023, one-third of women-owned businesses were in community services, compared to 19% of male-owned businesses.

Edwards sees that in Oklahoma, where women have opened businesses ranging from law and medical practices to graphic design and website management firms.

Thao Nguyen-Pham, an Oklahoma City pharmacist-turned-entrepreneur, used her knowledge of health care and real estate – she’s a real estate investor and licensed real estate agent – to open a boutique-style assisted living home.

“I wanted to have a better environment where you would just be moving your loved one from a home to a home,” said Nguyen-Pham, who was motivated by her aging parents who don’t speak English and would not be comfortable in a large facility.

The concept is popular in many other states, but Oklahoma City has only eight or nine others, she said.

Legacy Senior Living opened in June in a residential neighborhood near NW 122nd Street and Rockwell Avenue. The seven-bedroom, 6.5-bath house is licensed to accommodate 10 residents. The managing partner and administrator is a physician’s assistant.

“We’re working on getting a second home on the same street,” Nguyen-Pham said.

Gusto’s survey of 2020 entrepreneurs found nearly half (47%) of new business owners were women, up from 29% in 2019 using comparable pre-pandemic estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The increased rate of entrepreneurship among women has continued, with women making up 49% of new business owners in 2021 and 47% in 2022.

The research shows the reasons women are turning to entrepreneurship have shifted as the economic landscape changes.

In 2020, amid widespread, pandemic-induced layoffs, immediate financial concerns dominated the reasons women started new businesses. Nearly one-third did so because they were laid off. Child care concern was the top reason mentioned by women who started their own businesses in 2021, while in 2022 just over two-thirds cited the need for flexibility as the reason.

“This shift in motivations is an encouraging trend, as it suggests the sustainability of this rise in female entrepreneurship,” Gusto notes.

Among businesses started in 2022, the research showed a gender gap in private capital funding. While women and men funded their businesses with savings, private loans and other sources at similar rates, men received capital investments at a rate 2.3 times higher than women; 14% of male owners funded their business at least partially through private capital investments, compared to just 6% of women.

Women apply for funding opportunities less than men, especially for venture capital, Edwards said. “We’re used to working on a budget and are a little more risk-averse,” she said.

Funding opportunities and fundraising are among the many topics the nonprofit Women’s Business Center stresses through in-person and virtual trainings, mentorships and peer group meetings. About 90% of the training sessions are free, and one-on-one counseling also is free.

In the federal fiscal year that just ended Oct. 31, the center served 2,824 women statewide and offered 137 training sessions, Edwards said.