Our Partner NOW Corp is Providing Funding to Grow for Women Entrepreneurs

GoSmallBiz partner NOW Corp is launching a great new program to help women entrepreneurs get access to the capital they need to run and grow their businesses. The program is in partnership with the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and a number of Fortune 500 and government entities.

The NOWaccount Revenue Accelerator Program will offer individual WBEs up to $1 million each, to help pursue growth opportunities with corporate and government customers. The program in total will provide WBE suppliers up to $100 million.

“As the owner of a small manufacturing company, I experienced first-hand the challenge of trying to grow my business with limited capital,” said Lara Hodgson, the co-founder, president, and CEO of NOW Corp. “My customers were placing larger and larger orders, but they were also taking longer and longer to pay. . . We wanted to put capital—and control—back into the hands of small business owners to enable them to grow as quickly as they want, without having to take on unnecessary debt or sign personal guarantees.”

The NOWaccount Revenue Accelerator Program is especially great news for women-owned businesses, which historically have had less access to capital. Women own close to 1/3 of all small businesses, but receive less than 5 percent of total small business loan dollars and just 7 percent of venture capital money, according to the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee.

The WBENC looks at NOW Corp’s new program as a great opportunity to help close the gender gap and impact every part of the economy. Pamela Prince-Eason, president and CEO of WBENC, said the program “not only helps our WBEs access the capital they need to fund new and larger contracts, but it also provides our corporate and government members with the confidence that comes with a strong and stable supply chain.”

Corporate America is paying a lot more attention to helping women entrepreneurs and small business owners. “The Coca-Cola Company has set an aggressive goal to increase our direct spend with women- and minority-owned businesses to $1 billion by 2020,” said Terrez M. Thompson, the vice president of Global Supplier Diversity for Coca-Cola.

The program meets a real need for entrepreneurs. For example, Traci Morgan, the owner of Morgan Consultants, provides comprehensive services to some of the world’s largest brands, including Clorox, Coca-Cola, and Kraft. But, she says, “While the cash flow clock starts ticking on day one for our payroll commitments and consultants, payment terms for our clients range from 30 days to up to 120 days, in some cases. NOWaccount allows us to bridge this gap and better manage the cash flow needed for payroll and other operating expenses, and it gives us the confidence to take on new and larger projects knowing that we have a reliable and flexible source for operating capital at a competitive price.”

To learn more about NOWaccount, you can visit our partnership page at https://gosmallbiz.com/additional-services/b2b-funding-solutions/. Congratulations to a great company that’s doing great work!

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