The Most Popular Women-Owned Businesses 2023, According to Yelp

In case you hadn’t heard, 2023 was dubbed the Yr of the Lady. Whether or not you relished in a tomato lady summer season, celebrated a bow lady Christmas, used lady math to use financial concept to a latest buy, or embellished your property in Barbie pink, there was ample proof that “lady energy” is a lot greater than a catchphrase on a Lisa Frank pocket book — it’s a enjoyable however not-at-all frivolous phenomenon with large buying energy.

Have to see the numbers to imagine it? A brand new report from Yelp revealed that searches for women-owned companies and women-owned enterprise openings skyrocketed throughout a number of classes this previous yr. 

For starters, girls opened 17% extra companies in 2023 than in 2022, in line with Yelp new enterprise listings knowledge, including as much as virtually half 1,000,000 women-owned companies listed on the crowd-sourced evaluation web site. And, encouragingly, the openings spanned all types of classes: motels and journey companies (which noticed a 44% year-over-year progress price), residence companies (a 38% improve), training (up 20%), monetary companies (up 11%), and extra. 

Should you dwell in Austin; Miami; Washington, D.C.; Denver; or Orlando you may’ve seen that uptick greater than others, as these cities skilled probably the most progress in women-owned companies this previous yr. However the report exhibits that it wasn’t simply enterprise openings that soared — there was an enormous improve in how many individuals had been in search of women-owned outlets all throughout the nation, too. Searches for women-owned style companies had been up by greater than 1,600%, whereas individuals looked for women-owned pilates studios 350% greater than the yr earlier than, and searches for women-owned bookstores elevated by 74%.

The report additionally factors out some further-reaching results of ladies within the economic system. Take, for instance, Taylor Swift: Crediting her look at latest Kansas Metropolis Chiefs video games, Yelp discovered that when Taylor began sporting soccer merch, searches for jerseys and native Kansas Metropolis companies rapidly rose. 

The rise of BookTok, which highlights many ladies authors (in case you don’t know Colleen Hoover, now you do) and is helmed by many ladies TikTok creators, ​​additionally introduced extra curiosity in every part from women-owned bookstores (searches elevated by 74% from 2022 to 2023), to bookstore cafes and guide outlets, in line with Yelp knowledge.

Though the 2023 calendar yr has closed, even when bows and Barbie pink fade out of the model highlight, it’s clear that the “yr of the lady” is nowhere close to the rearview mirror. “We count on extra of those women-owned companies to open up, particularly within the residence companies business and maintain a watch out within the skilled group business,” predicts Yelp Pattern Knowledgeable Tara Lewis. “Simply based mostly on our latest pattern predictions in Yelp’s 2024 House and Residing Pattern Report, we noticed searches for skilled declutterers improve by 182%, and we count on this to proceed this yr.”

As hopeful as these predictions are, although, it simply takes a fast look on the present wage hole to see that gender fairness nonetheless has an extended strategy to go. Based on Forbes, girls on common make 16% lower than males (or 84 cents on the male greenback), whereas Black girls are paid simply 64% of what non-Hispanic white males are paid.

As cheekily enjoyable as it’s to say “I’m only a lady,” it’s vital to do not forget that the self-effacing phrase pulls on an influence wrestle that’s nonetheless in play. 2024, I can’t wait to see the methods girls proceed to innovate and open new companies, look after themselves, observe their passions, develop new design traits, and push the economic system in instructions that aren’t in any respect to be underestimated.