Indulge us for a moment, if you would.
In a rare moment of hubris, VOV Enterprises would like to congratulate ourselves on being listed in the January 19th, 2018 edition of the Rochester Business Journal, ranking in the Top-50 Women-Owned Businesses.
Top 50! We’re sort of excited about that, but why should you be? How convenient that you asked…
RBJ bases their list on employment data, but there’s far more to the story for VOV. Of those Top-50, VOV ranks 26th amongst those businesses that are 100% women-owned. We rank Top-20 in gross sales amongst those who reported. We are one of only seven companies in the information technology space, and one of only four developing custom software solutions. When you consider our roots in healthcare, we are truly unique.
What About Other Women-Owned Businesses?
This set me wondering what sort of trends women-owned businesses have seen in the last few years. I personally know at least three women who have successfully ventured on their own. I’ve seen the dedication and determination poured into creating something from nothing. In conjunction with VOV’s success, they all speak toward the bigger picture of national trends. According to a 2017 report commissioned by American Express*, women-owned businesses have seen exceptional growth in the last twenty years.
Quoting:
“Between 1997 and 2017, the number of women-owned businesses increased by 114%, compared to a 44% increase among all businesses — a growth rate more than 2.5 times the national average.”
A personal highlight of this report spoke to the awesome resilience of women entrepreneurs in general: The pre-recession years versus the recessions and recovery years** saw a 58% increase in net new women-owned business added per day. The increase, as theorized by the report, is in the face of the worst economic trials since the 1920’s, women stood up and basically said, “We got this!”; starting their own businesses.
VOV is one of those companies. Our CEO, Vicky Olney, saw a problem that needed solving. Upon realizing there wasn’t a solution that met the need, she set out on a path to develop it. “We Understand Your Business” isn’t just a catchy one-liner, it’s a core tenant of what VOV is and was founded on, and she’ll tell you herself.
We See A Problem – We Solve It
By including VOV Enterprises, the RBJ solidifies what Vicky set out to do to in the first place; it reinforces what all of us here signed on board to accomplish; it justifies all the effort and time that have been sacrificed not just by us, but by friends and family. That listing is the result of VOV striving towards the goal of helping healthcare organizations make sense of the present and the future. We couldn’t be more proud of our role and how we reached this point.
So, yeah; we at VOV are polishing our fingernails on our collective suits and taking a victory lap. We’re taking the time to appreciate past accomplishments, but never looking past the next challenge. Because when your organization asks us if we can solve your problem, we can confidently reply, “We got this!” ***
* – Source: 2017 State of Women Owned Business
** – (2002-’07 and ’07-’12, respectively)
*** – This is literally something Vicky has emphatically yelled in meetings on more than one instance. Occasionally a dry-erase marker is launched out of the excitement. We keep our heads up.
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