Her Voice Blog

A recent article in Woman’s Day Magazine addressed the issue of revenue discrepancy between male- and female-owned small businesses. Nell Merlino, a communications professional with a firm in Manhattan, was the driving force behind the establishment of “Take Our Daughters to Work Day” back in 1992. She was shocked to learn that of the 40% of women-owned small businesses in the U.S., only 2.6% make at least $1 million in annual revenue. Compared with male-owned firms, 6.7% bring in that much or more.

This prompted Merlino to form the Make Mine a Million $ Business (M3), a program that challenges women to grow their businesses to the million-dollar mark and gives them resources to help them get there.

M3 holds meetings and events across the country where participants are invited to give 2-minute pitches and share their business objectives. The women who do well in the pitching competition are given professional coaching, marketing tools and financing in addition to the opportunity to be part of a support network of fellow entrepreneurs and gift cards from American Express OPEN.

To date, M3 has assisted 57 women in reaching a million dollars or more in revenue. Merlino has set a goal of helping one million women reach a million dollars which will then pave the way for the creation of 4 million jobs.

Through her work with M3, Nell has also realized the importance of believing in yourself. She says “women have just begun to scratch the surface of our earning potential…if we help each other, the possibilities are practically limitless.”

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.