New York City is the best for women entrepreneurs

New York City is home to the best of a lot of things — best delis, best theater scene, best sports fans and best place to live, a lot of people would argue.

But a far more proud and important honor was bestowed upon the city earlier this summer — best possible place to be a female entrepreneur.

Dell’s Women Entrepreneur Cities Index ranked New York City №1 on its list of best places to be a female entrepreneur, based on a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential female entrepreneurs — ahead of 27 other global cities the company and research firm HIS studied.

A week after the honor was bestowed, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of a tool to help women entrepreneurs in the city be even more successful. De Blasio dubbed The Women Entrepreneurs of New York City Portal a digital one-stop shop for small business owners.

The portal provides women with the necessary resources for managing a business, including access to how-to-guides for starting a business, a directory of organizations that support entrepreneurs, a searchable database of courses and professional development events, a map of women-owned businesses, question and answer tools to interact with mentors and narratives from successful business owners.

The portal, which can be found at https://we.nyc, is offered in 90 languages, and will be continually developed over the next two years based on user feedback, officials said.

“The city is at its best when everyone — regardless of race, gender and ethnicity — has the means they need to thrive,” de Blasio said. “The WE NYC Portal is yet another resource for low-income and immigrant women entrepreneurs to start, manage and sustain their businesses, allowing them to uplift communities across the city.”

WE NYC partnered with Blenderbox, a woman-owned business, to develop the portal. The company hosted user testing sessions for groups of women representing different industries, backgrounds and boroughs online and at its headquarters in Brooklyn.

“SBS is dedicated to helping businesses start, operate and grow — and women entrepreneurs are key economic drivers in New York City, generating approximately $50 billion in sales annually,” said Gregg Bishop, commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services. “The WE NYC program at SBS is delivering on its promise to create a one-stop shop that makes it easier for women entrepreneurs to start and run a business at any stage. We are excited about the launch of this new online tool, which is just one more reason why New York is the best city in the world for women entrepreneurs.”

As part of the WE NYC initiative, officials said the portal will help reduce the city’s gender gap in entrepreneurship by empowering underserved women to “reach their full economic potential by providing high quality and curated information to help them grow their businesses.” The portal helps women access mentors, networks, courses, training, inspiration and a broader community of women entrepreneurs.

“The WE NYC Portal will harness the creativity, savvy and talent of women entrepreneurs and connect them with the tools and resources to succeed,” Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said. “By tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit of our city, women can build ladders of opportunity and financial independence, and become thought leaders and innovators in their chosen fields. We need more women in business, and WE NYC is a critical part of that goal. I thank the city for its commitment to advancing access and opportunity for women.”