Renia (pronounced R-EE-n-a) Carsillo hates business silos and marketing hacks. So, she spends her days working with mid-size and small companies to integrate their business strategy with their impact strategy, design sustainable marketing frameworks, and find a growth cadence that works for their team and their lives. Renia believes founders are uniquely positioned to create a kinder, more equitable world. She is passionate about bringing C-level strategic support to the small and mid-size companies shaping their communities every day. Renia says, "Sustainable marketing is built on a solid business strategy. A solid business strategy is built on values-driven habits. Values-driven habits are built on healed/healing leaders. We can’t do these things separately. They’re all interconnected. ”
2 Questions We Haven't Found Answers to in Anyone Else's Data [Two on Tuesdays]
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Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week, I introduced you to The 6% Project. This is our formal research study launching in Fall 2026 to examine what it actually takes for 100% women-owned businesses to break the $250K threshold and sustain it. This week, I want to get specific about why this research is so urgent. It's not just that we don't have enough data on women founders. It's that the right data may not exist at all. Most research doesn't account for 100% female ownership, only some variation of partial or primary ownership. And the few data sets that do focus on fully women-owned companies are largely about eight-figure businesses. The women building sustainable companies in the six-figure range? Almost invisible in the data. That gap is actively shaping (and limiting) what's possible for women in business. Here are two questions we keep running into that no one has adequately answered. Question 1: Are there sectors where women-owned businesses actually outperform?Some data from the National Women's Business Council and similar sources suggests something that cuts against conventional wisdom: Although women represent a small share of ownership in sectors like manufacturing and trades, their success rates in those industries may actually be higher, on balance, than other ownership types. If that's true, it matters enormously. The prevailing assumption has long been that women succeed most in services, retail, and healthcare (you know, the so-called "female-coded" spaces). That assumption shapes where funding flows, where mentorship is directed, and where women feel permission to start. If the data tells a different story, we need to know it—and we need to build on it. Question 2: Why is the average revenue for women-owned businesses declining, and how do we reverse it?After growing steadily from 2019 to 2022, average revenue for women-owned businesses has decreased slightly over the past three years. As has been true in so many areas for women, early momentum appears to be stalling. What's driving that reversal? Is it macroeconomic pressure? Is it structural? Is it something specific to how women-owned businesses are capitalized or supported in their growth years? We don't know because no one is doing the rigorous work to find out. The 6% Project is designed to start answering questions like these. But to do that, we need data. And that means we need founders like you. If you're a woman who has built a business grossing $250,000 or more for at least three consecutive years, your story belongs in this study. And if you're not there yet, consider forwarding this to someone who is.
Until next time, Renia C. P.S. - Not at $250K yet, but working toward it? Stay tuned. Next week, we're talking about the program we've built specifically to help women founders like you break through that ceiling. |
Renia Carsillo
Renia (pronounced R-EE-n-a) Carsillo hates business silos and marketing hacks. So, she spends her days working with mid-size and small companies to integrate their business strategy with their impact strategy, design sustainable marketing frameworks, and find a growth cadence that works for their team and their lives. Renia believes founders are uniquely positioned to create a kinder, more equitable world. She is passionate about bringing C-level strategic support to the small and mid-size companies shaping their communities every day. Renia says, "Sustainable marketing is built on a solid business strategy. A solid business strategy is built on values-driven habits. Values-driven habits are built on healed/healing leaders. We can’t do these things separately. They’re all interconnected. ”
Happy Tuesday, Reader! When I read Dr. Elizabeth Comen’s All in Her Head last year, I was outraged, frustrated, and saddened. The book documents how women's bodies and experiences have been systematically mishandled by medicine and academia. But what surprised me most was how shockingly little progress has been made even in recent decades, despite constant headlines about breakthroughs in women's health. It hit close to home because I'd been seeing the same pattern play out in my own sphere...
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week I shared two of the biggest unanswered questions driving The 6% Project. This week, I want to talk about two things we do know. I've lived them, and I've watched them make a difference for nearly every woman founder I know who has broken through the $250K ceiling. Neither of them is a course. Neither of them is a funnel. And neither of them lives on the internet. Unlock #1: IRL Community According to Founderreports, only about 1 in 10 American women owns a...
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Over the last few weeks, I've shared the research gaps driving The 6% Project, the two unlocks behind every woman founder I know who has broken through the $250K ceiling, and the community we're building to close those gaps for the next generation of women-owned businesses. But there’s one crucial element: You. Research, mentorship, and community are important. But this is a grassroots effort, built by and for the women doing the work, and that means we need people who...