Women-owned businesses tend to start with less capital than their male-owned counterparts; but once they get off the ground, they often grow faster.

That’s the finding of a study of hiring by small businesses since the recession, prepared for the National Women’s Business Council. It shows that women entrepreneurs raise lower amounts of capital to finance their businesses but are more likely to see rapid growth.

According to the study, women-owned entrepreneurs are more reliant on personal rather than external sources of financing—meaning they’re more likely to launch their businesses using mostly or entirely their own savings. Women started their firms with about $75,000 on average, compared with nearly $135,000 for men. In terms of loan approvals, women were much less likely to have their loans approved, especially for the larger, high growth potential businesses.

Anisa Telwar Kaicker is the founder and president of Anisa International. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Atlanta, the company is a global design and manufacturing firm of private label cosmetic brushes, bags and accessories with a client list that includes Sephora, Bare Escentuals and others. Her company employs over 600 people, but financing was difficult in the beginning.

“I could not get a bank loan at the time,” said Kaicker “I had no collateral, wasn’t making that much money. I had to work at night to pay my rent.”

Male founders were more than three times as likely as female founders to access equity financing through angel investors or venture capitalists. Men were also more likely than women to tap networks of close friends and business acquaintances. More than half of men and women used bank financing as a source of capital.

One of the key findings of the study: Women are less likely than men to expect their firms to grow rapidly—in terms of number of employees—but are more likely to actually see rapid growth.

According to the council’s study, “From the years 2008-2011 nearly one quarter of male business owners said they expected their firms to grow by at least 30% over the period, while only 16% of women expected this rate of growth. About 38% of females expected to grow by less than 5% at most or even decrease over the period.”

However, the opposite happened: More than 58% of women-owned firms grew by 30% or more, compared with 53% of firms owned by men.

Generally speaking, female-owned firms tended to start smaller, but grow faster, while male-owned firms started with more employees and grew more slowly.

For Elena Luzarraga and Victoria Ortega, the owners of The Coding Academy, a small medical billing and coding certification company located in Kendall, Fla., growth of the business is a goal, but it ultimately takes a back seat to the stabilization and vision of the business.

By not hiring any employees and doing all the work themselves, they are able to keep their business nimble and keep costs down. They started the business on a “do or die” budget that consisted of personal savings and a business plan.

“We are careful and frugal, we stick to our budget,” said Luzarraga.

As the business continues to grow and more students attend their certification classes, they’ve talked increasingly about hiring an employee.

“I want to take my business to the next level,” she said. “Women can’t be scared and let fear hold us back, we are strong and capable enough to succeed.”

From: http://www.marketwatch.com/