Are You a Women Biz Owner?
What category are women business owners, according to the SBA?
Women are listed in the Other category. Since the SBA does not consider women to be socially disadvantaged, you need to prepare both a social and an economic 
disadvantage narrative focused on four areas:
Your Family Background, Education (high school / post secondary), Career experience, and Business History.
As a minority woman, can I apply as both categories?
No, you must decide to submit your application as a minority or as a woman business owner.
We suggest submitting your application as a minority, to only prove economic disadvantage. If you apply as a woman-owned business you must prepare both the social and economic narratives.
Do you know how many 8a firms are Caucasian woman-owned?
Of the approximate 10,000 certified SBA 8a businesses, less than 400 (4%) are woman owned. The 8a Mentor is a division of Design2Train, a current SBA 8a certified company. Karen Miller, founder of Design2Train, is The 8a Mentor. Karen shares a unique insight into successfully preparing SBA applications and narratives for women business owners.
What information will my narrative contain?
A successful economic narrative contains references to your personal and professional failures, missed opportunities, overt and subtle discrimination or harassment in the workplace, and the financial hardships that caused these events. Your narrative will be enhanced with letters of support from those who witnessed these incidents of harassment and discrimination that support your story.
What is your time worth?
Can you afford to take off days or weeks from your business during this shaky economy, to try and write your narrative? We understand your time is valuable and make the process as quick as possible.
Using the Narrative Writing Service, we send you a list of questions to review. Then we conduct a comprehensive 2-hour phone interview process to efficiently gather your information. Taking your words, we craft a well organized narrative meeting the SBA preponderance of evidence criteria. Expect to get your narrative back within 3-5 business days, ready to cut/paste into the online 8a application.
Testimonial – ” Thanks for your help on my narrative.
I am sitting here crying looking at my SBA acceptance letter.”
- Leslie Bernal, Dusty Ducts, MI
Why choose The 8a Mentor?
We are uniquely qualified and welcome the opportunity to work with you. The 8a Mentor is a division of Design2Train, a current 8a woman-certified company, can give you special insight into the entire process. We prepare up to ten narratives per week, so our writing skills are well honed to serve you well.
We’ve taken the worry out of writing with our proven Narrative Writing Service system. In fact you won’t even need to pick up a pen to complete your narrative! Even if you are a good writer, you will find this to be a challenge.
In fact, many of our clients come to us very frustrated after wasting weeks or even months laboring on what to write about in their narratives. Others have gone through the humiliation of getting their applications rejected by the SBA. Where are you in the process? Ready to get your narrative done? Take action, get signed up today.
> Click here to sign-up for the Narrative Writing Service
