Methodology:

The Top Woman-Led Businesses in Massachusetts research project is a longitudinal study of woman-led businesses in Massachusetts begun in 2000. The study’s database has tracked over 1400 companies identified as woman-led businesses in Massachusetts.  For the current study, surveys were mailed to 986 companies, with follow-up e-mails and phone calls to companies believed to have revenues higher than $1.5 million. 196 companies responded (a response rate of nearly 20%), of which 191 were qualified research participants. Among the 191 qualified companies, sixty-four percent were continuing research participants[1], while the remaining respondents were new to the study in 2005.

To qualify for the study, the firm’s chief executive, defined as the senior executive decision maker of the firm, must be a woman and the business must be headquartered in Massachusetts. Furthermore, the business must be either an independent business or a legal subsidiary of a larger corporation. Medical, law, and banking firms were excluded, as were not-for-profit organizations. Titles of the senior decision maker, most commonly CEO, President, or Principal, vary across the companies; however, in all cases, the executive has reported that she is the senior decision maker. All data is self-reported by the chief executives.

The research survey was designed to confirm basic information about woman-led companies as well as the trends and business issues that they currently face. The Top 100 Woman-Led Businesses in Massachusetts (2005), found in the report Appendix, provides a listing of the top 100 woman-led firms in the state, ranked by 2005 revenues. Companies in industries such as real estate and travel, among others, typically report revenues in terms of aggregate value of sales or billings. As there is no commonly accepted method for adjusting revenues in such industries to reflect actual fees and commissions, we based the Top 100 listing on the reported revenue number provided by the firms, without adjustment by industry.  Another limitation of this listing is that some firms prefer not to divulge revenues, despite their interest in the research; in such cases, there are firms who would otherwise qualify as a top firm who remain unlisted.