Only 6% of companies in the United States that are 100% women-owned ever gross more than $250,000 per year.
We’re on a mission to increase that number to at least 10% by 2040. To do that, we must first answer the questions not enough people are asking: What makes the 6% that do succeed different? What do they have in common? What can we learn that will help others? How can we best share their stories?
The 6% Project is a formal research study by Realign Consulting launching in Fall 2026. The goal: Identify what it actually takes for women-owned businesses to break the $250K ceiling and sustain it. Add your voice, and bring others with you.
Why We’re Focusing on Women-Led Companies
Our founder, Renia Carsillo, has spent nearly two decades working with small and local businesses, first as a small business banker, then as a strategist. Time after time, she’s watched one pattern hold true: Local businesses aren’t just part of a community’s economy—they’re what holds it together.
These companies provide most of the jobs in local and rural areas, fund the parks and causes neighbors care about, and carry a direct obligation to the people their decisions affect that a business built to scale far beyond its community never has to reckon with.
That's the foundation Renia built her work on. What she's come to believe since is that women-led businesses carry a particular kind of leverage within that foundation.
When women build companies on their own terms, profit rarely stands alone as the only measure that matters. Community, sustainability, and the well-being of the people involved tend to sit right alongside the balance sheet.
That’s not a small distinction. It’s the difference between businesses that extract from their communities and businesses that build them up.
If we want a future that’s kinder, more abundant, and more equitable (for employees, families, and neighborhoods, not just founders) women-led businesses aren’t incidental to that future. They’re central to it.
The Number No One's Talking About
Only 6% of 100% women-owned businesses in the United States gross more than $250,000 per year.
The number of businesses started by women has risen dramatically over the last decade. But we rarely follow that up with the hard facts about how women founders actually make a living. The success rate is abysmal, and almost no one is asking the right questions about why.
Even when they do ask, most research on women in business focuses on what’s stopping them. Very little looks at what’s working and what it actually takes to sustain it.
This frustrating lack of data led to the birth of The 6% Project.
The 6% Project is a formal research study examining the commonalities, patterns, and practices of women who have built sustainable, six-figure-plus businesses and sustained them for at least three consecutive years.
We’re not looking for overnight success stories, outliers, or companies with a woman’s face while men call the shots behind the scenes. This project aims to nail down the narrative about what it really takes to create parity in entrepreneurship from the women who’ve actually made it work.
The path from 6% to 10% by 2040 is knowable. We’re doing the research to find it, through survey data, in-depth interviews, and financial histories from women founders across industries.
the 6% PROJECT hypothesis:
Getting there isn’t something one researcher, one founder, or one study can do alone. It takes a critical mass of women willing to be counted, and a community willing to spread the word. That’s what we’re building here, and we’re inviting you to be part of it.
The 6% Project Is…
A formal research study
Launching Fall 2026 (not a survey you’ll forget about by lunch).
Built on real data
Surveys, interviews, and financial histories from 100% women-owned companies across industries.
Centered on founders who lead with values
Not just growth for growth’s sake.
Designed to find the patterns
Not collect more feel-good stories.
Why $250,000? We’re using this figure as the benchmark because it’s roughly what it takes to make a real living as a business founder in today’s economy. Not just what keeps the lights on, but what you need to build a life from the business you started.
The 6% Project Is…
A formal research study
launching Fall 2026 (not a survey you’ll forget about by lunch).
Built on real data
Surveys, interviews, and financial histories from 100% women-owned companies across industries.
Centered on founders who lead with values
Not just growth for growth’s sake.
Designed to find the patterns
Not collect more feel-good stories.
Why $250,000? We’re using this figure as the benchmark because it’s roughly what it takes to make a real living as a business founder in today’s economy. Not just what keeps the lights on, but what you need to build a life from the business you started.
Questions We Don’t Have Answers To—Yet
Renia crossed the $250K threshold with Realign Consulting over a decade ago, but it took 7 years because no blueprint existed—at least not for companies that work the way we do with the values we hold.
In the years since, she’s helped clients break through that ceiling and walked alongside friends and colleagues as they’ve done it too. But that dataset is still too small.
We can’t create lasting change from anecdotes, and this study isn’t set out to confirm assumptions. And, there are too many open questions about women-owned businesses right now, and not nearly enough good answers. We’re looking for repeatable patterns at scale and answers to questions we don’t have good answers to yet:
- What actually makes the 6% who succeed different, and what do they have in common?
- What does it take to build and sustain a business past $250K? Not for one good year, but for years running?
- How do women-led businesses operate differently, and does 100% female ownership change what works?
- Why do so many women-owned businesses stay solo operations, never growing past a single founder?
- Why has the number of women-owned businesses been declining since 2022, after years of growth?
- Are there industries where women-owned businesses actually outperform, and are women being steered toward more "traditional" sectors instead of the ones where they'd thrive?
Why The Data Gap Matters
Anyone familiar with the research gap in women’s healthcare will recognize this pattern: When a population is understudied, the guidance built for them is built on incomplete information. The same is true here.
Women founders have been building businesses for decades, but the research explaining how the successful ones actually did it is thin. The 6% Project exists to close that gap. Not with another success story, but with data.
Who We’re Looking For
If you’re a woman founder who has grossed $250,000 or more for at least three consecutive years (or you’re on your way there) we want to hear from you. Your business, your numbers, and your story are exactly what this research needs to be real.
You’ve already done the hard part of figuring out what works. Sharing it means the next founder doesn’t have to start from zero. You’re lighting the way for the ones coming up behind you.
What participation looks like for The 6% Project
- Submit your interest now using the form below.
- Formal surveys and interview requests go out to interested participants in Fall 2026.
- Participation may include a survey, an in-depth interview, or sharing financial history, depending on what you're comfortable with.
Meet Renia
Renia Carsillo is the founder and Chief Strategist of Realign Consulting. She calls her superpower pattern recognition, and for almost two decades, she’s used it to help values-driven founders grow their businesses and their impact. She cut her teeth in commercial banking, then in marketing during the early SEO and Web 2.0 years, watching an industry that kept forgetting the lessons it should have learned.
Since 2008, she and her team have helped over 100 small and mid-sized companies build people-first operating models as proof that profit and impact aren’t opposites. Along the way, one pattern kept surfacing: The women who build sustainable, six-figure-plus businesses all seem to be doing a handful of things in common. No one has ever formally documented what those things are.
Renia is leading The 6% Project to change that, bringing the financial acumen of a former banker together with years of hands-on pattern recognition across women-owned businesses. She knows that when women-led businesses thrive, their communities rise with them—and every founder who helps light that path makes it a little easier for the next one to find.
Wherever You Are in Your Journey, There’s a Place for You
This only works if enough of us show up for it. However you’re positioned right now, there’s a place for you in this work—and each one matters.
Join the Research
Add your business to the study. Whether you’ve already broken $250K or you’re working toward it, your data helps build the blueprint and lights the way for the founder coming up behind you.
Join The $250K Club
Haven’t broken $250K yet? Get the mentorship, community, and systems built to help you do it with The $250K Club.
Attend the Kick-Off Event
Join us in Lexington, KY, on October 1 for Conversations with The 6%—a day of learning and connection as we build the path forward together.
Become a Sponsor or Partner
Put your name behind the research. Sponsors and partners help fund the study and extend its reach, standing alongside the founders it’s built for.
Join the Community
Not ready for either of the above? Follow along as the research unfolds and be part of the conversation as it grows.
Spread the Word
Know a founder who should be counted in this research? Share this page on social media or via email. The blueprint only gets clearer with more voices in it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who's eligible to participate in the study?
Any woman founder of a 100% women-owned business grossing $250,000 or more annually for at least three consecutive years. If you’re not quite there yet but are working toward it, we still want to hear from you.
What will participation actually involve?
Depending on the phase, participation may include a survey, a one-on-one interview, and/or sharing financial history. Nothing is required beyond what you’re comfortable sharing.
When does the study begin?
The 6% Project formally launches in Fall 2026. Submitting your interest now puts you on the list to receive survey and interview invitations when that phase begins.
How will my information be used?
What you share on the interest form helps us evaluate whether your business is a fit for the study, and gives Renia and our team a way to follow up based on the interest you’ve expressed. Nothing you submit at this stage is shared with third parties — this is simply an inquiry and fitting stage. Submitting the form will also add you to our weekly Two on Tuesdays email list, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
Be Part of the Research
If you’ve grossed $250,000 or more for at least three years (or you’re closing in on it), we want your story in this. Together, we can create a map the next generation of founders won’t have to draw from scratch.
