APEX, N.C. - It is no longer a man’s world, according to a group of women business owners in Apex.

 

“Things are shifting. People are becoming more understanding with women taking on entrepreneurial roles,” said Aimee Bicker, Pure Expressions Photography Owner

 

There are four businesses in the Town Side Center complex in Scotts Mill and they are all owned by women. Gary Tomlinson with Women’s Edge Magazine says this increase in women entrepreneurs is a trend all over the Nation.

“They constitute for 40 percent of all business owners and 70 percent of all start ups,” said Tomlinson.

 

Apex is no exception. Realtor Heather O’Sullivan Canney said about 83 percent of the commercial properties sold in the past year was purchased by women business owners and the Apex Chamber of Commerce is also seeing an increase of females in business.

“I think women are a little more attuned to the way things are changing and step up to those needs,” Canney said.

 

Becky Evans who owns Hopper’s House in the Town Side Center said women have not turned their focus away from family, but learned how to have it all.

“Women are trying to work and have a family and one of the ways to do it is to own your own business,” Evans said.

 

Shannon Leahy with Leahy Family Dentistry agrees.

“There is a great sense of satisfaction of owning your own business,” Leahy said.

 

The women business owners said it is important to have a sense of community and they agree they have that here in Apex.

“We support each other and we got to each other, we bounce ideas off of each other and we try to market the whole area. We don’t look at each other like competition. We support each other,” Booda Beans Owner Dacy Erik said.

 

These women said they want to see this trend continue, bringing a new kind of power to the Apex business world as well as corporate America.