Growth Is Just the Beginning: Rethinking Impact for SMEs and Their Communities
Growth Is Just the Beginning: Rethinking Impact for SMEs and Their Communities
May 5, 2026 | Juan Perdomo
Over the past two decades, Building Markets' Find–Build–Connect–Advance model has supported more than 30,000 SMEs globally, driving revenue growth and job creation.
Today, we are deepening that impact by asking a critical question: how does this growth translate into improved well-being for entrepreneurs, employees, and their families?
We were grateful for the opportunity to work in collaboration with a graduate research team from the Interdisciplinary Center for Development Studies (CIDER) at Universidad de los Andes, who analyzed the experience of female entrepreneurs who participated in Building Markets Colombia's SER initiative – Sabias, Empresarias, Resilientes (Wise, Entrepreneurial, Resilient) — to understand the relationship between women entrepreneurs' economic autonomy and well-being. Put plainly: if the program helps women entrepreneurs make more money, does their life improve in ways that are important to them?
The research adopts a multidimensional understanding of economic empowerment — where income matters, but so do agency, autonomy, and the ability to make decisions and shape one's own life.
What the Research Found
CIDER found that while women's economic success improved their lives, income alone is not enough. Structural barriers and social dynamics continue to shape outcomes. Key findings include:
1. Well-being goes beyond income. Women said feeling "well" also means learning new things, making their own decisions, being respected as entrepreneurs, and having people who support them. A good income helps, but it doesn't automatically make a life good.
2. Care burdens limit business growth. Many participants described themselves as "todólogas" — meaning they do everything: run the business, take care of the kids, cook, clean, care for elders. This leaves little time to scale their businesses or rest.
3. Barriers to formalization and finance persist. Only 15% of women have their businesses officially registered, which limits their access to more customers, loans, and export opportunities.
4. Operational overload keeps businesses in survival mode. Because they can't delegate or hire help, they can't really grow or plan ahead — they stay in survival mode.
5. Support networks are critical but under-leveraged. Economic networks such as suppliers and broader commercial channels are underleveraged. These networks help them survive crises and keep going, but they need more institutional support to be more powerful.
From Findings to Action
These findings highlight how structural barriers — including access to finance, formalization challenges, and unequal care responsibilities — shape women entrepreneurs' trajectories.
The researchers recommend that organizations like Building Markets move beyond traditional business support by combining market access with financial inclusion, network strengthening, mental health support, and expanded metrics of success — including time use, confidence, and social support systems.
Expanding the Lens: What About Employees?
These insights about women entrepreneurs raised a natural next question: what does well-being look like for the employees inside the SMEs we serve? Taking this research as our starting point, and with funding from the GitLab Foundation's Learning for Action Fund, we built a pilot well-being framework to measure these dimensions. To make sure the framework reflects what actually matters to the people it's meant to serve, our research team then conducted focus groups with employees at SMEs in Building Markets' network, inviting them to define, in their own words, what well-being means to them and what should be included in our survey. Their input is shaping how we refine the framework so we can see how employee well-being shifts over time and better tailor our services to their needs.
Join the Conversation
We invite you to explore the full research and join us in rethinking what meaningful impact looks like for entrepreneurs and their communities.