FEATURE: Female-Owned Businesses
Female-Owned Businesses:
The U.S. Economy’s Quiet Success Story There are consistently three common traits found among successful women who started their own businesses: ambition, confidence, and innovation.
The rate of woman-owned businesses in the transportation sector is rapidly growing throughout the United States - and the world. Women now comprise 40 percent of new entrepreneurs in the U.S., while global female entrepreneurship rates have increased by 10 percent. While today’s women-owned businesses typically are small- or mid-sized companies, the female entrepreneurs who founded them are commonly able to overcome the many challenges facing them in order to start their own companies. There are consistently three common traits found among successful women who started their own businesses: ambition, confidence and innovation. In its third annual list of Top Woman-Owned Businesses, Women In Trucking’s Redefining the Road magazine highlights three individuals who have leveraged these traits to lead their company to success, along with an additional 14 female entrepreneurs who make up the 2021 Top Woman-Owned Businesses.
Ambition at AGT Global Logistics When she was a young girl, Angela Eliacostas was exposed to the benefits of hard work. Her father ran a trucking company and was on the road during most of the week. To spend more time with him, Angela would help her father fuel, park and wash his trucks while learning the
10 REDEFINING THE ROAD Edition 2 | 2021
transportation business along the way. In 2005, Angela launched her own firm called All Girls Transportation and Logistics, which focused on the nuclear power industry. She soon expanded to other industries.
Angela Eliacostas “My father always told me that as a woman in this industry, I would face many challenges, but hard work knows no gender,” says Eliacostas. “I sometimes encounter people who assume I’m just providing a front for the company, so we can earn woman-owned status. I smile, and they throw out question after question. By the time I’m done answering, I’ve gained their respect.” Today, AGT Global Logistics is a full-service, certified woman-owned third-party logistics company. With nearly 30 years of service and a special focus on the nuclear, fossil, and power industries, AGT has made a name as being a company that provides unbeatable customer service achieving the highest level of results. Angela was named 2020 “Top Influential Women Leaders in Supply Chain” by Global Women SC Leaders. In 2020, Redefining the Road magazine honored Angela as a “Top Women to Watch” and continued on page 12
