Gina Dallesandro, of Stow, co-owns Quez Marketing, a just-started, Cleveland-based, full-service marketing firm.

The company is in a converted factory at East 40th Street and Payne Avenue.

"We're a brand new firm and we just started out in July 2009," Dallesandro said.

Gina is partners with Jose Vazquez.

She enjoys being her own boss. She previously worked at other marketing firms.

"Being able to think outside the box, to do something and not have to go to someone else and say I can do this. That's what I enjoy," Dallesandro said.

The survey was done by the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute.

It projects women-owned companies will create up to 5.5 million of the 9.7 million jobs small businesses create over the next eight years.

Quez currently has five full-time and three part-time workers.

But Dallesandro says the company is now recruiting for several new positions.

"We have been looking for talent for the last few months...We just hired someone and are looking to add more people," Dallesandro said.

The survey found women business owners focus more on customers , are more willing to take advice, and are less likely to be strict, "top-down" managers.

"Most of us, being mothers, are good at accepting criticisms and being able to be more flexible...In this economy, building relationships and doing that follow-up are more important than ever," she said.

Dallesandro is an active member of COSE, the Council of Smaller Enterprises, the small business advocacy group.

The survey also found women-owned businesses are more likely to be self-funded and less dependent on banks for financing.

Many women apparently believe that, without a glass ceiling, entrepreneurship is more rewarding than climbing the ever more  precarious corporate ladder.

WKYC-TV