In 1981, Connie Rishworth sat across from a loan officer at First National Bank of Olathe, Kansas, with six years of franchise experience and a solid business case. The message was clear because she held a degree in elementary education and wasn’t "really" running a company. Her husband had to sign. "I had to bribe him with a Corvette when the loan was paid off," she recalled.

Forty years later, her daughter, Candice Shum, is CEO of Culligan Water of Greater Kansas City. In six years under her leadership, revenue grew 144%, from $8 million to more than $22 million, while the company expanded from four employees to 80 across 30 counties in Kansas and Missouri. That places it among the 2.4% of all American women-owned middle market firms generating $20 million or more annually. Their story is not a tidy bootstrap narrative. It is a study of what it actually takes to succeed.

The Loan Came With A Legal Requirement: A Man's Signature

The co-signature requirement Rishworth encountered was not a banker's personal preference. It was grounded in law. Until the Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 , women in many states were legally required to have a male relative co-sign on business credit applications. Rishworth took out her SBA loan in 1981, seven years before that changed.

She got the money because the bank had watched her work for half a decade. The law, not her competence, was the obstacle.

Inside her father’s franchise, the picture was no cleaner. Her brother was being groomed for succession, even though Connie had the skills to run the business. When he fell gravely ill, her father came back to her.

Her first response was, "We tried this once before, and we don't work well together, so thank you. But no, thank you." He made a commitment: He would leave permanently. She agreed.

She Left With Four Employees And Did Not Ask Permission

Before that negotiation, Rishworth had already voted with her feet. When the succession math became obvious, she left her father’s franchise with four employees and launched Culligan Bottled Water of Greater Kansas City without asking permission from Culligan International. She became a competing dealer in the same territory as her father. A usual no no in franchising. When she eventually merged the operations, she walked away with two franchise territories instead of one.

For support in those early years, she had exactly one ally: a vice president at her Olathe bank who would sit with her books and explain why profitable on paper didn't mean cash in hand. Asked who else was in her corner, she said, unambiguously, "Nobody."

Only 6,004 Women-Owned Companies Reach $20 Million

Women own 40.6% of all U.S. businesses, employ 12.6 million people, and generate $2.8 trillion in revenue, according to The Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses . * Those numbers sound substantial until you look at what they represent in economic weight. Women-owned firms account for just 4.6% of total national business revenue, while men-owned employer businesses average $4.6 million annually versus $1.6 million for their women-owned counterparts.

The pipeline doesn’t narrow gradually—it dropped perciptiously. Women's ownership share starts at about 40% of all U.S. businesses, falls to 13.7% at the $1 million revenue mark, and collapses to 2.4% at $20 million or more, where men own 22.5% of firms.

Of the 1.4 million women-owned employer businesses in the country, only 273,000 generate $1 million or more in revenue, and roughly 6,000 have crossed into middle market territory. Culligan Water of Greater Kansas City is one of them, and getting there required three decisions Shum can name without hesitation.

Three Decisions Behind A $22 Million Run

Shum became CEO in 2019. When Rishworth stepped away from the building, several longtime team members left too, which, Shum acknowledged, was the opening she had needed to bring in people with fresh ides. "That was actually when things really started happening for me," she said.

Her governing principle on talent was clear: "I always believed that I needed people in the building who were smarter than me." The general manager she inherited reflexively said “no” to new ideas. When he left, Shum built a rock star team.

The Hire That Changed The Banker Conversation

Her first executive hire was CFO Aimee Clardy, brought on as a fractional hire before Shum was certain she couldn’t afford the role full-time. She quickly earned a full time status. Clardy changed the company's relationship with its lenders and made the financial case for two more executive hires: a director of sales and an ex-military operations director who, Shum noted, "came in, ruffled feathers and pissed everyone off," and then delivered. The four of them now plan in five-, seven-, and 10-year horizons.

The St. Joseph, Missouri, acquisition in 2023 followed the same pattern. Shum had called the dealership's owner every other month for years, taken him to lunch, and waited. When he was ready to sell but wanted more than the business was worth, she structured the deal as seller financing on the building, so the interest would flow to him rather than a bank. "I still send them checks in the mail every single month," she said.

The Architecture Problem Still Stands

At Culligan's exclusive dealer leadership meetings, held in Las Vegas and on the coasts, Rishworth was the only sole female owner. "I was the only female there in a group of eight to 10 men," she recalled. She bowed out gracefully.

Four decades later, when Shum joined YPO, a recruiter mentioned the forum loved having a woman because it "just adds a different perspective." Her immediate response was, "I don't want to be the token." She shopped forums until she found one with two other women.

Women now own 30–31% of U.S. franchises, up from 20.5% a decade ago. The gains are real. So is the structural isolation that persists in sectors like water treatment. Progress and persistent disadvantage are not mutually exclusive. They never have been.

She Pushes It Down And Keeps Going

Ask Shum what she has never said out loud, and she doesn't deflect. Imposter syndrome, insecurities, fear. These surfaces, she names them, and moves on. "I push them down, and I just keep going," she said. She added, "I had no idea how hard it was going to be to be a mother and be a business owner." She has three teenagers, missed Halloween parties, and skipped PTA meetings. The goal is to double revenue again.

Liz Malone has been a Culligan KC customer for 31 years, across both generations of ownership. For three decades, her family relied on Culligan to certify that a pond used as their primary water source was safe. "As a nurse, I've spent my career caring for people," Malone said, "and I can say without hesitation that Connie and Candice are among the kindest people I've ever met."

Women-owned businesses make up 40.6% of all U.S. firms and produce 4.6% of total national business revenue. The limits on that growth, concludes The Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses , "are not rooted in ambition or ability, but in the uneven playing field they're forced to navigate."

Connie Rishworth promised a Corvette and built a company. Candice Shum inherited it and more than doubled it. The next generation of women will take it even further.

*The author of this article co-produced The Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses.