For more than 20 years, women have been starting businesses at twice the rate of men. However, the revenues of women-owned companies are still much smaller than those of firms owned by men.

According to the Center for Women's Business Research, men-owned firms are twice as likely as women-owned firms to earn more than $1 million in revenue per year. Moreover, the average revenues of majority women-owned businesses are still only 27 percent of the average of majority men-owned businesses.

Clearly, women are adept at starting companies, but why is it so difficult for us to grow them? Are women business owners choosing to stay small? Or are there issues and circumstances that we could overcome to increase the size of women-owned companies?

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Sharon Hadary suggests that the issues facing women business owners are multifaceted. After decades of research, Hadary says women often do not set high goals for business growth. And because they don’t plan for growth, they don’t achieve it. Hadary’s research shows women-owned firms may not develop systems and tools to set goals and track business performance, so when women seek capital to expand their companies, they often don’t have the financial records in place to prove to the banks that they are fundable and ready to grow.

Hadary discussed several ways for women entrepreneurs to address these issues. Here are two tips that I feel women business owners should focus on to catapult to a new path of growth:

Create a long term plan for growth and be ready to adapt accordingly Often training for women business owners is focused on the startup phase - i.e. how to write a business plan, how to market, how to budget cash for the first year you are in business. While starting the company is difficult, it’s just the beginning. Without a long-term vision and ongoing plan for growth, the company is likely to stay small.

The most successful female-owned firms look at the long term and realize the importance of goal-setting, measurement, reporting and forecasts. The Small Business Administration reports that more than 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first five years and cites “lack of experience” as the No. 1 reason for failure.

In my opinion, new business owners often do not anticipate the difficulties they’ll encounter after they start the company. Many of my local colleagues report that their biggest issues are anticipating and adapting to changes in the market, hiring and retaining the right team, managing cash flow through the ebbs and flows of their business cycle, and learning to be a strong, caring leader, manager and boss.

Learn from women who’ve gone before you Research shows women approach business in different ways than men, and they are more likely to relate to and learn from the experiences of women business leaders who have already achieved success. Successful women business owners seek out experienced mentors, build advisory boards, and establish business groups with women who can teach them what has worked in their experience and what hasn’t turned out so well.

Local and regional business organizations such as the Women Presidents’ Organization, the Women's Exchange of Washtenaw, Women Business Owners of Southeastern Michigan, NAWBO and Inforum offer opportunities for women who are leading growing companies to network, discuss pressing business issues and learn from each other’s successes and failures.

Some of the most successful female business leaders in our community rely on a trusted group of friends who also own companies. These clusters of women business owners gather on a timely basis for informal yet vital conversations where each woman can talk about her specific problems or struggles and get advice from the group on what actions are necessary to remedy her company’s issues.

Carrie Hensel is co-founder and CEO of Inner Circle Media and co-founder of the Women’s Exchange of Washtenaw . She writes this monthly column with WXW co-founder Debra Power.