by Toni Tease, Billings Montana was ranked #1 for entrepreneurship and innovation by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2011, and Billings was named the #1 small city in which to launch a business by Fortune Small Business magazine in 2009. That’s good news but old news. What many people do not know is that Billings landed in the top 100 cities for women entrepreneurs in a study conducted by GoodCall in 2015. This study took into account female educational levels, year-to-year changes in gross domestic product, unemployment rate, and percentage of women-owned businesses, among other factors. As a patent attorney and someone who works with clients from the germination of an idea to a full-fledged business, this study was not surprising to me. My husband and I elected to move to Billings in 1995 over other, trendier parts of the state in large part because of the economic opportunities Billings has afforded us. With close proximity to Bozeman and the western parts of the state, Billings also provides easy access to Wyoming, eastern Montana and North Dakota. I feel privileged to have worked with a number of female inventors and entrepreneurs. Kim Ormsby is founder and CEO of GroVia, a Bozeman company that sells innovative cloth diapers and other natural baby products. Ormsby is the sole inventor on U.S. Patent No. 8,734,419 entitled “Cloth Training Diaper” and U.S. Patent No. 8,863,950 entitled “Hanging Diaper Pail.” She is also the first named inventor on U.S. Patent No. 8,115,050 entitled “Soaker Pad for Cloth Diaper.” It should come as no surprise that Ormsby was named 2010 Montana Small Business Award Person of the Year. Jeri McFarlane is another of our successful female clients. McFarlane, a resident of Riverton, Wyoming, has a patent (U.S. Patent Nos. 8,333,275) for her “Portable Jar Holder” invention, which is now licensed and distributed internationally. Staci Roberts of Sheridan, Wyoming, has a design patent (U.S. Patent No. D647,727) and a utility patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,109,476) for her baggie holder, which is sold online at www.thebagwell.com. Enell, Inc. of Havre, Montana, is a female-owned business that specializes in sports bras for well-endowed women. Renelle Braaten, founder and President, grew up in Havre, and her bras have been featured on Oprah and earned numerous awards. Braaten herself was honored earlier this year by Governor Bullock as recipient of the Montana Ambassadors Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The company blog includes articles with titles as tantalizing as “Things Only Well Endowed Women Will Understand” and “Goal Tattoos Mark Your Biggest Wellness Milestones.” We have worked with Enell in building its worldwide trademark portfolio. I think often of Evelyn Cameron, who—like me—did not grow up in Montana but who moved here for love and threw her heart and soul into developing a professional career in eastern Montana. As a professional photographer at the beginning of the 20^th century, Cameron often rode her horse alone for miles throughout the Badlands to photograph people, scenery and wildlife. As she put it, “For a woman with outdoor propensities and a taste for roughing it, there is no life more congenial than that of the saddle and rifle.” Her can-do attitude and sense of wonder is evident today in the women who have chosen to start businesses in Billings and other parts of the state.