Women trying to go big in business face far more dismal success rates than their male counterparts: Only 3 percent reach $1 million in annual revenue. In the first part of "Scaling Chronicles," a three-part series, Forbes contributor Jean Tang interviews five successful women entrepreneurs to get to the bottom of the challenges women face with scaling—and how they might beat them. Forbes - In my inaugural Scaling Chronicles, I mention how few women entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue (“three percent,” according to Million Dollar Women). I heard from several female founders that this statistic was egregious, and I agree.

To figure out what gives, I convened five other women business owners one morning to discuss their particular challenges with scaling. What were some of our collective strengths? What did we perceive as weaknesses….and were our fears justified? Together, could we derive a model for scaling a female-owned business?

What follows—in a three-part series—are observations, revelations and excerpts from the lively discussion that ensued.

Visit Forbes to read the whole series, complete with observations from million-dollar CEOs and owners of service-based businesses.