Jackie has been in direct sales for the last 30 years and enjoys it as she has a love for planning parties and working around her schedule. She considers herself to be independent and a self starter. She was given an opportunity to start selling Stella & Dot in the Pacific Northwest, and was the first stylist in Washington State. Other motivations for success include her granddaughter who lives 2,000 miles from Jackie, but since she owns her own business, she has flexibility in her schedule to visit and to spend quality time with her. “She is my inspiration for doing this business,” said Jackie. “Prior to that, it was my children as they were growing up. I never missed any of their activities and feel very blessed to have had direct sales in my life all those years. It truly has given me the independence to work around my family’s schedule.”

Jackie finds that the biggest reward she has experienced is setting her own goals and achieving them one by one. “I love helping others achieve their goals,” said Jackie, “and it’s so rewarding to put a smile on someone’s face with beautiful jewelry. It’s a pampering thing for women and I truly believe that women do so much and they really need to take some time for themselves.“

“I am Merry Jane,” said Jackie. “It’s true that I do love my freedom and the interaction I have with other women both in my same profession and acquaintances I make at the trunk shows or just out and about. Even though the income is not exactly where I want it to be yet, I have goals that each day I’m working on. Any new business takes time and patience. I love what I do though and have so much fun at my trunk shows and mentoring others. I have a team of over 80 at this time.” Other Merry Janes should “Never give up,” said Jackie. “If you can dream it, you can achieve it. Just have to believe in yourself and truly believe that you have a gift to give others. Whether it’s the product or the business opportunity.”

Gazelle began her business as she needed the freedom to work when she could while raising two small children (ages four and five at the time) as well as being a caregiver to aging parents who are now deceased. “Being able to put God first and be here for my children who are now eighteen and seventeen is the biggest reward of owning my own business,” said Gazelle.

After taking the Which Jane Are You? assessment, Gazelle has discovered that she is a Merry Jane. “It sounds very much like me,” said Gazelle. “My accomplishment of eleven years in business has helped me move from an Accidental Jane to a Tenacity Jane to a Merry Jane. Now I’m looking forward to being a Jane Dough!” Gazelle’s advice for other Merry Janes is simple, “Never forget why you became a business owner and enjoy the perks.”

Because Merry Jane has such a unique approach to business, she presents a number of lessons of interest to anyone considering starting a business in their spare time.

Lesson #3

Keep the business simple and focus on the marketing.

Many Merry Janes are able to build businesses that meet their needs by doing one thing only and doing it really well. Whether they offer a specific type of coaching or whether they are selling a product, the key is to get as many customers buying their “one great thing” as possible. In fact, that’s really the primary challenge our Merry Jane friends report: “I know what I’m doing and how. I’ve got systems that will help me serve customers quickly, easily and well. How do I find more customers?” That’s where the marketing focus comes in.

When you have a systematized process that will allow you to take on more customers with minimal effort, it’s time to fine-tune your marketing. Because Merry Jane is generally trying to add income incrementally and not focused on growing a huge business immediately, one powerful method is using referral and frequent-customer techniques to grow her business.

If you’ve already incorporated these methods and/or if you need to grow more quickly, it’s time to experiment with other approaches. Have you built a simple web sales page that gives an enticing offer so you can collect contact information for prospects? Have you built a system to follow up on those leads? Do you have a regular communication vehicle to help you stay in front of your prospects regularly (like a free e-zine or tips newsletter) so they will remember to recommend and refer you? And, if you have all of these already, how could you fine-tune your language or your process to increase your success rate?

Finally, if all of these are working well for you, it may be time to consider incorporating additional marketing techniques, like trying Google Ad Words, buying classified ads in ezines or local newspapers, holding a free teleseminar, or any of a dozen different business building tactics. The key is to pick one new method and test it to see how it works for your business. Then systematize it, perfect it and seek the next marketing idea. This stepwise approach is a great way to improve your marketing effectiveness without making yourself crazy.

These are 3 great lessons to be learned from Merry Jane. Why not implement them into your business today?

<–Read part 1……………<–Read part 2