A recent study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on female entrepreneurs reveals there are five distinct types of women in business. Each one has a unique approach to running a business – and therefore each one has a unique combination of needs. This article outlines each of the five types and provides some tips for each one to consider when hiring part-time help.

Jane Dough is an entrepreneur who enjoys running her business and makes good money. She is comfortable and determined in buying and selling, which may be why she’s five times more likely than the average female business owner to hit the million dollar mark. Jane Dough is clear in her priorities and may be intentionally and actively growing an asset-based or legacy business. It is estimated that 18% of women fall in the category of Jane Dough.

Because Jane Dough is a big picture girl, she sometimes gets going so fast that she misses important details. So when she’s ready to hire some help, she needs someone who is detail oriented and can keep an eye on all the small necessities that keep a business running smoothly. Also, Jane Dough loves to delegate, so she needs someone who can take direction but who also is willing to make (and capable of making!) smaller, day-to-day decisions on her own. Jane Dough can be very businesslike – because to her, business is business. So a similar-minded associate would be a good fit (rather than someone who will want to spend too much time chatting). Similarly, Jane Dough’s ideal assistant will be sufficiently assertive that she can get the busy Jane Dough’s attention when it is truly needed.

Tenacity Jane is an entrepreneur with an undeniable passion for her business, but who tends to be struggling with cash flow. As a result, she’s working longer hours, and making less money than she’d like. Nevertheless, Tenacity Jane is bound and determined to make her business a success. At 31% of women in business, Tenacity Janes are the largest group of female entrepreneurs.

If Tenacity Jane is ready to hire help, she needs someone who can work efficiently – someone who will lighten her load, and get the work done in as little time as possible. She also will want to seek out experts – people who can round out her areas of expertise and add new knowledge to her business, such as a bookkeeper. Tenacity Jane’s passion gives her the tendency to take on projects that seem promising but end up taking more time and energy than she has to give them. She will therefore also benefit from having a more experienced associate who can be a sounding board and debate the pros/cons of new projects before they dive in together.

Go Jane Go is passionate about her work and provides excellent service, so she has plenty of clients – but she’s struggling to keep up with demand. She may be a classic overachiever, taking on volunteer opportunities as well, because she’s eager to make an impact on the world and may really struggle saying “no”. Because she wants to “say yes” to so many people, she may even be in denial about how many hours she actually works during the course of a week. As a result, she may be running herself ragged and feeling guilty about neglecting herself and possibly others who are important to her.

Go Jane Go may be a perfectionist and definitely has high standards in her work. This can make it difficult for her to delegate, or even to admit she needs help. The most important traits for Go Jane Go to hire include finding someone she feels comfortable trusting and someone willing to challenge her to let go of more of the work. Focusing on delegating a few lower risk areas first may help foster increasing trust and delegation. Go Jane Go’s ideal candidate will also have high standards in his/her work and superior customer service skills. Finally, the new hire should have relevant experience because Go Jane Go will have relatively little time to train someone, given that she is already in great demand.

Merry Jane This entrepreneur is usually building a part-time or “flexible time” business that gives her a creative outlet (whether she’s an ad agency consultant or she makes beautiful artwork) that she can manage within specific constraints around her schedule. She may have a day-job, or need to be fully present for family or other pursuits. She realizes she could make more money by working longer hours, but she’s happy with the tradeoff she has made because her business gives her tremendous freedom to work how and when she wants, around her other commitments.

Freedom is important to Merry Jane, so she needs a self-starter when she hires help – someone who can tackle projects without a ton of oversight. This person needs to be able to make responsible decisions, and to multi-task so he or she can take care of all the details Merry Jane doesn’t have time for. On the other hand, Merry Jane needs to make sure her new team member can and is willing to get in touch with her if questions come up. Merry Jane is busy, and she’s focused on other things, so she may benefit from having a specific time each day or week to check in with her new hire to make sure things are running smoothly and well.

Accidental Jane is a successful, confident business owner who never actually set out to start a business. Instead, she may have decided to start a business due to frustration with her job or a layoff and decided to use her business and personal contacts to strike out on her own. Or, she may have started making something that served her own unmet needs and found other customers with the same need, giving birth to a business. Although Accidental Jane may sometimes struggle with prioritizing what she needs to do next in her business, she enjoys what she does and is making good money. About 18% of all women business owners fit the Accidental Jane profile.

Since she often started her own business because she wanted to avoid the corporate world’s politics, Accidental Jane will probably do best hiring a professional who is capable of managing him/herself well. That’s because Accidental Jane loves the freedom to come and go as she pleases and doesn’t want to feel shackled by having to run an office and “oversee” people. Rather than an actual hire, sometimes this might look like an overflow partner who can take over entire projects, or major components of projects, on Accidental Jane’s behalf. In keeping with the ability to self-manage, Accidental Jane will want relevant skill sets and substantial experience, so she can keep training and management to a minimum and preserve the freedom she enjoys.

In business, reaching the point where hiring someone becomes necessary means something is going right. Making sure to consider all the angles when taking on a new employee is an excellent – and essential – way to pave the way toward continued success.

1. Make sure both YOU and your BUSINESS are ready

Being ready to hire someone means making sure you’re mentally/emotionally ready and that the business is ready, too. Following are the signs that you are mentally/emotionally ready:

• You look forward to bringing someone else on board to help grow the business

• You recognize that by delegating some of the tasks you are doing now, you will create more “goodness” for your business or your life

• You want to create opportunity for someone else while also enriching yourself

• You are ready to train others to do what you do or lead others to create a big vision

• Even if you’re nervous about hiring, it’s an excited nervous, not dread

If you don’t feel mentally/emotionally ready but you know you need to hire someone because your workload is extreme, take some quiet time to create a list of pros and cons. Talk out these pros and cons with a trusted friend, ideally an entrepreneur who’s made the hiring leap. Recognize that you can hire in a very low risk way (by hiring a contractor for very few hours to start, and even on a “trial run”). Keep examining and building on your “pros” list until you can get excited about it – excited enough to want to overcome any fear and make the leap anyway.

Following are signs that your business is ready:

• You are spending 5 hours a week or more on work that could be delegated to someone else (and yes, this could include housecleaning and grocery shopping)

• You often do tasks you don’t enjoy or that are frustrating to do (sending invoices, making your own website changes, etc.)

• You can’t keep up with demand for your products/services so you’re leaving money on the table

• You are working more hours than you want

• You have a steady, ongoing base of satisfied customers you know you could tap for referrals or growth

• You have pet projects (like creating a new product) you are dying to work on but can’t get to because there’s no time

• You’re spending less than 50% of your time doing work

If your business is ready and you want business growth and/or if you are working too many hours, don’t delay – work on getting “yourself” ready to take this important next step in your business.

2. Plan ahead

Planning ahead means anticipating the following:

• What will the new hire’s responsibilities be (writing a job description)
• How does his/her role fit within the organization (org chart and/or process map/flow)
• What skills and characteristics must he/she have (create a list)
• How should the major tasks be completed (documentation, checklists, and/or process maps make it much easier to bring someone quickly on board with a minimum of training required or mistakes made)
• Where and when he/she will work
• Who he/she will be expected to interact with, how and when

Many entrepreneurs wait until they are in a desperate pinch for help before they hire. Often, they were doing the work themselves and want to simply hand it over to someone else to do – and there is little or no documentation to consider. In the absence of thinking through the above (and ideally writing it all down!), too often entrepreneurs will hire people they “like” instead of people who are right for the job. (See step 4.)

By taking the time to document as many of the items above as possible in advance of interviewing, you will be more effective at screening and interviewing applicants and will ensure a more seamless transition when a new person joins your team.

3. Consider your own style & needs

One of the reasons you became an entrepreneur is that you wanted control of your future or your time or the way you do your work. So before hiring someone else to join your business, get clear in your own mind about what’s important to you in when, where, how, and with whom you work. What are those non-negotiables you have to have in order to thrive? Some examples of needs (and the ways they might impact your hiring decisions) are:

• You need plenty of focused quiet time for planning and implementation (ideas: hire someone to work remotely, to work only certain days of the week, or have a door with an office and teach your team to leave you alone when the door is closed)
• You like keeping a flexible schedule, working different hours every day (ideas: hire someone remote, be willing to give them a key to your space, hire self-directed/self-motivated people)

When it comes to style, you don’t want to narrow your worldview to only hiring clones of yourself. Hiring new team members can be a great way to counterbalance your personality with traits that are opposite yours. For example, if you’re the outgoing, big-picture type who likes to blue sky with your clients, consider hiring someone more structured and detail-oriented who will be glad to hold down the fort while you’re out doing calls. Sometimes, opposites do work very nicely together.

At the same time, it might be important to you to have a close match when it comes to values. If you are a person who is happier working in a personal environment, where teammates know each others’ families and/or get together socially, seek to hire people who feel similarly. Conversely, if you are an “all business type,” water-cooler chatter might seem like an unproductive waste of time and ultimately frustrate you. In the case of both personal and work styles, make a list of those things that are really important to you so they will be factored into your hiring process.

4. Balance logic and intuition in the interviewing process

Armed with the detailed plans in Step 2, you have everything you need to make a logical hire. You will have a perfect checklist of information to uncover during the interview. Does the candidate have the right skills? Does he/she have experience doing similar tasks? Is he/she ready and able to work where, when, and how you want? Does he/she embody the personal characteristics you find desirable? Using logic (including calling references and checking your facts about the candidate) will help you make sure you hire someone with all the necessary skills and experience to do the job well.

But for entrepreneurs, hiring can’t be purely clinical. Tap into your intuition too. Armed with the facts about each candidate, then consider your own style and needs. Think about the culture of your company and the long-term vision you have. Your final selection should be the qualified candidate who feels like a good “fit”. After all, your business is your baby – and you deserve to have the best possible people on your team!