A new study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on women entrepreneurs, recently revealed there are five distinct types of women in business. Each of these five types have unique approaches to running a business – and as a consequence, each of them has a unique combination of characteristics and factors. Last week we profiled Jane Dough, Merry Jane and Tenacity Jane. This article profiles our remaining two Jane “types” and the different ways they may handle hiring a team and all its intricacies.

Go Jane Go is passionate about her work, and has no problem marketing and selling herself, 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 or sometimes feel guilty about the list of goals not yet achieved.

Until now, Go Jane Go has always thought she could do everything herself. And why not? She is successful, she knows what she’s doing, and she’s smart. But she’s overwhelmed, and the simple fact that she’s even considering hiring a team means she must really be ready. Throughout the hiring process, Go Jane Go will be torn between hiring people she simply likes and hiring people she knows will get the job done.

Pros and cons:

• Pro: Business is all about relationships for Go Jane Go. So when she’s putting a team together, she’ll be making a commitment to the people she hires – she’ll care about their success and they’ll be drawn to her as a result.

• Con: Go Jane Go, in her desire to create a wonderful working and growing environment for everyone, may hire people based on their “potential” rather than their true skills today. She may overlook some weaknesses or developmental areas and as a result, may find herself needing to do more training than anticipated. Because she may avoid what she perceives as confrontation, Go Jane Go might begin “cleaning up after” her own team, thereby putting more work (and frustration) on her plate.

• Pro: Go Jane Go knows ALL the intricate details of how her business runs, and she knows exactly how she wants things done in the way that best meets her business’ needs. Further, she’s intuitive in working with others.

• Con: Because she’s intuitive, has high standards, and is accustomed to doing everything herself, Go Jane Go may have a very difficult time delegating. Because she runs her business intuitively, she may also not realize that she has an underlying system she follows to do the work. As a result, she may not have documented steps for each team member to follow and may again find herself doing more training or explaining than she expected.

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. Accidental Jane enjoys what she does and is creating a satisfactory level of income.

Some Accidental Janes got out of the corporate world because they were fed up with the politics. Others simply want to be in control of their own destiny. Because many Accidental Janes were so good at what they did when they worked full-time, it’s just a matter of time before the demand for their services grows to the point that they need to hire some help.

Pros and cons:

• Pro: Tired of political games in big corporations, Accidental Jane is determined not to create an overly structured, constraining work environment. She wants people to feel empowered.

• Con: Hiring a team can seem daunting to Accidental Jane if she feels like she escaped from the corporate world. She may feel reluctant to commit to employees because she doesn’t want to feel shackled to an office or a particular schedule – for this reason she might prolong hiring someone as long as possible.

• Pro: She’s so good at what she does, clients are clamoring for Accidental Jane’s service or product.

• Con: If she waits too long to hire someone, based on concerns of having to return to a very structured work life, Accidental Jane will miss out on the joys of working with part-time contractors who can make valuable contributions to her business. She may find herself needing to rush the hiring process by waiting too long to begin.

All in all, hiring a team can, and should, be an exciting time in the life of a business. For women entrepreneurs who are just plain tired and feel like they need the help, putting in place an excellent group of helpers can be just what the doctor ordered.

A new study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on women entrepreneurs, recently revealed there are five distinct types of women in business. Each of these five types have unique approaches to running a business – and as a consequence, each of them has a unique combination of characteristics and factors. This article profiles three of the Jane “types” and the different ways they may handle hiring a team.

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.

To Jane Dough, business is business. In her world, systems and efficiency share the throne. When hiring a team, she is likely to choose members based on their specific skill sets and how those skill sets and their exacting implementation will affect the system she plans on using.

Pros and cons:

· Pro: Because Jane Dough is a pragmatic business owner, she’ll choose team members who know what they’re doing, and do it well.

· Con: Because Jane Dough is so focused on pragmatism, she may hire team members who don’t get along well with each other – personalities aren’t as important to her as efficiency and a job well done. But down the road, conflicting personalities may negatively impact the system she loves.

· Pro: Jane Dough’s fast pace means she gets a lot done and doesn’t waste too much time waffling on decisions about whether to hire someone.

· Con: That fast pace is enough to make anyone’s head spin, and if Jane Dough isn’t careful she may overlook a candidate with better long-term potential in favor of someone who fits the bill right now – putting her future self at a disadvantage.

Merry Jane. This entrepreneur has other significant life priorities in addition to building her business. She may have a day job, a family to focus on, or other pursuits. She’s building her business, often part-time, around the needs of these other priorities. She recognizes that she is making tradeoffs in income (she could create more money with her business if she put more hours in), but it’s the right thing to do in her life right now. She loves the freedom her business affords her to contribute to her household while having control over her time.

Because Merry Jane is “freedom-focused,” she’ll need a team that allows her to continue working as many or as few hours as she wants to, which means that she’ll have to be flexible with their schedules, too.

Pros and cons:

· Pro: Merry Jane loves her freedom, so she’ll hire dependable people who can do their jobs without a ton of direction.

· Con: Loving her freedom can come at a price – because her business may not be her first priority, communication may slip from time-to-time. If her team is unclear in what they need to do or if they take too much accountability, this can create problems for Merry Jane.

· Pro: Hiring people means that Merry Jane can delegate some of her work and therefore have even greater flexibility.

· Con: Creating a team also adds responsibility, of which Merry Jane already has plenty – she’ll need to face payroll, meetings, e-mails and phone calls that she didn’t deal with before – and this may mean more administrative work than she anticipated.

Tenacity Jane is an entrepreneur with an undeniable passion for her business, but who is struggling (a little or a lot) with the business’ financial performance. 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 single group of female entrepreneur.

Tenacity Jane’s greatest asset is her attitude. She may feel overwhelmed at times but she keeps on keeping on because she truly believes in the business she’s building and she wants to make it work. As she seeks to hire a team, Tenacity Jane will seek people with great attitudes like her own.

Pros and cons:

· Pro: Tenacity Jane feels like she can make this work, despite having faced many business challenges – she has a positive, “keep chugging” attitude.

· Con: When hiring a team, attitude isn’t enough. Tenacity Jane may be drawn to people who are also enthused about her business, but does she take the time to (and does she know exactly how to) evaluate their skills, experience, and preparedness to do the work at hand?

· Pro: Tenacity Jane loves her business concept and can see the big vision of what it can be someday, which may include a large team sometime down the road.

· Con: Because she is focused on the “ultimate” vision, Tenacity Jane may not map out the path to get there step-by-step. If this happens, she runs the risk of hiring too many people too soon (and then not being able to retain them) or hiring them in the wrong order to maximize business growth.

Whether hiring a team is strictly business, or it’s a small part of a grand scheme, it’s a big deal. Women entrepreneurs shouldn’t go into it without a solid idea about who to hire, what they’ll do and how they’ll do it – and how all of that will affect the business in the short- and long-term. From Jane Dough to Merry Jane to Tenacity Jane, business owners must get a plan in place before hiring to ensure the step from one-woman-band to marching band sounds great.

Next week, learn what the unique combination of characteristics and factors are for Go Jane Go and Accidental Jane.