A recent study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on female entrepreneurs, reveals there are five distinct types of women in business. Based on professional market research of more than 2,500 women in business, this study shows that each type of business owner has a unique approach to running a business and to handling the other details of her life – and therefore each one has a unique combination of needs. This article outlines two of the five types and provides tips for making the most of their relationships.

Tenacity Jane is an entrepreneur with an undeniable passion for her business, and one 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 make up the largest group of female entrepreneurs.

While Tenacity Jane’s passion is what will lead to her business’ strength and growth over time, it also may get in the way of her forming healthy relationships while she is working so hard at the business.

• In business: Tenacity Jane wants so badly for her business to succeed that she sometimes ends up bending over backwards for difficult clients, putting her own needs on the backburner. Not only will this habit drain her business resources (as she pours time and therefore money into clients that will take as much as they can get), but it also will drain her emotional reserves as she struggles to satisfy clients who simply will not be satisfied – to the point of her own exhaustion. Therefore, Tenacity Jane must set limits for herself with her clients. If she feels like a relationship with a client or colleague is draining, and she cannot satisfy the client or colleague, she must consider ending that professional relationship. Ending a draining relationship will provide Tenacity Jane with more energy and time resources to seek new, healthy clients that are beneficial for both parties.
• At home: Again, because Tenacity Jane has so much passion for her business, she runs the risk of neglecting her personal relationships. In addition, because Tenacity Jane often lacks focus and is working on several ideas or projects at once, she may believe she doesn’t have time for rest or relaxation – and that can be frustrating for the people who love her. By finding focus in her business, Tenacity Jane can better manage her time – and she can then challenge herself to make more time for the important relationships in her life.

Go Jane Go is passionate about her work and provides excellent service, so she has plenty of clients – so much so, she’s struggling to keep up with demand. At 14% of women in business, she may be a classic overachiever, taking on volunteer opportunities as well, because she’s eager to make an impact on the world and she often struggles to say 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 others who are important to her.

Go Jane Go, the epitome of a people person, is as generous as anyone could possibly be – whether it’s by offering her time as a volunteer or running a business designed to help people. So while it may seem like relationships should come easily to this fantastically people-oriented entrepreneur, her generosity may cause a few challenges.

• In business: Go Jane Go takes business very personally, which results in a double-sided relationship coin. The positive side: her employees and team members often feel valued, appreciated and listened to. The challenges: She may hire someone she really likes even if that individual is under qualified for the job. She also may work unceasingly to provide opportunities for an employee who always claims to be interested but never follows through. In cases such as these, Go Jane Go must work to think of business as business, so she doesn’t drain her own resources trying to help others.
• At home: Go Jane Go is committed to everything she does. She is committed to her business, her volunteer opportunities, and her friends and family. She undoubtedly will put others before herself, every time. Although this may work for a while, she eventually will end up feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Plus, if one person in a relationship is always giving, the relationship is not built on a strong, two-way foundation, and will eventually risk crumbling. To remedy this, Go Jane Go must carefully examine her own needs – and then make sure they are met. She should schedule time for herself into her calendar (and honor it), and she also should take turns with her spouse, children and friends when choosing restaurants, movies or other leisure-time activities – and when making more important decisions.

Each type of female entrepreneur exhibits her own natural tendencies as she participates in relationships, just as she does in running her business. While some of those tendencies may result in relationship challenges, the good news is that with a little extra work, every entrepreneur can learn to create a balance that leads to harmonious, healthy relationships.

After starting her own business with an underwhelming amount of support from those around her, Tricia began her business to empower others by sharing her gifts and experiences and living life to the fullest. “People set goals around what society expects or what friends and family believe should be done versus what they really want,” asserts Tricia. “When entrepreneurs, especially women, decide to go create their dream business, all of a sudden there is contention in the relationships closest to them. The status quo has changed. Instead of the support they expected, there is a lack of communication and understanding. I love working with women entrepreneurs, helping them to create a supportive environment while pursuing their dreams and increasing productivity in their business.”

After taking the free Which Jane Are You? assessment at www.JaneOutoftheBox.com, Tricia discovered that she is a Tenacity Jane. “Even before taking the assessment I realized that was my profile,” says Tricia. “As a Tenacity Jane, I have stumbled more times than I care to admit between sales, marketing, creating a web site, and oh yes, auto responders. The assessment resonated as I have the ability to see the big picture, yet I’m missing a few of the details. I have since put steps into place so that I see the big picture broken up into smaller bits so I do not get overwhelmed. I am determined to empower as many people as possible so they do not give up on themselves or their business.”

Tricia’s tips for other Tenacity Jane’s are:

1. Do not lose hope or lose sight of your goals
2. Challenge yourself every day
3. Push past your boundaries
4. Persevere in the face of fear
5. Believe in yourself and that you can do it
6. Give everything except up

Accidental Jane
Accidental Jane has her own mug!

Let her tell you about accidentally starting a business.

Jane’s Got a Bag
See Jane Succeed – all the Janes got together to feature a tote! You can be green use it for groceries or for any big project you need to carry.

Tenacity Jane
Tenacity Jane has her own mug!

Let her tell you what makes her so tenacious about her business.

Go Jane Go
Go Jane Go has her own mug!

Let her tell you about her drive.

Jane Dough
Jane Dough has her own mug!

Let her tell you about her vision for her business.

Merry Jane
Merry Jane has her own mug!

Let her tell you why she merrily is a business owner.

See Jane Succeed Mug
See Jane Succeed – all of the Janes together on one mug!

Now this is teamwork and networking at its finest.

Accidental Jane is asuccessful, 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 then she 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, thus 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.

Accidental Jane business owners often started their businesses by accident; after having been laid off, or to create a product they needed but couldn’t find, or to get out of corporate politics. They sought to leverage their unique talents and interests. Rather than developing a grand plan for a big company, they simply wanted to get paid for work they enjoy. Accidental Jane defines success by having just the right amount of income and work, and by having the ability to make her own rules, set her own schedule, choose who to work with and what to work on, and feeling happy with her life. Accidental Jane business owners are more likely, on average, than other business owners to report feeling satisfied with how much they work, the costs of running their businesses, their stress level and their revenue. Because her business often started as an evolution of circumstances, Accidental Jane often lacks a clear vision – and mostly, responds to the market& rsquo;s needs.

This type of entrepreneur is exceptionally good at what she does. So over time, demand is sure to increase. When it comes to planning for the future, then, Accidental Jane must make a decision: should she remain an Accidental Jane, and enjoy her Accidental Jane lifestyle? Or should she change her type and go big?

Here are some considerations an Accidental Jane business owner might want to make, with regard to the future:

• Remaining an Accidental Jane means eventually saying no to new work if the workload exceeds what is comfortable. It means hiring a team (which may make Accidental Jane feel tied down). It might also mean raising rates as a way to tamp down high demand. These may seem like difficult decisions for someone who loves being a solo-preneur, loves her freedom and also loves her customers.
• Trying to remain an Accidental Jane means the possibility of becoming another type of entrepreneur – but Accidental Jane has the power to determine which type. If she continues to try to handle everything herself, she may become a Go Jane Go, overwhelmed but financially successful. On the other hand, if she creates a great plan that includes hiring help, marketing her products and services, and continuing to work as dependably as she has been, then she may become a Jane Dough, a financially successful entrepreneur who’s satisfied with her work-life balance.

Tenacity Jane is an entrepreneur with an undeniable passion for her business, and one 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 make up the largest group of female entrepreneurs.

More than any of the other types of business owners, Tenacity Jane will benefit from some serious planning. Because she’s a big-picture gal, Tenacity Jane often lacks the focus she needs to drive her business forward.

Tenacity Jane’s best planning steps:

• Examine the business concept and business model. Any business owner should ask herself these questions: “What is your business?” “What do you offer your customers?” While many Tenacity Jane business owners know what they’re good at and where their passion lies, they have trouble saying exactly what they offer. For example, a trained life coach may coach business owners and executives. She may do writing and public speaking. But to list all those things doesn’t provide customers with a concise, easy-to-understand idea of exactly what she offers. Here’s an example of what she could express as her business concept: “In my business, we’re experts at helping business leaders be more effective, so they can make more money with less stress.” That’s an attention-grabber that answers the two questions, “what is your business,” and “what do you offer your customers?” Once a business owne r has her concept nailed down, she should determine whether the business, in its current model, can make money. Will people want to pay what she’s charging, for the service or product she’s offering? If so, is that enough to sustain her business and her personal expenses? A Tenacity Jane with a solid business concept and plan is on her way to a solid future.
• Set specific goals – and start taking real steps toward achieving them. At first, this task may seem overwhelming. However, the key to getting into the habit of goal-setting and achieving is to create one moderate – or a few smaller-sized goals to start with immediately, and then take steps to achieve them, one at a time. In the very short term, it is appropriate to choose one to three goals that will have the biggest impact on the entrepreneur’s business and personal life. To take those steps toward achieving goals, Tenacity Jane can create a step-by-step plan for each goal. For example, one of her goals may be to launch a new web site. While “launch a new web site” is just one line item on a goal list, Tenacity Jane can break that down into several weekly sub-lists. Week 1 may entail reviewing the existing web site, asking customers to let her know what they like and what they’d change, and asking friends and other busines s owners for web site designer referrals. Week 2 may entail deciding what will be the overall components of the site, whether to write the copy or hire someone to do it, and calling the referred designers to get pricing, timelines, examples and references. Providing herself with “baby steps” that she can easily accomplish will get Tenacity Jane on the road to the future she’s dreamed of – one step at a time.

While some business owners launch their companies with detailed plans as to what their futures hold, others have started and run their businesses for months or even years before they begin to create solid blueprints. One thing remains true for them all: it’s easier to travel toward the future if the future is visible. Sometimes planning for the future is as simple as planning for the future.

Each piece is a handmade work of art, produced in the USA. Joanne and her partner, Dennis Wolk, started Project Pony, a program that recycles fabrics and “unwearable” clothing into unique one-of-a-kind items supporting green initiatives and local communities. “We take things that are not saleable and create beautiful works of wearable art that are then sold at various events to benefit a local charity that we feel follows our ideals.” says Joanne. “Our goal is to mentor young designers to think ‘out of the box’ to create things from existing elements creating sustainable clothing that is also artful.”

After setting specific goals when she was in high school, Joanne identified that she wanted to own her own business by the time she reached 30. “I knew by my freshman year in high school that I wanted to design clothing,” said Joanne. “Since an early age I designed and made clothing and sweaters for my dolls. When I was 29, I quit my job as a Design Director and began my entrepreneurial journey.”

The greatest reward Joanne gets from owning her own business is making women smile and look beautiful. “When a customer tells me, for example, that she has breast cancer and she is feeling particularly down, but she has chosen to wear one of my pieces because it cheers her up – that just touches my heart.”

After taking the free Which Jane Are You? assessment at www.JaneOutoftheBox.com, Joanne discovered that she is a Tenacity Jane. “When I read about Tenacity Jane I knew even before I took the test that that was me,” mused Joanne. “It was like it was written for me. I have been in business for 18 years. In the early years, the business grew but I always wanted it to be bigger. The downturn in the economy has taken quite a toll and I worry about the finances. I want to be financially successful. I believe in what I do and enjoy wonderful customers. One of my biggest struggles is exposure, because my strength is in my creativity, not in marketing or self-promoting. So, I work hard and never give up – nose to the grindstone.”

During the start up phase of her business, Joanne was an Accidental Jane. “Even though I had a goal, I really did not have a plan. Everything just happened in an organic way. I loved what I was doing, the business was growing in spite of me.”

Joanne has some hard-earned advice for other Tenacity Janes. “I have probably been a Tenacity Jane for most of the time I have run my business,” said Joanne. You can’t give in to the worry; if you focus on it, it will destroy you. The best advice I can give is to try to live in the moment and enjoy the process. At the end of the day the satisfaction needs to surpass the money. I have learned to work with the challenges. Never give up.”

Joy & I at our own mastermind event this past March

This is a 90-day opportunity for you to get ongoing mentoring from Joy and I, and for you to meet and share support with like-minded business owners who also are striving for improved financial success. One main aspect of the mentoring you’ll receive is that we will answer your questions and hold you accountable. Read more about the “Momentum Mastermind” at www.janeoutofthebox.com/momentum

The even better news? I’m partnering with my good friend and excellent mentor Joy Chudacoff of Smart Women Smart Solutions to offer women business owners in your shoes a FREE opportunity to learn exactly which steps they need to take to get out of their Tenacity Jane phase and become their ideal entrepreneurial type. For example, we’ll provide you with a concrete action plan for moving your business from where it is today, to where you want it to be – all by changing your entrepreneurial type. We’re going to explain how you can use the passion and determination we so admire, and turn it into the profit you need. The call, “Beyond Tenacity – Become Your Ideal Entrepreneurial Type,” takes place Thursday, April 1 at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Join us by registering here: www.janeoutofthebox.com/beyond

A recent study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on female entrepreneurs, reveals there are five distinct types of women in business. Based on professional market research of more than 2,500 women in business, this study shows that each type of business owner has a unique approach to running a business – and therefore each one has a unique combination of needs. This article outlines two of the five types and provides tips for tracking a business’ systems and using information gleaned during that research to provide a strong future.

Tenacity Jane is an entrepreneur with an undeniable passion for her business, and one who tends to be struggling with cash flow. As a result, she’s working longer hours, and making less money than she’d like to be. 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.

For this business owner, measuring performance is absolutely imperative because doing so will allow her the opportunity to see which systems are working and which aren’t, and therefore, to better leverage her limited resources.

By talking candidly with customers, Tenacity Jane can learn a lot about which aspects of her company bring in money, and which do not. Many Tenacity Jane business owners lack a singular focus, and therefore, they are working on a variety of things at once. It’s likely that a Tenacity Jane may try advertising in several venues at the same time, believing that if she advertises in many places, she has a better chance of catching a customer’s attention. However, she may be better served by her marketing efforts if she performs some research to determine where customers are really finding out about her. For example, let’s say she’s spending several hundred dollars per month advertising in the newspaper and on the radio. In talking to customers, she learns that most of them don’t read the newspaper, but they heard her ad on the radio. She could save money by skipping the newspaper advertising, or make her spending more effective by pumping it only into radio advertising.

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 then she 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, thus 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.

Many of the Accidental Jane entrepreneurs we interviewed expressed a high level of contentment. They are happy with the amount of money they make, and they are often working the way they want, with whom they want, at the times they want, without feeling overloaded. Some, though, reported feeling stressed as their business ebbs and flows, depending on their marketing efforts. For Accidental Jane, measuring performance metrics can provide two basic improvements to her lifestyle: it can maintain consistency in Accidental Jane’s workload, and it can help her to increase her profit without much additional effort.

Because she is a consummate professional, Accidental Jane’s customers usually provide her with positive feedback. This is a great way to gather testimonials (just ask!), and it’s also a gauge of what’s working. Accidental Jane also can create an effortless, automated marketing system that helps her maintain her workflow, and then she can use software to determine which marketing technique is drawing customers. She may use tweets to draw people to her web site, and/or send out a weekly newsletter. Software can keep track of which people visited her web site after receiving tweets, and which visited after receiving a weekly newsletter – and which of those bought a product or service. In this way, Accidental Jane can almost effortlessly keep track of which of her marketing techniques are working, and which aren’t.

No matter how successful a business owner and her business are, she can make continued improvements by paying careful attention to which systems are working. Whether she can dedicate more resources to a more successful marketing campaign or take the resources from a weaker campaign and put them toward another business need, tracking performance metrics allows her to maximize efficiency and capitalize on success.

A recent study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on female entrepreneurs, reveals there are five distinct types of women in business. Based on professional market research of more than 2,500 women in business, this study shows that each type of business owner has a unique approach to running a business and therefore each one has a unique combination of needs. This article outlines three of the five types and provides tips for managing their time more effectively for the greater success of the company and for the overall well-being of the business owner.

Merry Jane. This entrepreneur is usually building a part-time or “flexible time” business which 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.

A multi-faceted woman, Merry Jane is adept at multi-tasking and has a true desire to meet every one of her obligations well and with care. Overall, the Merry Jane entrepreneurs we’ve spoken with feel satisfied with the balance they’ve found between their work and personal lives, and would like to increase their business’ income without putting in significantly more time. Of the five types of entrepreneurs, Merry Jane is least in need of time management advice – however, following are some tips she may consider to increase her profitability without giving up her precious time freedom. Discipline and systems are key in all aspects of Merry Jane’s life – and she can further implement those assets to maintain her satisfaction while increasing her business’ bottom line.

• Marketing. Efficiency is the most crucial element of Merry Jane’s marketing systems. They need to be effective without requiring a large time investment on Merry Jane’s part. To ensure marketing efficiency, Merry Jane must identify her target market and create a clear marketing message (a quick and easy way to identify her target market is to ask existing customers what they like most about working with her). Marketing systems that do not require significant time investments include social networking and referral/affiliate marketing.
• Hiring. Merry Jane enjoys that her business allows her to bring her talents and creativity to bear in serving her customers. Once her new marketing systems increase her workload (and therefore her income), she may find it practical to hire a helper or two to take care of the business tasks she finds less desirable, such as bookkeeping or errand-running. Doing so will allow Merry Jane to delve into her creativity and maintain the time freedom she wants and needs in order to meet all her obligations (including her own well-being).

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 then she 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.

While many Accidental Jane business owners run their businesses successfully for years, striking the careful balance of enough, but not too much work, others aren’t as certain of what they want. This makes sense, since many Accidental Janes did not set out to start a business, and they often simply respond to the market’s demand for services. For these women, the future may present some tough choices – and how she deals with these choices will determine whether she remains an Accidental Jane or develops into another type of business owner. She is so good at what she does that the demand for her services will likely increase over time. So how can she maintain the time-freedom lifestyle she so enjoys?

• Filter. If her workload becomes overwhelming, Accidental Jane will have to begin saying, “no” to at least some new projects or clients. To decide which projects or clients to take on, and which to pass on, she can create a “non-negotiables” filter to determine whether a project or client meets the criteria she develops. For example, if it’s important for her to enjoy working with her clients, she may pass on a new client with whom she doesn’t click. If it’s important to her to stretch her creative muscles, she may take on only projects that demand that of her. In this way, Accidental Jane can ensure she’s working only on projects she enjoys, while acquiring only the amount of work she wants. Similarly, Accidental Jane can create a list of personal tasks she really enjoys and tasks she doesn’t care for. If possible, she can hire someone to take on the tasks she doesn&rs quo;t care for, leaving her more time to work on what she enjoys.
• Pricing. It’s great to be in demand! If Accidental Jane begins to feel overwhelmed, she may consider examining her pricing and raising her rates. Whether she started her business with intentionally low rates and then never raised them, or she resisted raising her rates because she didn’t want clients to question her value, if the demand for her services has increased beyond what’s comfortable for her, Accidental Jane likely has room for increases now. To determine where her prices fit within her industry, she can research published prices or ask trusted customers how her competitors’ prices compare.

Tenacity Jane is an entrepreneur with an undeniable passion for her business, and one who tends to be struggling with cash flow. As a result, she’s working longer hours, and making less money than she’d like to be. 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.

Of the Tenacity Jane business owners interviewed, 90 percent reported dissatisfaction with cash flow, and the majority said they were unhappy with revenue, business costs or personal income from their business. Despite these financial markers, most Tenacity Jane business owners work longer hours than they’d like to and frequently feel frustrated or stressed. It is possible to shift this balance so the hard work and long hours pay off.

• Focus. Our research revealed that many Tenacity Jane business owners were running in several directions at once. Their ultimate vision included multiple streams of income, and these entrepreneurs were often trying to activate all those streams at the same time. To ensure that her time is well-spent and to get her business on more solid financial footing, Tenacity Jane must find a focus. A thorough examination of her business concept and model (what, exactly, is her business offering customers, and is it possible to make enough money with the current business model?) can help her determine whether she needs to make any changes. She can focus on creating a “point of entry” for the business – what does it do? – and then develop 1 to 3 benefits (what does the customer get from what the business does?) to go with it. Not only can Tenacity Jane use these ideas for marketing, they will also he lp her develop a true focus so she can work more efficiently.
• Set Goals. For Tenacity Jane, who is often exhausted by her ongoing financial struggles, even developing goals may seem overwhelming – because actually reaching them may seem improbable. Once she’s determined her business’ direction, though, setting and achieving goals will keep her focused and efficient so the time she does spend on her business is effective. The key is to start making steady progress, one step at a time. For starters, she can choose 1 moderate, or up to 3 small goals to work toward during a one month or 6 month interval. focusing on the goals that will have the biggest impact on her business and life. With practice, goal-setting (and achieving!) will become life’s paradigm.

While strong time management skills can streamline a business’ systems and increase its profitability, they also can improve an entrepreneur’s work-life balance and create overall satisfaction. Every type of business owner can improve her time management abilities – and therefore her level of happiness in her work and her life.

Are you passionate about your business, but still struggle with cash flow issues? Then we have something special for you! We created this video to tell you a little more about it, so check it out, then visit www.janeoutofthebox.com/passionate for more details.

Can’t see the video? Click here to watch.