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 1,000 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 creating marketing strategies that meet the needs of the business, now and in the future.

Jane Dough is an entrepreneur who enjoys running her business and generally, she makes a nice living. 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 entrepreneurs fall in the category of Jane Dough.

Most Jane Dough business owners want their businesses to grow – and fast. Of all the five types, she’s the most likely to say she has a long-term vision of what she wants her company to be. Nearly all Jane Doughs say they have aggressive plans, and two-thirds of them want to deliver growth of 25 percent or more during the next few years. So what is Jane Dough looking for, in terms of marketing, and how can she get it?

• Return on Investment. Jane Dough is less worried about cash flow than her counterparts, even though she takes home less money than other successful entrepreneurs. This is because she reinvests more in her business to sustain high levels of growth. So she wants her investments to pay off. Therefore, Jane Dough is likely to invest only in marketing that she’s researched and that she believes will pay off. When she does invest, she’ll invest big. And because she has done the research, it will pay off.
• Systematic, measurable marketing. Jane Dough is thrilled to spend her time managing the business, fine-tuning the operations and marketing (as opposed to other types, who love “doing the work” of their business). Because she enjoys strategizing, she will want a marketing system she can track, so she can determine its success. For example, if she markets her web site and uses that to drive business, she may want a system in place to keep track of how many people visit the site, and how many of these visitors then make purchases from the site or call for services. She may consider a direct-mail campaign for people who visit the site and ask for more information but don’t buy – and could track those customers by using a coupon or special offer. She sees running her business as a kind of game – while she takes it seriously, she is in this for the long-term and enjoys tweaking her systems here and there for increased success.

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.

Because Merry Jane so values her time freedom, she must consider marketing systems that don’t require her to put in much extra time but still drive work her way. Finding the right balance means maintaining that time freedom and growing her revenue. Here are some tips for doing just that:

• For maximum marketing efficiency, Merry Jane must determine exactly who her marketing will target, and why this population will purchase her product or services. In doing so, her marketing will be as efficient as possible – so whatever time she does invest will produce a greater return. To easily and quickly determine her target market, Merry Jane can ask existing customers why they chose her and what they enjoy about working with her.
• Slow-growth strategies that build relationships over time. Many Merry Jane entrepreneurs juggle several responsibilities (such as taking care of the kids and household, taking care of aging parents or even working another full-time job). They want to meet those obligations well and have smooth-running lives – so they must implement processes that maximize efficiency. Networking, affiliate marketing and referral marketing all utilize processes that could take up as much or as little of Merry Jane’s time as she wanted – and have the potential to produce new clients and to boost her bottom line.

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.

Most Accidental Jane business owners are satisfied with the lifestyles they’ve created. They enjoy the freedom of choosing who they’ll work with and what kinds of projects they’ll work on. They enjoy the flexibility of owning their own businesses and not being tied to employers or employees. Their biggest challenge: the ups and downs of business, which result from the proportional downs and ups in their marketing efforts. When Accidental Jane is busy, she doesn’t put much effort into marketing. When things slow down, she steps up the marketing efforts until she’s busy again. The cycle continues, causing stress when business is slow, and stress when it picks up so much that it becomes overwhelming. What’s the solution?

• Keep Up the Good Work. In many cases, Accidental Jane is successful because she is highly skilled and committed to excellence in her work and in customer service. Often, Accidental Jane left the corporate workforce and struck out on her own, and her sterling reputation followed her, attracting business through referral and word of mouth. This, in itself, is a great marketing technique and as long as Accidental Jane continues to do the good work she demands of herself, she will thrive.
• Despite a great reputation and a stream of word of mouth referrals, Accidental Janes we surveyed expressed that they would like to level out cash flow. When Accidental Jane becomes engrossed in a project, she rarely takes the time to follow up on leads. A few tips to even out cash flow: if work is almost too abundant, she can say “yes” to only projects that fit a list of specific criteria and consider delegating less important tasks to an assistant. To keep the work flowing in, she can create an effortless, automated marketing system, such as a weekly tips newsletter or a “tweet bank,” which allows entrepreneurs to create dozens of tweets at once and then send them out on an automated schedule of her choosing. Also, she should remember to gather testimonials as projects wrap up, so they’re always at hand for marketing materials or as references (a note on testimonials: they don’t have to be forced or formal. Just acknowledge someone who gives the company a compliment and ask if it can be used as a testimonial. Type it out and send it to them for review. Use these testimonials on a web site or brochure, or just mention them in casual conversation).

Whether a female entrepreneur is striving for fast growth or just looking to maintain what she’s built, she can use marketing to get exactly that. With today’s marketing options ranging from traditional materials to 140-character messages on mobile devices, anything is possible – and being a business owner is more challenging and more rewarding because of it.

Susan’s motivations and rewards have changed over time. “In the beginning my desire was to create financial independence,” said Susan. “My plan was to create multiple streams of income and I succeeded in achieving my plan. In 2007, I became a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant, where I learned how to successfully run that particular business. Utilizing the marketing tools that were provided helped me with customer contact skills and sales achievement. Eventually, I managed my revenue to the point that this business became self sufficient.” Susan’s next venture was a purchase of two rental properties in 2007, with the ideal in mind that they would be provide her with a nest egg. As a business owner, she is rewarded daily or helping others to find a solution to a problem they were experiencing and having the problem resolved. “Freeing them to work on and enjoy other aspects or their lives is my ultimate goal,” said Susan.

The journey as an entrepreneur has brought her to a point where she can reflect on her recent Which Jane Are You? assessment as a Tenacity Jane. “In January of 2009 I started my most successful business to date by becoming an independent contractor with ArdyssInternational, marketer of health, and wellness products. With a team of over 200 distributors throughout the USA and Canada, we are marketing a unique product that has become a solution for me personally as well. The product is a Reshaping garment, called the ‘Body Magic Suit,’ which can help a woman to drop up to three dress sizes in 10 minutes. The use of the suit has helped me to lose 30 pounds in seven months as it applies gentle pressure on the abdomen and it creates a boundary for the stomach. When I eat my stomach starts to expand and when it cannot expand anymore due to the boundary of this suit I get the signal to stop eating and I do. Thus instant portion control and automatic weight loss.”

Susan’s greatest challenge in business is the real estate venture. “Renter transition costs, dealing with real people with real problems like domestic violence, resulting damage to my property – all these issues are hard for me emotionally,” said Susan. “I did plan for these ups and downs, yet I question the value of going on with this business over time.” When all is going well, Susan believes she is a Merry Jane. Her goal for the year 2010 is ambitious, as “I am certain my Ardyssbusiness will generate over a million dollars in sales we are definitely on target for it.”

Lessons learned from her experiences are truly heartfelt. “Have a strong support team in place to help you manage your fears as you go through difficulties,” advised Susan. “Learn to rely on your faith and work hard on learning to focus your attention on the goodness of other people, reinforce your positive experiences in your mind so the positive has a greater impact then the negative. Though multiple streams of income can be a good idea, it is in reality a strong pull on commitment, time, energy and resources.” Susan advises all Tenacity Janes to carefully consider those elements before stepping into a venture such as real estate.

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

This article focuses on a type of business owner known as Merry Jane, an entrepreneur who has created a business she enjoys and that meets her needs for time freedom. Consequently, she tends to be able to take time off on a regular basis-whether it’s to enjoy friends and family, her career/employment, or other passions and interests she may have. Merry Jane also typically has some other source of income (whether from her own employment, her spouse’s employment, or retirement/savings income), so she does not feel the extreme stress some other entrepreneurs encounter related to profitability. Though her business is not generating a large amount of income at the moment, Merry Jane is happy with the balance and freedom she’s created in her life. According to the study, roughly 19% of women business owners fit the Merry Jane type.

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 #1

Business can bring you happiness without taking over your life.

Merry Jane is an entrepreneur who loves what she’s doing and she knows that money will eventually follow. She may be creating a business to bring a particular talent (she may be a great jewelry-maker or a wonderful coach) or a product or service she truly believes in (such as many people who’ve had transformative experiences with products that have changed their lives and then they start businesses to promote those products) into the world. But whatever her business sells, Merry Jane knows that the world is a better place when she shares her gift or message … and she believes that eventually the money will come, though it is not her biggest focus at the moment.

As a result, she takes her greatest reward in terms of personal satisfaction and is glad for the chance to make a contribution in the time she’s allotted to working on her business – without it taking over her life. By combining love for her work with a structure that helps her do the other things she needs to do in life, she’s happily moving forward in her business.

Stay Tuned Tomorrow for lesson #2 from Merry Jane…