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How Do The Five Janes Handle Bookkeeping Challenges?
Posted on June 18, 2009 - Filed Under Jane Thoughts, Which Jane Are You?
When the numbers don’t add up in a business, it can wreak havoc on a day-to-day basis and additional headaches at tax-time. But while no one enjoys having an accounting crisis on their hands, the five different Janes are likely to respond to that crisis in different ways.
Let’s look at how 2 of those Janes would deal with a bookkeeping crisis: Jane Dough and Accidental Jane.
Jane Dough is an entrepreneur who enjoys running her business and is comfortable and determined in marketing and selling. She tends to be working longer hours, but she doesn’t mind because her focus is on growth. (Jane Dough is five times as likely to hit the million-dollar revenue mark as other Jane types.) She’s clear in her priorities and may be intentionally and actively growing an asset-based or legacy business.
Because Jane Dough’s focus is on growth, she’s interested in systems that will help create leverage in her business. So when faced with a bookkeeping problem, Jane Dough will probably look at the system. Where in the system did the breakdown occur? And what can we do to fix it in the future?
Jane Dough will most likely sit down with her accountant and bookkeeper to dissect what happened and then to work on the system to prevent it from happening in the future.
Now, while it’s good that Jane Dough is focused on creating systems, she may be setting them up too quickly so she can move to the next item on her to-do list, thus implementing incomplete systems. This may be what has caused the problem in the first place. Jane Dough should take a step back and make sure those systems she’s putting into place are done right the first time.
Our second type of entrepreneur is known as Accidental Jane. Accidental Jane is a successful, confident business owner who tends to be making good money — despite the fact she never really meant to start a business. She’s the one who will say things like “I never set out to start a business” but she did because she might not have been happy with a previous employer or discovered a gift and wanted to share it with the world. There’s no question Accidental Jane is very good at what she does and her business tends to grow organically through word of mouth.
Accidental Jane is most likely doing her books herself, so when she discovers a bookkeeping crisis, she’ll probably start by going through the books herself to fix it. While she’ll be on top of the problem, Accidental Jane should really be focused on her gift – her brilliance. That’s what she’s good at and that’s what she loves to do. Accidental Jane’s first task should be to go out and hire a good bookkeeper. That will free up her time so she can keep doing what she loves to do.
Next week’s issue will explore how other Janes handle these challenges. Stay tuned!
One Response to “How Do The Five Janes Handle Bookkeeping Challenges?”
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Well I certainly saw a bit of myself in Jane Dough. I love the idea of creating systems so I can move forward and focus on my brilliance, but I’m so impatient to get those systems in place (and it’s NOT my brilliance to create those systems) so holes do crop up. Remembering to slow down and do them right the first time will save me time on the backend.
Thanks for sharing this Michele.