Category: Planning & Management

As a business becomes increasingly successful, an entrepreneur must examine her business’ changing needs and implement a system for meeting them. Booming success often means hiring a team of people to see to the details so the entrepreneur has time to run the business. Creating a winning team is a bit more complicated than just asking a bunch of people for help – is there a right way to do it? Is there a way to go about it that will leave members of the team, as well as the owner, feeling fulfilled while the business thrives?
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 has unique approach 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 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 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 someday be, 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.
About the Author:
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com

It happens at some point in the life of every business: cash has been coming in, things are going well, and then all of a sudden, things take a turn for the worse. Whether it’s a bad time of year for the business’ particular product, or a rough patch in the economy, weathering slow cash flow can be tough. But how the business comes out of the slump depends on how the business owner handles it.
Research by Jane Out of the Box, an authority on women entrepreneurs, has revealed there are five distinct types of women in business. Each of these five types has unique approach 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 cash flow issues.
Go Jane Go is a successful business owner with 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.
Although Go Jane Go feels totally competent when it comes to running her business, a slowdown in cash flow can occur when Go Jane Go is not paying enough attention to money. She may be behind in sending bills because getting the work done seems more important. Or she may be reluctant to raise the money issue with clients who are late in paying, because she doesn’t want them to be embarrassed or to create conflict in the relationship.
Here are some things Go Jane Go should consider when faced with cash flow challenges:
* Clients want to pay. Your clients value and respect you and they want to pay you well for the work you’ve done. In fact, as a Go Jane Go, you may have even had clients offer to pay you MORE than you asked, because they can see how much you go above and beyond. Relationships are a two-way street, and your clients want to help you succeed. So, give them the outlet by billing them in a timely manner so they can uphold their half of the bargain.
* Falling behind on billing or reminders also can cause relationship problems. You not sending invoices in a timely manner or not following up on overdue payments may cause an internal problem for your customers, too. If they are corporate types, they may get in a tangle with their accounting departments if they submit bills from you too late. And, if they are smaller businesses or consumers, a forgotten invoice can cause cash flow problems on their end, as they scramble to find the money to pay you. Take good care of them by keeping your financial house in order and helping them do the same.
* You don’t have to do this alone. One of the easiest jobs to outsource is bookkeeping. And those experts are probably better at the task than you are. If your books are a mess, bite the bullet and admit it. And even if your books are in great shape – get help. You have a unique gift to share with the world and you maximize your ability to do so when you delegate other tasks. Best yet, your bookkeeper can follow up on late invoices too – just give him or her a system for how to do it so it is in keeping with your (probably gentle) values.
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.
Merry Jane usually has an income other than that her business provides, so business cash flow challenges may not be as difficult of an issue, per se. However, many Merry Janes do wish their businesses made more money. In order for that to happen, money has to become a focal point for Merry Jane, rather than simply waiting and watching how business growth evolves. Even as cash flow becomes a priority, however, it’s imperative for Merry Jane’s happiness that more money does not mean more work – her life balance is too important.
A few things Merry Jane should consider if she sees her cash flow slow down:
* A little attention could go a long way. Think about WHY cash flow is slow. Has there been a downturn in sales in the business? Have you invested in materials, equipment, or software that will help make money in the long run but are chewing up available cash in the short-term? Until you know whether the problem is slow revenue or high costs, you won’t know the strategy to fix it.
* If revenue is slow, leverage your connections, both on and offline. Finding new clients is often the toughest aspect of business for Merry Jane. Reach out to your existing customers with a plan that gives them more of what they want while also helping you grow your base. Think about the upcoming holidays – can you make an attractive offer that gets them to buy gifts from you? Or, maybe your business lends itself naturally to referral. If so, what “Thank You” gift can you give them when they find you another customer?
* If costs are high, it’s time to plan. Stop spending temporarily and map out how many sales you need to cover the costs of the equipment, materials, or software you bought and make it all worth it. Turn this into a game; play with the numbers. And as you calculate how many sales you need to make your costs pay off, keep in mind that you can also raise your rates! It’s fun to watch the number of sales go down as your price per sale goes up. Balance it all – the fair price for your product or service, the number of sales you need, and the amount of money you wish to have flowing in each month to arrive at a plan that works for your business and your lifestyle.
Accidental Jane is a successful, confident business owner who never actually set out to start a business, but may have ended up with one 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.
Although Accidental Jane didn’t necessarily set out to start a business, she now finds herself full-swing into entrepreneurship and everything that goes with it. So she may feel unprepared to face cash flow issues.
Because Accidental Jane is successful, and overall has just the amount of work she desires, cash flow issues are most likely to result from marketing peaks and valleys caused by Accidental Jane herself. A typical pattern for Accidental Jane is to network her way to a sufficient amount of work. Then, when she’s happily working, she’ll stop actively marketing her business, only to realize as the work draws to a close, that she needs to start marketing again.
Therefore, Accidental Jane’s key to avoiding cash flow issues is to find ways to keep her marketing efforts running at a continual, low level. This will iron out the peaks and valleys so the work flow is steadier. Accidental Jane can get creative with this, making it a game to develop creative marketing approaches in her business that require little time on her part. This might include developing an effective referral system, launching a weekly “tips” email to keep awareness of her business high, running periodic “specials” during the off-season, etc. Best of all, with simple, systematized campaigns, Accidental Jane can recruit part-time help to make sure the marketing is happening even while she’s enjoying the work she loves to do.
Every business owner can learn from Go Jane Go, Merry Jane and Accidental Jane when it comes to cash flow problems. A variety of techniques exist for dealing with slowing cash flow, and each one provides some help for entrepreneurs who want to keep their businesses in the black.
About the Author:
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com

Even when both the business owner and her new team member have the best intentions, sometimes a match just isn’t meant to be. A poor business owner-team member pairing can impact a business in many ways, from loss of morale, to frustration, to wasted time and money. So what should a female entrepreneur do when she realizes she’s made a bad hire? Is there a right way to handle it?
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 has a unique approach 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 the wrong person on a team and all that comes with it.
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 to say “no”. Because she wants to support 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.
Because Go Jane Go takes her work very personally, she may let herself obsess over her bad hire. Here are some of her possible reactions to hiring the wrong person, and some things she can think about to make the best of the situation:
* Guilt. Go Jane Go is a people person, and wants her team to be happy. If she hires the wrong person, she may feel guilty about letting him go and wonder what she, herself, has done to contribute to the difficulties.
* Tips for dealing with Guilt: In this case, Go Jane Go needs to separate the personal from the professional. She has a responsibility to the long-term health of her business – and herself! Having a team member who just doesn’t fit often brings morale down, so removing that team member often will get everyone else back on track. And in the long run, the terminated team member may even feel grateful for valuable lessons learned.
* Harder Work. Because Go Jane Go tends to avoid confrontation, she may start working harder to make up for whatever her new team member lacks, even taking back some or all of the work that she delegated to him.
* Tips for avoiding Harder Work: Conduct a thorough analysis of whether the new team member will be able to do the job. If the problems are attitude, mindset, or competency, the situation will not improve with time. Have a thorough, objective performance review with the team member. Although this may feel confrontational, by keeping the conversation focused on objective job performance criteria, Go Jane Go will help her bad hire see what is lacking and put him on notice that performance must improve. Following this conversation, Go Jane Go may be surprised to find herself feeling lighter – and with more time on her hands.
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 overall with the tradeoff she has made because her business gives her tremendous freedom to work how and when she wants, around her other commitments.
Although Merry Jane values her relationships, both with her clients and with her team members, she also values the fun she’s having with her business and the time she spends away from it, fulfilling other responsibilities. Therefore, if hiring the wrong person becomes a distraction for Merry Jane, she won’t have a problem letting him go. Here are some of Merry Jane’s possible reactions to hiring the wrong person:
* Lack of Awareness. Because Merry Jane has so many other priorities in her life, she will hire team members who can do what they need to do without much guidance. She probably won’t be hovering while they’re working, so she may not notice she’s hired the wrong person until the situation has snowballed.
* Tips for dealing with Lack of Awareness. When Merry Jane hires someone, she should provide very clear performance expectations and check in periodically to see how the new team member is doing. Ask him to provide weekly status updates on progress that can be quickly and easily read and check regularly to ensure things are on track. If they are not, course corrections, including replacing the team member, are easily done early in the process.
* A Clean Break. Merry Jane loves her business because she’s set it up for maximum efficiency, using systems to get the work done well. If a new hire is not performing well, it’s important for Merry Jane’s precious time that she make a quick, clean break.
* Tips for making a Clean Break: Upon receiving weekly status reports, determine whether course-correction is needed. If so, meet with the team member to explain the gaps and notify him of the corrections that need to be made and in what timeframe. Reaffirm the objectives of the position and schedule time to meet again for another review. Timing will be dependent on the nature of the work, but convene in the shortest possible time period during which performance can be expected to have improved (typically 1 week to 1 month). If improvements are insufficient, part ways by clearly articulating the importance of the missed objectives and the areas where expectations were not met.
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.
Tired of corporate politics, Accidental Jane relishes the opportunity to be on her own, and therefore, is slow to hire outside help. When she does so, she may find that a lack of documented systems may trip up her ability to bring someone on board effectively and quickly. Although she knows exactly how she likes the work done, the process steps may not be as apparent to someone new. Here are some of Accidental Jane’s possible reactions:
* Frustration. Accidental Jane may have hired a person she considered ideal but may feel frustrated with the results because the team member is not executing the work the way Accidental Jane does.
* Tips for Dealing with Frustration: Make sure it’s the person, not the process. Have a candid conversation with the team member, focusing the discussion specifically on whether he feels clear about the tasks at hand. Have him describe his perceptions of the assignment. This will often give Accidental Jane an excellent opportunity to uncover miscommunications and misunderstandings regarding the work.
* Managing effectively. Sometimes team members need more guidance to improve their performance.
* Tips for Managing Effectively: Schedule regular check-ins with your team members. If you have more than one, consider a group call where you can meet with the entire team at once. Further, have team members document their own systems. Whenever performance challenges occur, review the documented process first to uncover any flaws. If the process is correct, Accidental Jane can then easily and professionally release a team member who is not following the agreed-upon process.
Once a business owner has gone through the entire hiring process, from advertising to interviewing to hiring to training, it can be disappointing if it’s just not a good match. Whether the chemistry isn’t there, the team member misrepresented his skills or the job turns out to be different than he expected and it just isn’t working out, sometimes a business owner needs to be the one to end the relationship before it causes too much damage to a business. Although Go Jane Go, Merry Jane and Accidental Jane may handle the end differently, every business owner can learn from their reactions so the end is as painless as possible.
About the Author:
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com

There comes a point in the life of a successful female entrepreneur where she is ready to take the plunge. Her sales are up, her workload has increased, and she needs help. Enter the team. Hiring the right team is a process that strikes fear in the hearts of some business owners and excitement in the hearts of others. Since success and accomplishment have led to the need for a great starting lineup, why not make the hiring process a success, too?
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 has unique approach to running a business—and as a consequence, each of them has a unique combination of characteristics and factors. This article profiles two of the 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.
About the Author:
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com