Female entrepreneurs are a thriving demographic worthy of your attention.

Some facts ^* 

• There are over 10 million businesses in the US owned by women.
• These businesses employ over 13 million people.
• Collectively, they contribute more than $1.9 trillion to the US economy.

Female entrepreneurs have different needs than their male counterparts. Because these women also are responsible for 80% of their household spending (as well as the purchasing for their businesses) they can make a serious, positive impact on your business.  But to market to them effectively, you need to understand their motivations and challenges. Based on research conducted by Jane Out of the Box, here are just a few of the ways they’re different from men:

• Overall, they’re focused more on time freedom and on serving a particular market niche, whereas men put more emphasis on financial freedom as a reason for starting their business.
• They often start their businesses to have more time available for the many roles they play in their lives.  And yet, they are more likely than men to express time management and work/life balance concerns.
• Their businesses are often run from home and they are often solo-preneurs.  This has implications for how you need to market to them and create systems for working with them.
• Their businesses tend to be smaller (in terms of revenue and number of employees) than male-owned businesses but collectively they represent a financial powerhouse.

Although the above facts tell a story about female entrepreneurs, they don’t tell the whole story.  All female entrepreneurs are not the same.  Our proprietary segmentation model has classified over 1200 women business owners into five distinct types – and we’ve discovered that a woman’s type can change over time, in response to changes in her business environment or industry or changes in her personal needs and motivations as she moves through different life stages.  Below is a brief description of each of the five types:

Accidental Jane

Representing 1 in 5 female entrepreneurs and about 20% of their expenditures, Accidental Jane is that she didn’t really intend to start a business.  She ended up owning her own company when she was laid off, got frustrated with traditional employment, or when she developed an interest that lent itself well to becoming a business.  Accidental Jane is usually a solo-preneur who appreciates the work as it comes without driving for significant growth.

Go Jane Go

The smallest group at just 14%, Go Jane Go is four times more likely than the average female entrepreneur to own million dollar plus enterprise.  Because her business is thriving, she spends twice as much as the average female entrepreneur on goods and services to help her business run.  She has the highest personal income drawn through her business as well, in part because she’s keeping more money in-house by doing much of the work herself.  She’s in demand and continually busy – often feeling pulled in many directions at once.

Jane Dough

When you think of the quintessential female entrepreneur, odds are you’re thinking of Jane Dough, though she’s just 18% of the total market.  She’s a visionary, actively growing her business.  Jane Dough is five times more likely than the average female entrepreneur to have a million dollar plus business and her spending reflects that fact.  She’s working longer hours but sees doing so as a means to an end of creating an asset she can use to “cash out” or leave as a legacy to future generations of her family.

Merry Jane

Merry Jane accounts for 19% of female entrepreneurs and her spending is lower than other groups.  Merry Jane is enjoying running her business in and around other priorities in her life – whether they be her full-time career, being a stay-at-home-mom, or serving as caretaker for someone she loves.  Her business is an outlet, allowing her to utilize her talents when she has time available while also bringing in some income.  She loves being a business owner because it gives her the freedom to work when and how she wants – and she’s consciously making a tradeoff for less money to be able to enjoy the control she has over her time.

Tenacity Jane

The largest single segment, Tenacity Jane represents a third of female entrepreneurs, whose businesses are not performing as well as they’d like – particularly financially.  As a result, she under-spends compared to other segments because resources are tight.  Though she may be struggling right now, she’s determined to do what it takes to turn her business into a thriving enterprise.  Most successful women business owners we’ve interviewed have experienced a Tenacity Jane phase at some point in their entrepreneurial careers and say the lessons learned during those times were invaluable.

 

As you can see, different female entrepreneurs have different needs from you and their resources are not all the same.  Call Jane Out of the Box today to learn more about how you can benefit from understanding more about the 5 Types of Female Entrepreneurs.

 

(*) Based on projections of US Census data provided by the Center for Women’s Business Research