Three Women Entrepreneurs and Their Important Considerations For Launching a New Product or Service

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 opportunities, she may even be in denial about how many hours she actually works during the course of a week.  During the worst of times, Go Jane Go may tend to run herself ragged or feel guilty about all the things on her “to do list” that aren’t getting done quickly enough to satisfy her exacting demands. 

1. Sometimes, when you have a great idea, you don’t need to say “no” – but you DO need to say “not right now”. 

When you truly feel ready to commit to the new product or service launch, several things can make it easier for you to experience success without frustration:

1. Alternatively, hire someone (even part-time, virtually) to design and implement the new product for you, under your direction.
2. To preserve your sanity, you need to give yourself plenty of cushion for the inevitable unexpected events.)

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 an artist) 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. 

1. Choose the method based on the size and type of customers you have.

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 created something that served her own unmet needs and later 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. 

1. Below are some probing questions to ask yourself about your new product idea before taking the additional steps to create it:

• Will doing this be something I really enjoy?  Will it give me “job satisfaction”?
• How much time will it take to create this new product the right way?  Am I willing to add that many more hours to my plate?  Are there things I can give up to make room for it, without diminishing my income or happiness?
• What if this new product really takes off?  If there’s more demand that I can serve right now, what will I do?  Will I feel comfortable hiring people to help me?  Will I feel comfortable letting go of other work I’m doing today to make room for it?  If it really took off, how would it change the financials of my business and how I spend my time?
• If this new product doesn’t work out, how will I feel?  Will I be willing to invest additional time required to fix it or market it to make sure it works?  Will I feel like a failure or do I see this as an important opportunity for personal growth, even if it fails? 

Since Accidental Jane is generally happy with the way things are right now, using these questions as filters to determine whether or not to launch a new product will help her make sure she doesn’t “accidentally” create results that take away some of her joy or income.

1. The key to doing so lies in appreciating herself and her own business needs, and pursuing new opportunities in a way that will really serve the life she wants to live.

Interested in learning more about the five Jane types and which Jane you are? Check out www.janeoutofthebox.com.