Last week’s article covered the likely responses of three “Janes,” Jane Dough, Accidental Jane, and Tenacity Jane. This week, we explore the reactions of Go Jane Go and Merry Jane.

Go Jane Go is a successful female entrepreneur who has grown her business to the point that she may struggle to get time away from work. She’s confident and organized, and is likely to have put systems in place to get her work done in an efficient manner—which may have something to do with why she’s four times as likely as the average female business owner to hit the million-dollar. Accounting for 14% of all women entrepreneurs, Go Jane Go types are the least common of the five Jane types.

Because Go Jane Go has grown her business to the point where her she has plenty of work coming in—and the right systems in place to accommodate that work—the loss of a single client (or even two or three) does not pose a serious threat to her business.

However, because Go Jane Go tends cares so much about her clients, the loss of one or more of them may set off some serious alarm bells anyway. If the customer had been a good one with whom she had a relationship, she may feel guilt about whether she failed to provide the right level of service and almost obsessed about what she might have done wrong or what she might have done to prevent the loss. This “looking backward” approach can take up considerable energy from Go Jane Go and keep her from being able to see all of the good she has done.

It is also possible, again depending on the relationship, that Go Jane Go might actually feel relieved. In these cases, it is likely that the relationship wasn’t working for Go Jane Go but because she is committed to good service and doesn’t generally like to engage in what she may see as confrontation, she may have been quietly suffering the relationship. When this client goes, she may actually feel liberated.

In either case, Go Jane Go has an opportunity to remind herself to depersonalize things somewhat and focus on re-investing her energy. In the case of the “bad” customer, she is now free to spend her time focusing on stronger and better relationships. In the case of the lost “good” customer, she should:

1. acknowledge that sometimes things happen that are out of our control,
2. give herself credit for all the things she did that were right
3. acknowledge any lessons learned and commit to improving next time
4. and finally, release any guilt feelings and reinvest her energy in a happier way.

Our last entrepreneur, Merry Jane, is very committed to running her business in a way that helps her be master of her own time. She realizes she may not be making as much money as she might, but she’s happily running her company in a way that works for her lifestyle. Roughly 19% of women business owners are Merry Janes.

Merry Jane cares about her customers and wants to keep them, but at the same time she knows that she only has so much time to invest in any given customer. Therefore, when a customer leaves, she is likely to see it fairly pragmatically, knowing that sometimes these things happen in business. She’ll quickly turn her attention to identifying the next new customer to replace the loss.

And I’ll have to admit, it is a walk in the park compared to what you have to put up with in the working world punching a clock being a subordinate to someone who does not have your interests in mind, but there are still rules you have to follow and pitfalls you must avoid to actually make Internet marketing work for you.

Most people will not make a dime online and yet there are others who will make more in one month than most people make in a whole year. Why is that?

My answer begins with the age-old chicken or egg question, “what comes first the chicken or the egg”? Personally I vote for, well never mind, each argument you or I make comes back to the same old conclusion – I have no clue and I don’t think many of us do either.

But one thing I do have a clue about and know for sure is that to make money online you must first have Passion for the company products and/or service of any Internet business from which you expect to make money.

Passion in this sense simply means that you’ve researched and like the company and products or services. It is then that you translate that like (or Passion) into the education, excitement and work that usually a company Passion.

I will have to say that many online entrepreneurs are so good at what they do that they ignore passion because they can sell anything. But I’m concerned about those of you who are not so knowledgeable at working an online business successfully.

Now, I’m not trying to make anyone believe that Passion is the only thing necessary. Because to be successful you must also have a good website, good marketing, widespread advertising, company support, effective keywords, and etc. Those things are often learned from the company you join – but sidestep Passion and you reduce your chances for success dramatically.

It therefore follows that, if you have no Passion for the company and the products and services provided by that company, again, you won’t attempt to do the work you are being taught.

Internet marketing work is typically not all that difficult or time consuming but it does take motivation caused by Passion to get you off and running with a sustained effort so that you won’t stumble.

You have a great resource in the Internet search engines to search about the Internet Marketing industry for business opportunities, USE IT!

Your research should uncover a company that you like and have confidence in. It should be solid, founded on great principles, and easy to understand with great products and services that are sell-able for which you can have Passion. If you don’t find it move on,
you can find the right opportunity containing the attributes identified above.

Comments like, well, that one sounds good and the compensation plan is excellent so I guess I’ll start that business – does not sound like a decision based on anything near Passion. And remember when you hear that an Internet “guru” does that, don’t be tempted, because as I said earlier they are experienced and can sell just about anything, without being Passionate about the company products and services.

Note: By the way it’s your goal to get to the point where you can sell about anything online. That end skill and goal is a worthy one indeed.

Remember, there are other steps you must make before you step into Internet Marketing but if you don’t first find the right company products and services to be passionate about, all of those other steps may just cause you a lot of frustration instead of bringing you great success.

Not being Passionate about a company and products and services that has market proof that it will sell is a pitfall you simply must avoid.

What factors are involved in creating a good business plan? Is it the length of the plan? The information it covers? How well it’s written, or the brilliance of its strategy. No.

The following illustration shows a business plan as part of a process. You can think about the good or bad of a plan as the plan itself, measuring its value by its contents. There are some qualities in a plan that make it more likely to create results, and these are important. However, it is even better to see the plan as part of the whole process of results, because even a great plan is wasted if nobody follows it.

Planning is a process, not just a plan

A business plan will be hard to implement unless it is simple, specific, realistic and complete. Even if it is all these things, a good plan will need someone to follow up and check on it. The plan depends on the human elements around it, particularly the process of commitment and involvement, and the tracking and follow-up that comes afterward.

Successful implementation starts with a good plan. There are elements that will make a plan more likely to be successfully implemented. Some of the clues to implementation include:

1. Is the plan simple? Is it easy to understand and to act on? Does it communicate its contents easily and practically?
2. Is the plan specific? Are its objectives concrete and measurable? Does it include specific actions and activities, each with specific dates of completion, specific persons responsible and specific budgets?
3. Is the plan realistic? Are the sales goals, expense budgets, and milestone dates realistic? Nothing stifles implementation like unrealistic goals.
4. Is the plan complete? Does it include all the necessary elements? Requirements of a business plan vary, depending on the context. There is no guarantee, however, that the plan will work if it doesn’t cover the main bases.

Uses of business plans
too many people think of business plans as something you do to start a company, apply for a loan, or find investors. Yes, they are vital for those purposes, but there’s a lot more to it.

Preparing a business plan is an organized, logical way to look at all of the important aspects of a business. First, decide what you will use the plan for, such as to:

• Define and fix objectives, and programs to achieve those objectives.
• Create regular business review and course correction.
• Define a new business.
• Support a loan application.
• Define agreements between partners.
• Set a value on a business for sale or legal purposes.
• Evaluate a new product line, promotion, or expansion.

No time to plan? A common misconception
“Not enough time for a plan,” business people say. “I can’t plan. I’m too busy getting things done.” A business plan now can save time and stress later.

Too many businesses make business plans only when they have to. Unless a bank or investors want to look at a business plan, there isn’t likely to be a plan written. The busier you are, the more you need to plan. If you are always putting out fires, you should build fire breaks or a sprinkler system. You can lose the whole forest for too much attention to the individual trees.

Keys to better business plans

• Use a business plan to set concrete goals, responsibilities, and deadlines to guide your business.
• A good business plan assigns tasks to people or departments and sets milestones and deadlines for tracking implementation.
• A practical business plan includes 10 parts implementation for every one part strategy.
• As part of the implementation of a business plan, it should provide a forum for regular review and course corrections.
• Good business plans are practical.

Business plan “don’ts”

• Don’t use a business plan to show how much you know about your business.
• Nobody reads a long-winded business plan: not bankers, bosses, nor venture capitalists. Years ago, people were favorably impressed by long plans. Today, nobody is interested in a business plan more than 50 pages long.

What can help me write a good business plan?

• Sample business plans – Over 100 free sample business plans from various industries
• Business plan template – This fill-in-the-blank business plan template is in the format preferred by the SBA and banks
• Start a business – An easy to follow six step process with plenty of information for helping to start a new business
• Business plan software – The #1 best selling business plan software helps you to write a professional business plan