AUDIO: The five types of women who start businesses

HUDSON, FLA.
May 24, 2010 12:02am

The Great Recession has forced a lot of men and women into the ranks of the reluctant entrepreneur in hope of restoring at least some of the income they enjoyed when drawing a paycheck working for someone else.

But while there are more women than men working as newbie entrepreneurs, new research sorts the women into five basic types, says Michele Dekinder-Smith, founder of the company Jane Out of the Box Inc., of Hudson, Fla., which describes itself as a research, publishing, and education company dedicated to helping women business owners.

She is also author of the new book, “See Jane Succeed: Five Types of Female Entrepreneurs Reveal What it Takes to Win in Business and Life.”

“What we are seeing is that women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men,” she says. And while her research has come up with the five basic types, women can move from one category to another as their business efforts change.


Ms. Dekinder-Smith and team have spent the past two years interviewing nearly 3,000 women business owners about their definitions of success and struggles as well as their dreams.

Which type is more successful? Ms. Dekinder-Smith says it depends on how “success” is defined. For some, it’s the conventional accumulation of wealth.

But for another type of woman entrepreneur it can be a way “to express herself and her talents while also being able to really have control over the time that she has and how she uses her time to take care of other roles in her life.”

(Michele Dekinder-Smith talks about the five types of women entrepreneurs in today’s CVBT Audio Interview. Please left-click on the link below to listen now or right-click to download the MP3 file for later listening. CVBT Audio Interviews and Video Profiles are offered free, thanks to the support of our advertisers.)

“It’s really a focus of my life to do this kind of research and share the results with women business owners to help them learn and understand how the world is shaped and what they can do to achieve their own success,” she says.