You’re thinking, “Wait a minute – I thought this was an entrepreneurial site. What kind of demotivating crap is that?!” If you’re thinking that, then you probably think entrepreneur, business-owner, and self-employed are all interchangeable terms. And that’s how they’re often used, so it makes sense that people would think that. But in the minds of many business owners, there is a big difference between being “self-employed” and being an entrepreneur. A lot of people with entrepreneurial ambitions have dreams of breaking away from their 9 to 5 jobs and starting their own businesses. This is an admirable objective, and anyone who has done it is a hero. Regardless of the outcome, it takes guts, fortitude, and drive to have the courage to go it alone and give up a steady paycheck for a chance to do something more. Too often though, people end up self-employed rather than living the life of a true entrepreneur. So what’s the difference? Here are two fictional stories to illustrate:
The Story of Joe
Joe began working at a local print shop while in high school and continued working there while he attended college. He enjoyed the work, even though it didn’t pay very well, and his boss was an alright guy. While in college, Joe took some business classes that got him thinking about owning his own business. He had learned the printing business inside and out, so he started to think about the possibility of opening his own print shop. After checking into the logistics of such an endeavor and writing a simple business plan, Joe realized that he could definitely make it work.
A year after college, with some money he had received from an inheritance and a small-business loan from his bank, Joe opened Joe’s Printing! He so loved the idea of having his own business that Joe poured himself into his work. He knew he’d have to work very hard in the beginning to get new clients and deliver quality work to them, and he didn’t mind a bit. Eventually he hired one, then two press workers to help out in the shop while he went out and sold, and before long he was making a decent living.
Flash ahead 20 years: Joe is still working his business daily and tending to his clients. He’s got four employees now, and managing them can sometimes be a hassle, but what can you do? He can’t afford to pay for top-notch help, so he’s got to deal with whatever he can get. Joe hasn’t taken a vacation in years. The last time he went out of town with his wife and kids, it was a disaster. He spent weeks trying to console upset customers about orders that were wrong or didn’t get done, and he’s pretty sure the kids working the presses threw a party at the shop at least one night while he was gone. He works about ten hours a day, six days a week, but he makes pretty good money, and he’s his own boss, so it’s worth it. Right?
The Story of Annette
For some reason, even before she had children of her own, Annette always loved kids’ clothes. In fact, her friends teased her because she would stop at baby stores in the mall even though she wasn’t expecting – and didn’t even have a boyfriend! While she was in college, Annette worked at a department store – in the baby clothes section of course – and she learned all she could about manufacturers, brands, inventory, and merchandising. She took courses surrounding business and marketing, and even after college she read any book, blog or magazine she could find to learn as much about being an entrepreneur as possible. She had no doubt what she wanted to do after graduation, and with a helpful loan from her parents, she opened her clothing store, Baby Oh Baby, about a year after college.
Before opening the store, Annette got help from a mentor she had found through networking, to devise a business plan that included a detailed marketing plan as well as expansion and sales goals. She knew that she wanted Baby Oh Baby to be huge someday, and she was ready for the hard work it would take to get it there. One of her first tasks was to open her online store and begin her Internet marketing, in conjunction with the marketing of her brick and mortar location.
Flash ahead 5 years: Annette now owns six Baby Oh Baby stores throughout her state, with plans for three more in the next year. While she still works very hard, she loves every minute of it, and because she’s hired the best managers she could find, she’s able to take time off when she needs it most – to spend time with her husband and their new baby. Last week, she was approached about selling her company to a huge baby clothing chain, and she’s seriously considering it. Her biggest decision is what business she would start next if she sold now? She just can’t imagine not being an entrepreneur!
Self-Employed vs. Entrepreneur
Do you see the difference between these two business owners? Both own their own businesses, but Joe basically just created a job for himself. He’s self-employed, which is in many ways better than working for someone else, but he hasn’t created the freedom that entrepreneurship should bring. Annette is an entrepreneur. She has created a business that probably can’t run completely without her but that doesn’t need her to devote every waking hour to keeping it going. One of the primary differences between these two fictional characters is that Annette is passionate about the focus of her business. Joe knows his business well, but probably wasn’t in love with the product/service even in the beginning. Another key difference is in the planning. There’s no reason Joe couldn’t have planned for expansion – both through opening other shops and by opening an online store, but it wasn’t part of his vision, so didn’t enter into his plan.
It should be stated that there are people who are perfectly happy owning a little store and making a decent living without the excitement and pressures that come with building something big, and there is nothing wrong with that. We all just want to be happy in the long run. The important thing is that you plan and run your business in such a way that it gives you what you want to get out of it. That way you don’t look back 20 years from now and realize being self-employed sucks!
