The Owner’s Role

Will you be an owner or an entrepreneur? How about a consultant? Or a freelancer? What’s the difference?

The answer to these questions is important because you get to choose the approach that you want to take based on your goals.

When you consider self-employment or starting a business, you will hear a range of opinions from other people. They may think you have the best life ever and that your achievements have all been the result of good luck, without any recognition at all for the hours of work, the risk, and the opportunities that you have created for yourself. Other people will tell you that you are crazy, that you need the security of working for an established employer, or that you are never going to make it in today’s economy. Don’t discount their own experiences in self-employment (if indeed they have that experience), and keep in mind that once you have established yourself as being a freelancer, a business owner, or an entrepreneur, going back to traditional employment is not usually an attractive option.

Common in all instances of self-employment are the following attributes. These are necessary characteristics for business owners, consultants, freelancers, and entrepreneurs:

• You must be able to admit when you make a mistake, and then learn from it.
• It’s important that you can listen to the advice of others, and then sort the good from the not so good.
• You must be able to create a plan and take action on it.
• You need to have the technical skills required or to attract people to work with you who have the skills that you don’t.
• You must be able to tolerate risk. There are plenty of risks attached to each type of business.