What’s the difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur?
We are about to find out.
A freelancer gets paid when they work. An entrepreneur creates a business and gets paid while they sleep.
A freelancer could be a graphic artist, a bricklayer, a voice actor, an accountant, or a surgeon.
They do the work with their time, their voice, their fingers, their looks. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid.
An entrepreneur, on the other hand, creates a business and then steps out of the way so that the business can run by itself. An entrepreneur builds something bigger than themselves. Entrepreneurs get paid while they sleep. Entrepreneurs should never do the work. Doing the work is not their job. Their job is to hire someone who will do the job.
To illustrate this example,
Imagine that you are a barber. You have happy clients and you start building a reputation. Your barber shop is full and there is a line of clients, waiting to see you. As long as you are doing the job, you are a freelancer.
Now, you hire someone to help. Now there are two of you. After some time, you hire someone else. Now you are a business owner. But you are also a freelancer because you need to be there in order to make sure your business is running smoothly.
Then you hire a manager to take care of the day-to-day business operations. Now, you are an entrepreneur. The business can function without you, and if you want to, you can sell it.
What are you? Are you an entrepreneur or a freelancer?
I have been a freelancer most of my life. I ran a dance school, but I needed to be there in order to function. I do photography work. I organize networking events. My business partner, Cheryl, she teaches English classes on-line.
Please write in the comments which one you are: a freelancer or an entrepreneur, and let us know about the work that you do.