Getting started with your own business is really very exciting like freelancing. The universe loves a risk-taker and admires the steady worker. You will have control over your career and you will be completely responsible for your business whether as a freelancer or as an entrepreneur. The entrepreneurs are tech-savvy and ambitious. But for the success of an entrepreneurial mission, your business requires a team of dedicated and skilled workers. You require freelancers who can invest their time and skills to accomplish your mission.
People nowadays are done with their 9 to 5 jobs and are going on board on an entrepreneurial path. As per the study conducted by Nielsen, approximately 54% of Gen Z wanted to have their own business or a company.
There are tremendous options available for building a business but what is right for you?
Were you born to be a freelancer or an entrepreneur? This is an important question to think about. Who you are and what are your skills, is half the battle in becoming successful in whichever path you choose. There is a huge difference between an influencer and an entrepreneur. With that in mind firstly, let’s see what the difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur is and how are these paths different?
What is a freelancer?
A freelancer is a self-employed expert who provides services to clients and sometimes companies. They are paid on an hourly basis and sometimes according to the project. Freelancers tend to work for multiple clients at a time and based on their skills and talents they can choose the projects they would like to work on. Most of the freelancers are location independent, which means they can work according to their comfort zone like home, traveling, or anywhere. The easiest way to start a business is freelancing. Web designing, content writing, marketing, virtual assisting, etc. are some of the examples of freelancing careers.
If you have these qualities, you are a freelancer:
- You are interested in the manufacturing or service industry
- Your skills include empathy and good communication skills
- You have a defined set of skills that are in demand in the workplace
- Should be creative and organized. have the capability to meet deadlines and interpret customer or client requirements
Benefits of Freelancing
- A freelancer can immediately get started
- It will not cost you any capital
- A freelancer can easily make money and learn the skills of entrepreneurship
Downsides to Freelancing
- As a freelancer, you might feel sometimes that you are working for someone
- Income will be based on your work completion
- You’re not creating a sellable asset
What is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is a person who scratches the app business ideas and creates, develops, and manages a business venture. A person who has built a business from scratch can be called an entrepreneur for example from being a small-town baker to owning a multinational corporation. It requires skills and talent to be a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship was introduced years ago and is widely expanded now. There have been many successful entrepreneurs in the past who have become popular and every single business you come across as a thought came from an entrepreneurial mind. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc. are some of the examples of famous entrepreneurs who have changed the dynamics of business.
If you have these qualities, you are an entrepreneur:
- You are willing to take risks and you might lose your investment
- like interacting with people and brainstorming new ideas and processes
- are good at forming your own team and have a leadership quality
Benefits of being an entrepreneur:
- You are creating a sellable asset
- You can generate unlimited income and is scalable
Downsides of being an entrepreneur:
- You might not generate any income at the initial stages
- It is quite risky and there might be a possibility of losing all your investment
- For a startup, you need money to invest.
Freelancing or Entrepreneurship?
There are many crossovers between freelancing and entrepreneurship as both are forms of self-employment and require courage, tenacity, and creativity. If you find comfort in a 9-to-5 salaried job then neither freelancing nor entrepreneurship is suitable for you. There are some similarities but also significant differences that will determine the direction you will choose. What is right for you being an entrepreneur or a freelancer? Let’s see a few points to consider while choosing your next move.
Career aspirations
What kind of work environment do you prefer? Do you visualize yourself happily working on a laptop anywhere? Or do you visualize yourself leading a team of talented people working on exciting projects and scaling your business to the next level?
Freelancers generally prefer to work alone with the goal of generating a steady income that might be increased gradually. Freelancers’ business or brand they build will be their personal for the rest of their career.
Whereas entrepreneurs work with a group of people and form teams that has the ability to grow their business as rapidly and securely as possible. The business is bigger than the individual, and there’s generally a medium to a long-term goal of selling the company later. Most of the entrepreneurs believe the growth of their one business can provide them with more business opportunities in the future and they can expand their business globally.
Income targets
What are your earning targets? Are you happy with your previous salary or would you like to push through the six-figure income ceiling? Or being a multi-millionaire is the only acceptable outcome?
But if you want to be a successful businessman and a millionaire, freelancing is not the right strategy for you. But as per the stats, 3.3 million freelancers earn six-figure incomes and millions of dollars per year that can provide them a comfortable and lucrative lifestyle.
The best way to target a multi-millionaire lifestyle is to build a long-term profitable business that is scalable and attractive to investors. An entrepreneur is a right path for you if you have big dreams and wish to make the best money.
Personality
Analyze your personality and see if you are an introvert or an extrovert. Whether you are capable of taking big risks in life or you prefer slow and steady. How long can you focus on one task and for how many hours?
A freelancer is someone who is alone with limited social interaction and deals with clients or collaboration partners. Being a freelancer, you are responsible for client work, marketing, sales, invoicing, etc. Successful freelancers are disciplined, focused, motivated, and dedicated to working for long hours alone.
Whereas entrepreneurship requires meeting with many different people for work, investors, potential partners, experts, etc. An entrepreneur has to handle tons of phone calls, meetings, and various places to visit. Their workday is quite unpredictable. You might have figured which one of these sounds more appealing to your personality.
Leadership skills
Do you have a leadership quality? or love to inspire people? Do you like to guide your team to victory? Or do you prefer to work according to yourself and quietly get things done?
Freelancing is a one-to-one activity where you work directly with a client. Here you can guide the client to the best solution based on their requirements.
But when it comes to entrepreneurship, leadership is a lot more difficult. It is important to lead the project to a particular goal while working with a team.
In comparison to freelancing, Entrepreneurship is often a more hands-off approach for developing a business. For the growth of your company, you have to let people do what they can do best.
Should I Start With Freelancing or Entrepreneurship?
Freelancing is one of the great options to start your work and enter into the world of entrepreneurship. You require lots of skills for running your own business or a company. And for developing these skills, you need experience. You can start working as a freelancer to gain this experience and you can also generate some income by working as a freelancer.
You can make an independent income by working as a freelancer and switching from your day job to freelancing. These skills will level up your experience and act as a testing ground for ideas. The best part about freelancing is you can start whenever or wherever you wish to. You cannot become rich overnight by choosing either of these paths but freelancing can make you a step closer to your dream.
Questions to ask yourself while choosing between freelancing and entrepreneurship
- What I have dreamed of and what do I desire to achieve ultimately?
- How many hours can I spend working on app development or any project?
- Do I already have the basic skills required to run my own business?
- If I wish to grow my business brand?
- Do I want to have employees or a team?
- Do I want to focus on doing or managing (skills or systems)?
- Will I be able to take risks?
- Do I want to sell products or services?
Can you be both a freelancer and an entrepreneur?
Freelancing and entrepreneurship are not mutually exclusive. You can be both a freelancer and an entrepreneur.
You can try to have two separate businesses and not merge freelancing and entrepreneurship. Being an entrepreneur, you can work on multiple things and put systems in place rather than invest your energy and time, like in freelancing. A side business is always a better option for developing a separate entrepreneurial enterprise while handling your freelancing business.
The right choice for you?
Freelancing and entrepreneurship both require hard work and skills for better opportunities and career fulfillment. You can easily maintain a financially secure lifestyle by choosing any of these paths. The ultimate decision of choosing between becoming a freelancer or an entrepreneur completely depends on you and what you want to achieve in your life. you can start your journey with whichever path excites you more.
