Entrepreneur or Business Owner:
Which one are you?

By Sherré DeMao

My business celebrated 21 years in business this past year. Being in a business where we specialize in serving entrepreneurs, many have said that there must be a huge advantage to being one myself. Well, the reality is that there are many business owners and people who own businesses that are not entrepreneurs. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t really have considered myself an entrepreneur until about the last five or six years of my business.

Some people launch out of the gate as entrepreneurs from the day their business opens, while others graduate into entrepreneurship starting out as business owners. And then there are business owners that never enter the entrepreneurial realm and this is perfectly fine, too. It is all in what you want out of life, your business, and what happens beyond you and your business. So, why am I saying this and what’s the difference?

You can be a business owner and not be an entrepreneur because you are really just working for yourself. I think many of us start out this way. We got the bug to strike out on our own and the idea of working for ourselves. Setting our own rules and schedule was appealing, as was not having to answer to anyone but ourselves. It was liberating and scary all at the same time. As our business blossomed, many of us have gone through another scary reality — that our business owned us more than we owned it. And it owned our house, our retirement, our car, our life and perhaps our first born child.

I have advised many start-up business owners to be careful what you ask for, because in the first few years you will be tested, and the real test will be your tolerance of sacrifice. If you begin to feel considerably miserable about working for yourself, then you might as well work for someone else and be miserable and draw a paycheck.

You can also own a business and not really be taking ownership in it. I have seen this time and time again … A business owner who is the day-to-day provider of services or products, merely clocking in and clocking out. No strategy, no vision, but allowing the customers to drive the business, or often times a handful or one customer to dictate the services, products, schedule, and means in which the business operates. Now this is scary.

Working for yourself is not being an entrepreneur. Owning a business does not make you an entrepreneur. So what is an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is someone who is intentionally building something that will live and breathe beyond them. They are in a mindset and mode of continually determining how to make their business flourish and grow because their beliefs are so strong and impassioned that these beliefs become the heart of the company’s mission. Then, if fueled properly, this passion becomes contagious. Others within the company begin to see this same vision and come on board to make it mushroom into something others outside of the company can embrace. 
 

An entrepreneur is strategic in sometimes unorthodox ways. He or she will continuously challenge the norm within their industry or the business world in general. They are focused on taking something to a higher level or standard of practice or innovation.  They are continuously pushing the envelope to see how much more of a difference they can make by offering more in themselves, through their company, services or products.

An entrepreneur has passion that you feel the moment that you encounter them. They are more excited about what they are doing for others than what the business is actually doing for them personally. They believe with their heart and soul that they can make a difference and their business is making a difference in a profound way.  

An entrepreneur is constantly thinking and processing and gets great pleasure in doing so. An entrepreneur’s thinking switch is never turned off. They get turned on by what their thoughts bring to the surface and into their business. Any employee of an entrepreneur knows this well, as these thoughts and ideas and the actions necessary are shared at lightening speed, sometimes with such an exuberance or intensity that it feels like a whirlwind just entered the room. Most importantly, an entrepreneur is not afraid to unleash these thoughts and ideas and see what happens, even at the risk of failure. 

Now this does not mean that an entrepreneur never gets down or frustrated. Sure they do. But the difference is all of these characteristics serve as a catalyst for getting them very quickly back on track, refocused, and moving forward instead of letting the business and its challenges bring them down or drag them down.  They are driven to continually take action versus becoming lethargic or paralyzed by challenges or setbacks. 
 
Now that I can call myself an entrepreneur, I cannot think of any greater satisfaction. In summary:

1..We are invigorated when we see our beliefs reinforced and flowing through others.
2..We love to say “why not” and then prove it can be done.
3..We understand that failure is an important tool for learning and building something even better in the process.
4..We thrive on where our thoughts take us and thrive on taking action to make them reality.
5. We  are not just building a business ... we are raising a consciousness.

There are many business owners out there that are literally on the cusp of being entrepreneurs. Are you one of them? What idea or belief do you have that you have not unleashed that could take you from business owner to entrepreneur? How are you holding yourself back and what are you waiting for? Just ask yourself “why not” and go for it!

© 2006 Sherre L. DeMao. All rights reserved.