Are you a freelancer or an entrepreneur?

A freelancer gets paid when they work.
An entrepreneur builds a business that makes money while she sleeps.

A freelancer starts from scratch.
An entrepreneur borrows money.

A freelancer works to make herself money.
An entrepreneur sets out to gain an enormous return for her investors.

A freelancer's business is themselves.  When they are gone, it is gone.
An entrepreneur sets out to build an enterprise that will last long after they are gone.

A freelancer can change direction quickly.
An entrepreneur must stay focused on a singular goal.

Neither is inherently better than the other but it is critical to know which one you are and act the part.

So which one are you?

Comments

[jordan shoes]

It was among such inspirations that impressionism was born.

[Computeryah]

I think I'm a freelancer !

[adam]

Good stuff.

I think there's a number of examples of companies that are both, or that started out as one and morphed into the other. Look at J. Walter Thompson (the ad agency). He's been dead for years, but his ad agency lives on. He was actually just a salesman there -- boot strapped up enough to buy the agency and became the lead creative. The agency was synonymous with him. However, the people, processes and tools he put in place outlived him. The same will happen with Crispin Porter & Bogusky when bogusky dies.

At the end of the day businesses are made up of a these key ingredients: People, processes, intellectual property and tools. With those in place any firm can move beyond being a "freelancer" and into a real company.

And to be honest, I'm not sure that facebook will be around after it's founders are long gone. That's yet to be seen :-) Three years ago people thought myspace had a lock on the community market, and in 1996 people assumed altavista would always own search.

[Clay]

Thanks for the comment, Jack. You can definitely bootstrap a business (without investors) but either you're building something that will last long after you're gone (Facebook), or your skills are the business and when you're gone, it's gone (Tony Robbins). Both need to be flexible but a freelancer can be much more nimble whereas an entrepreneur has to focus toward a specific end goal or else change the goal.

Do you have a good example of a specific business that is both?

[jack]

How about both?

Can you build a business while you sleep without investors, and change directions quickly?

I don't see these roles as mutually exclusive.