Now, this might be a touchy subject for some of you, but just hear me out before you start firing back. In my opinion, freelancers are NOT entrepreneurs. Well actually, I believe that freelancers are for the most part people who are on their way to entrepreneurship but are still figuring their situation out—a “half entrepreneur” if you will. I’ve polled a few people on this subject a few weeks ago and overwhelmingly it seems like the majority of you disagree. That’s fine by me, but let me explain my thought process.
To me, a freelancer is someone whose income is directly correlated to their work output. In other words, if a freelancer stops working, their income comes to a halt. On the other hand, entrepreneurs build sustainability. They can leave the business, take a nap, go on vacation, and expand their skills while STILL making money in the process. Just looking at this one comparison of freelancers vs. entrepreneurs, who do you think is more likely to be stable in the long run?
I don’t have anything against freelancing, but I think people need to change their mindsets in order to take freelancing to the next level.
Don’t judge me… I was in the freelance game for a little while too and don’t regret it at all. I made many valuable contacts and leveraged my freelancing opportunities to my advantage in order to build out my internet marketing company in Napa. My personal shift has gone from freelance web design & development (a very crowded space) to offering strategic internet marketing services to my local community. These internet marketing services consistently drive tangible results for clients while allowing me the freedom to step away at the same time—an autopilot of sorts. Granted I can’t, and more importantly I won’t walk away forever, I do have freedom. I can work on other projects, seek more clients, and help others while still making money in the process. The best part of my new company is that I get to help other businesses make more money—something that I love doing.
The takeaway: Freelancers generally focus only on the now while entrepreneurs focus on the now, the future, and the next opportunity.
A freelancer who can build a backlog of work is a suitable candidate for entrepreneurial nirvana whereas a freelancer who simply moves from job-to-job may not be.
When I was freelancing, I was really good at converting prospects into clients and building a backlog… whenever possible, I always tried to make sure that I had the next project lined up. That way when I was finished with my current client, I could easily transition to the next with as little downtime as possible. Of course there were times when I had no future projects lined up at all and thus began my personal woes of freelancing—instability.
Stepping back real quick, even when I had active projects as well as a backlog, I still made sure that I was planning for my next personal endeavor. When my work flow trickled to a stop, I simply shifted attention from client work to my own goals which included developing new services, training for new skills, networking, industry analysis, competitor research, etc. The process of making sure that I have new ideas and long term projects is an ongoing cycle and honestly speaking, a guilty pleasure. I always come up with crazy ideas (both crazy good and crazy bad) but I still make sure to write them down in a safe place that I dub my “master plan.” I then visit this list every once in a while to see how I can implement the ideas/projects into my existing lineup or develop a new service/product/company.
The takeaway: In my opinion, freelancing can make you money but it’s far from ideal. Be sure you are constantly working on your long-term “master plan” behind the scenes so you can better yourself, but make life easier for others as well.
In summary, here’s a simple overview of the freelancer vs. entrepreneur mindset
| The “naive” Freelancer | The “savvy” Entrepreneur |
| Tied to the clock and only makes money when they are working. | Builds self sustainable businesses that work to make money around the clock. Money is made while eating, sleeping, snowboarding, etc. |
| Generally are limited by their skill sets and abilities because they are one person. | Have the ability to leverage fiscal, human, and other resources to their advantage (think outsourcing). |
| Typically make money by doing physical work. | Can make money by showing others how to solve a problem, increase efficiency, etc and push the actual work off onto someone else—can get paid for their knowledge. |
| Sometimes are bound by tunnel vision in the sense that they see only the now—the project they are tasked to do. | They can see the now, the future, and how to leverage the long-term to their advantage. |
| Often times don’t have the ability to choose their clients because they need to just simply put—pay their bills. | Can easily be in the game of having “too much work” and coincidently chose the projects and clientele they want to work with. |
| Low risk appetite. | High risk appetite (and coincidently understands the concept of high risk—high reward). |
I’m not saying there’s a hard-line right and wrong between freelancers and entrepreneurs, but there is definitely is a distinction in the mindset of the two. Further, a freelancer can be just as successful as an entrepreneur. In any regard, focus on doing the best possible work you can for your clients/customers and build creditability within your community.
The bottom line: If you want to build a business that continuously makes money while you sleep, you must change your mind set. Develop a strategy to scale your products, services, and yourself while figuring out how to commoditize your knowledge for the masses.
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I like this entry. It makes perfect sense.
Thanks! I hope you keep working on your “master plan” for your new biz!
a friend linked me to this because i’ve been freelancing for a while and to be honest, i was a little pissed when i first saw the title. but then after reading the post, it makes a lot of sense. i’d like to think that i’ve always had the entrepreneur mentality, but i have always been calling myself a freelancer.
guess i should think about changing things up, thanks for the post. post more about this subject, i’d love to read more from you!