Am I an entrepreneur?
Or am I unemployed?
Most days – or most hours of most days – I think of myself as being an entrepreneur. Right now it so happens that my business is in its infancy, which is why I’m not getting paid. But I’m taking what I think are the necessary steps to earn an income from it in the future: setting up my website, attending networking events, and generating more content to support my position as a subject matter expert. When I’m focused those activities, I’m unequivocally an entrepreneur.
But then there are moments – like when I take my dog for a two hour walk in the middle of the afternoon – when I definitely feel unemployed. It’s those moment when I sincerely question my identity: Am I an entrepreneur? Or am I just unemployed?
If I identify as unemployed, it frees me up to focus on scouring job boards and attending networking events where I might meet people who work at companies I want to work for. It also means a year from now my plan is to be working for a company helping them grow their business. I’ll be subject to my employer’s rules and regulations, and need to work within their systems.
There’s actually a lot of peace of mind with this identity. After my last employment experience, I like the idea of having some stability when it comes to my income. I like the prospect replacing the income I’m losing because my company closed and I didn’t have another job to immediately fall into on Jan 2, 2017. I also love the idea of working with a team every day, and having an office and resources immediately at hand to support my clients’ goals.
What I don’t like about identifying as unemployed is that I feel like a bit of a loser. It also means I’m putting off my long-term dreams because the timing isn’t what I originally planned for.
I’ve known that at some point I wanted to go out on my own because I really, really want to build something. As a child, I would sit at the desk in my room and pretend I was running a company. I continued to fantasize about it in my 20s – drafting business plans that never saw the light of day, creating a website for 20-somethings before the web was littered with content, but being too scared to ever go all in on it. In my 20’s I even ran my own business but decided not to grow it because the hours weren’t conducive to the life I wanted to live (read: I met my now husband and wanted to date him).
So yeah, I’ve always wanted to build something. My previous plan was to venture out on my own in my mid-40s, not my late-30s. But because the company I worked for closed I’ve found myself with this opportunity. If the long-term goal is to be on my own anyway, why not start it a little earlier? Using that reasoning, I identify as an entrepreneur. After all, in this scenario I am “a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.”
If I am an entrepreneur, it means I need to focus on establishing and growing my business so that a year from now I have my own book of clients. It means I need to set up the necessary systems to ensure I have a sustainable business, that I’m able to scale when needed, and ultimately help my clients achieve their goals. While that seems daunting, I think I’m up for the challenge.
And yes, there is a tremendous amount of risk associated with being an entrepreneur. But there’s risk with any endeavor. So it’s really just a matter of which risks you’re comfortable taking on. Working for myself and growing my business, so long as I’m not losing money for the next twelve months, is a risk I’m willing – and more importantly want – to take.
Besides, I will always have the opportunity to work for someone else. I may not always have the opportunity to be an entrepreneur.
So that settles it.
I’m an entrepreneur.