I was talking to a client/friend of mine the other day when she mentioned that the more she tries to learn things about marketing and ‘web tech stuff’, the more overwhelmed she gets.
She went on to differentiate between being an entrepreneur and being self-employed, placing herself in the self-employed category. And she makes a very good argument for the differentiation.
She points out that, as a self-employed person, she has little choice but to learn and do just about every component of her business since she (and quite frankly, many other self-employed people in America) doesn’t have enough money to pay others.
The catch-22, as she points out, is that she’s doing it all herself, which limits the time she has for other activities – including core business.
So the theory here is that if a business owner does all it takes to market, brand, write and promote their business, then they’re really in the marketing, branding, writing, and promotions business. Right?
As a freelance copywriter, I’m lucky (I think) in that much of the promoting I do for myself is based in, of course, copywriting. Whether I’m writing an email to prospective clients, or writing a blog post here for you to read, my core business matches well to my marketing and promotions.
But my friend isn’t so lucky. Don’t get me wrong, she’s great at what she does. I almost ventured into her industry after college, and it can be a very specialized and lucrative field. I think for my client, what would take her from ’self-employed’ to ‘entrepreneur’ is the one thing she mentioned early on – money. Money is the lifeblood of business. With money, you can hire someone to do your marketing, create your website and do all the things you don’t have the time to learn and do.
The point of all this? There is a difference between being an entrepreneur and being self-employed, but you’ll always be working for yourself.
