In business consulting, it is important to know who your client is. There is a difference between one who is a business owner and the other is an entrepreneur. Which one are you?
Are you a business owner or entrepreneur?
While very similar, the basic differences between business owners and entrepreneurs are,
Business Owners |
Entrepreneurs |
| Own a business | Own (or have owned) many businesses |
| Focused on customers | Focused on growth |
| Involved in operations | Delegates day-to-day operations |
| Less likely to take risks | More likely to take risks |
| More likely to start with funding | More apt to create funding as they go |
| Focus on short-term goals | Focus on long-term goals |
| Pass business on to heirs | Sell the business (or add it to portfolio) |
| Generally in better health | Generally in worse health |
Business Owners
A business owner has bought an existing business or starts one from scratch that offers a particular product or service to a target market. They may own one or more companies. Tend to desire to achieve and maintain customer satisfaction. Like their businesses to be profitable but will settle for maintaining a marginal business, if the benefits of the client(s) are well received. They are responsible for the day-to-day operations of their businesses. They are enthusiastic about their business(es) and are generally organized and have the ability to set goals and achieve them.
Business owners can be perfectly content with running a business that is profitable. Business owners are often more connected to their businesses or in love with them and would be content with keeping them over a long period of time and passing them on to their heirs.
As a business owner, you are more concerned with the operations and being content with taking in more cash than it takes to operate your business daily and anticipating changes in the market, seasonal or otherwise, and preparing to deal with those changes as they come your way.
They are looking ahead, at the next day, week, month, or quarter ahead to prepare to meet the needs of their business and any potential fluctuation and are more apt to have a list of tasks to move through on a regular basis.
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs share many of the same characteristics of business owners, though they are more apt to take risks and are core creative, in that they are more likely to find creative methods to come up with new ideas, raise capital, start on a shoestring, or cut corners to achieve their goals.
Growing a business into a massive organization is a forward-looking premise of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are more interested in starting businesses to grow them, add them to their long-standing portfolio or sell them at a substantial profit and move onto their next project.
Entrepreneurs are more focused on the intricate details of running their businesses, the psychology, the culture, the company image, the processes, and the marketing. They tend to be more passionate, aggressive, and seek to raise up people within the organization to take their place.
Entrepreneurs are visionaries, projecting out their tasks into the future, looking months or years into the future, and making plans to bring their vision to fruition. These plans are often key to attracting funding. The day-to-day operations are usually delegated to others.
Warning for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurialism does come with an established set of caveats. They are more likely to suffer health risks due to their never-say-die or self-sacrificial approach to manifesting their vision at any cost. They are likely to ignore a healthy lifestyle of deeply connected relationships, healthy eating, and exercise, and are often not getting enough REM sleep. These are things to keep an eye on for business consultants who work with entrepreneurs.
Business owners are generally known to be in better health than entrepreneurs, but if you know that, you can encourage entrepreneurs to think about making personal health maintenance a part of their drive to succeed.