The
differences between ENTREPRENEURSHIP and SELF-EMPLOYMENT
A lot of times we do hear or read
about the benefits of being self employed/entrepreneur. In fact, this seems to
be the best concept to wealth. But not for once have I ever knew that there is
a difference between self-employment and entrepreneurship not until I started
reading business articles and books, listening to great business consultants -
the likes of Fela Durotoye, Kunle Soriyan, Brain Tracey (these are my most
favorites and role model) and so on. Then I sat down thinking every night, am I
an entrepreneur or self-employed?
Many of us never look deeply into
this and we usually mistake one for the other because they seem synonymous to
us. Self employment is you working for yourself probably as being a contractor,
a freelancer or you owning your business. The U.S dictionary defines
entrepreneurship as "the art or science of innovation and risk-taking for
profit in business. With this definition, I believe we are beginning to get an
insight of how different these two are. After all my thoughts, I personally
decided to regard entrepreneurship as INGENUITY. Now, what is ingenuity - it is
the ability to solve difficult problems, often in original, clever and
inventive ways. The way Bill Gates single-handedly revolutionalise the way we
use home computers is an excellent example of ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
Two distinct variations of
business owners are the entrepreneurs and the self-employed. Categorically
speaking, most people fall under self-employment and not entrepreneurship. One
major difference I see in the two is that one has a bigger scope and vision
than the other. Let's take a big look at them
First, being self-employed, you
have people who are working for you but being an entrepreneur, you have people
who are working with you and not just under you. In self-employment, you employ
people to work for you while the whole mission, vision and progress of the
business lies on your shoulder but for an entrepreneur, you have people working
with you - you are the boss or d director or C.E.O or whatever you tag your
post but you and your staffs forms a team and you work as a team, they bring
you ideas and innovations.
This is why two things illuminate
the differences between self-employment and entrepreneurship;
1. For
the self-employed, they have to go to work all the time regardless of the
amount of staffs they have. If they don't, the business will simply stop. It
might not stop on that day, but if their absence is consistent, as days roll
over, there is possibility of the business flopping. For an entrepreneur, it is
not so. The business keeps going even with the absence of the boss because he
has those who knows and understand his vision and can run things successfully
in his absence.
2. For
self-employment, if the owner decides to retire, then that is the end of the
business. If the owner dies, the business dies as well. For entrepreneurship,
the business outruns the existence of the owner because his/her workers are
working him with hence, they understand the vision, mission and value of the business
but for self-employment, the workers are working for him, hence, all they do is
just to sell the products and services - they don't understand the mind of the
owner.
Take for example, Apple Inc., even
after the death of Steve Job, the business still moves on (and didn’t change to
being open source) but can you remember that there was once a newspaper called
Concord in Nigeria? Where is it today? If those working with Steve Job did not
know the vision of the business, will it still be existing?
Think about this - "do you
want to build a business that can sustain itself and be valuable enough to sell
to others (this is the mind of an entrepreneur) or simply create work so you
can pay your bills (this is the mind of self-employed)?
Secondly, entrepreneurs are Global
thinkers. They see business in larger scale than the self-employed. The
self-employed does not want to go beyond his/her vicinity or do something new
because they are scared of taking risk, they are scared if it's going to work
out or not, so they prefer to be on the safer side but Entrepreneurs are
risk-takers - he knows how to manage and control risk, he deals well with his
procurement and thinks massively.
An entrepreneur understands that
there is money to be made and more benefits to have when you serve others on a
larger scale. They think globally and identify needs and frustrations to serve
the masses and continually further their market reach so they are always seen
in the international market more than the self-employed. Take for example Jumia
(a Nigeria e-commerce organization) and someone who opened a shop to sell his
goods. His shop is in a particular place for the reach of those around and not
for those far away from his shop's location but Jumia can bring this same goods at is being sold to you wherever
you are - they are meeting the needs of those far away.
So I see Jumia as an
entrepreneurial organization as they are meeting the needs of masses and now
Jumia is known internationally. Jumia now extend their services to other West Africa
countries like Ghana, Kenya and the likes. This Jumia and the shop owner who
sells the same things have the same mission (to sell) but different vision (to
reach globally)
A business can be small, but when
you start to think like an entrepreneur and not just someone who owns a
business but someone who runs a business, then you will have the zeal to grow
and not stay at a point.
Lastly, entrepreneurship is
believed to be a key determinant of the economic success of a country.
Self-employment could be selfish at times when most of your thought is about
just your wealth. An entrepreneur also thinks about his wealth but he creates
something that will benefit others and thereby bring in wealth for him - it is
mutual not selfish.
Same goes to a Nation.
Nations that invest into
entrepreneurship strengthens their economy. There is more of exportation to
importation and the nation is known in the global market. Similarly,
entrepreneurs in a country also enhance the country's economy. When you hear of
Apple inc., you think about America. When you hear of Techno, you think of
China. When you hear of Samsung, you think of Korea and so many examples. With
due respect and love, for the sake of improvement and not condemnation, when we
hear of our country, Nigeria, what do we think?
It is not that entrepreneurship is
not practice in Nigeria but it is done on a very small scale and this has limited
our mentality and thinking. When most of we Nigerians hear about
entrepreneurship, we delve our mind into soap making, shoe polish making, how
to fry doughnut for sale and so on.
Please don't get me wrong, these
things are very excellent but our intelligence and skills can still be
broadened than these. Let's see soap making, bead making and the likes as one
sector of entrepreneurship which I believe is now being thoroughly taught but
can we also look at another advance section of entrepreneurship? Can the
government please help to invest into our intelligence?
Thanks to those
Nigerians who learnt how to develop inverters and solar generators - this is a
very good example. Imagine this project has being invested on, then we won't
have to import any of these things. Our schooling does not matter but the
education given to us, so regardless of being a graduate or not, there are
people, creative people out there with high intelligence who are looking for
chances to use their abilities. Government investing in this advance
entrepreneurship will change the country from just having mechanics but
mechanics who can make cars, computer engineers who can make mother boards,
phone repairers who can make phones and their panels, textile industries
that can turn wool to clothes and not
just only tailors. Imagine us importing toothpicks, cotton buds, matches and so
many little things when it is not that we don't have the resources. Nigerians
who have the opportunity to support this type of entrepreneurship should please
do so. I so much love Innoson motors - at least we now have a company producing
Nigeria made cars (entrepreneurship) and not just Nigeria companies selling
cars (self-employment).
I am not condemning those selling
these things but can another set of people also learn to produce these
things? There are so many other things
we can still create ourselves. If the government can, we citizens can and at
the same time, we should believe in ourselves and not condemn things that we
make. Encourage ourselves by buying our own things most times. Let's believe we
can and yes we can!!!I believe we are now enlightened about the differences in
being an entrepreneur and being self-employed. Own your business and think wide
about it, take constructive risks, read business articles, learn from the
successful ones.
Don't just own your business -RUN
IT
Written by
Adeyemi Olumide - aka creativity
Visit Adeyemi’s blog to read
more articles like this.
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