Are you considering being an entrepreneur?

Are you considering being an entrepreneur? Are you considering starting a career? If so, it is good to know the pros and cons of each. The table below will help you learn the difference in roles and mindset between an entrepreneur and an employee.

Entrepreneurs

1. Value wealth over job security
2. Can go months or years without paymentLong hours, especially during start-up
3. Potential for very large payoff
4. Build their own assetsHave a higer tolerance for risk
5. Own the company.
6. Can only be fired by Board of Directors.
7. Sit behind the desk when interviewing
8. Are willing to take calculated and educated risks
9. Build systems for benefit of themselves
10. Pay taxes only on NET income
11. Build assets and then use them to purchase other assets
12. Build passive and portfolio income, taxed lowest
13. Invests from the insideCan start other similar companies
14. Adapt quickly to change
15. Often have to dedicate yourself fully during start-up stages.
16. Hard to raise a family and start a high-potential venture.
17. Have access through their businesses to much larger credit limits
18. Financial security once venture succeeds
19. Can become wealthy at young age
20. Have a bias toward action
21. Create the systems
22. Decides who to hire and who they work with
23. Have freedom to control direction of their company
24. Are able to use all of their skill sets
25. Rarely do the same thing two days in a row
26. Work on building assets so they’ll never need a 401(k) or pension
27. Make money when they sleep

Jobs/Employee

1. Value job security over wealth
2. Receive consistent paycheck
3. Regular, consistent hours
4. Constant but relatively low payment
5. Work to build someone else’s asset
6. Do not like risk
7. Could be fired at any time
8. Sit in front of the desk when interviewing
9. Adverse to risk
10. Build systems for benefit of employers
11. Pay taxes on total income
12. Do not build assets.
13. Build active income, taxed the highest
14. Invests from the outside
15. Restricted by non-disclosure and non-compete agreements
16. Often resist change
17. Have time to do other things besides work—such as raise a family or take up hobbies.
18. Much harder to obtain significant credit
19. Will have to follow strict saving and investment plan to reach financial security by retirement
20. Will not become financially secure while still young
21. Often have a bias toward passing the bill
22. Have to deal with the bureaucracies created by intricate systems of the companies they work for
23. Have little say over who they work with
24. Have little say over the direction of their company
25. Use only a small portion of their abilities
26. Often have repetitive jobs
27. Work on building 401(k) or pension
28. Make money only when they are working

Hopefully the table above has given you some insight into the different characteristics of entrepreneurs and employees. It is a difficult choice to make for many. Many aspiring entrepreneurs choose to work for someone else for a few years to gain knowledge, contacts, and capital. Others feel that the best way is to start out as an entrepreneur and have the advantage of quite a few years of learning over their peers. Whichever you decide, just make sure that the choice is the one that is right for you, not just the one that everyone wants you to make.

By Ryan Allis