Entrepreneur. Small Business Owner. Independent Contractor. Online Business Owner. Virtual Assistant. Businesswoman. Businessman. Merchant. Dealer. Mogul. 

No matter how you slice it, at the end of the day it all means one thing: you are a person who is in business for yourself. You don’t answer to a higher authority in your business. You are the person in charge. 

So why do people have such a hard time with this label?

Entrepreneur vs Small Business Owner vs Independent Contractor

Since I’m a big fan of definitions I thought we would start there:

Entrepreneur: (n) a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so

Small Business Owner: the SBA defines a small business as one that employs fewer than 1,500 people and generates a maximum annual revenue of $41.5 million (as of 2017)

Independent contractor: In the eyes of the IRS The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. If you are an independent contractor, then you are self-employed.

So really, what is the difference?

In theory, the three are one and the same. Yet very few business owners refer to themselves as entrepreneurs. 

At Serendipitous Rebel, we believe that how you refer to yourself comes down to the mindset you have when you run your business.

Though there is very little difference between the roles and responsibilities of a person in any of these three positions (outside of, perhaps, scale), there is a huge difference between the mindset of the three. 

Most entrepreneurs are risk takers. They hold in scope the vision of the work that they wish to do. 

Independent contractors, by comparison, tend to focus on the job that they execute.

They don’t focus as much on the vision. They also tend to forget about the importance of the business systems they need to pull in the jobs they are so good at executing. 

Small business owners tend to focus solely on the systems, but forget about the vision and jobs in place that are needed to effectively scale and execute. 

To be successful you need to be able to take risks and have a strong vision. You must focus on and build systems that support your business to include marketing systems, financial systems, and operational systems.  Finally, you need to be able to execute and love the jobs and tasks that fund your business. 

A business is an ecosystem, made up of many different moving parts. At the end of the day your job title has very little to do with the outcome and success of your business. But your mindset and how you execute your business will have everything to do with how successful you are. 

You are the owner of your business. It’s time to embrace ALL of the roles and responsibilities that come along with it.