Entrepreneur or Employee: Mindset

Greetings!

​This is the first in a series of short articles excerpted from a chapter in my recent book Franchise Vision: Transform Your Future Through Franchise Ownership. The chapter is titled Entrepreneur or Employee: Mindset, discussing the differences between the mindset of an employee and that of an entrepreneur.

There needs to be a motivational trigger for most people to contemplate business ownership. The bigger the trigger, the stronger the motivation to take action. For many of my candidates, this trigger can be losing a corporate position in middle management after many years or even decades working as part of corporate America. Suddenly being an employee doesn’t feel so safe.

While some people feel compelled or find it necessary to leave the world of employment, others have the option to continue working as an employee. Finding any job as an employee may feel less risky by taking the more traveled road. The emotional battle between the perceived risk reduction of being an employee versus the benefits of business ownership is at the crux of the decision to start a business.

Not everyone has this emotional battle. For someone like Steve Jobs, it wasn’t a drive for rewards versus safety that motivated him—it was simply how he was wired. These types of entrepreneurs see their path as less risky than giving up control of their careers to someone else. They are unemployable. They would be bored and frustrated if they had to work as an employee.

Candidates for franchising are different. They are entrepreneurial to consider franchising, but they aren’t usually born that way. They are drawn to entrepreneurship for the rewards—financial, emotional, and aspirational—of controlling their destiny. And the rewards are many—there is no question your quality of life will increase as an entrepreneur. But they often have a choice of which road to take—employee or entrepreneur.

The transition from employee to entrepreneur and business owner requires a franchisee candidate to consider their mindset in different critical areas. These include their incentives for working, view of risk, desire for status, and whether they have a scarcity or abundance mindset.

In future articles, I will continue to cover several areas of mindset difference, including Incentives, View of Risk, Desire for Status, Scarcity vs. Abundance, and Grit and Continuous Improvement.

David Busker