What kind of entrepreneur are you? | Be Your Own Boss Series I 1/5

hello, I’m your host Kaycinho,I’m a digital alchemist, and before we move on, this channel is all about helping you change your life thanks to the digital age we live in and the opportunities that comes with it. So if you are interested in more tips, goodies and giveaways, go to kaycinho.com/newsletter and subscribe to my email newsletter.

Want to be an entrepreneur?

So, if you’re reading this episode, I assume that :

• you’ve realized that your life is not where you want it to be professionally
• you’ve made a decision to start your business
• you’ve assessed your resources and skillset
• and you’ve made up your mind about whether you will make a business out of your passion and/or out of market opportunities

And if you have no clue what I’m talking about, please note that this is episode number five of a module dedicated to the decision phase of starting your business. So if you haven’t seen the first four episodes, I invite you to check this playlist.

And by the way, this module is the first module of a course taking you from the burning desire to become your own boss to actually launching your business. So if you want access to the full course (videos will be added until the course is complete) by clicking here.

The Architect Entrepreneur vs The Builder Entrepreneur

Okay, so, you’ve reached a point where you pretty much know what you want to do, but should you dive into it as an architect or as a builder?

In my opinion, planning is key to the success of any project.

The risk with over-planning is entrepreneurs’ number one nightmare: procrastination!

The Over-planning Entrepreneur

I have a buddy of mine that I’ve known for many years, but today we live a few thousand kilometers away so we don’t see each other that much and only do calls or Skype from time to time.

Now to give you some context, at the time we used to live in the same area and see each other more, I was just a dreamer back then: I was dreaming of having my own business, but took no action.

He was the same.

We just kept talking about “One day, when we have a business”. Unfortunately we didn’t really have a proper business-minded thought process at the time. We wanted a business, but were not ready to put the necessary efforts into it, nor build it the proper way, such as researching the best legal form, do even a simple market research, and so on.

What we did spend time on though, was talking about it over and over, debating on the best strategies, products and services we could craft, and we would spend an enormous amount of time drafting plans and scenarios that never left the warm comfort of our own minds. We were virtual architects.

Change is possible

Now fast-forward a few years later, I finally got out of “business-day-dreaming” as I call it (so yes, it is possible!), but when I speak to my buddy even today, he’s still talking about “One day, I’ll do this or I’ll do that”, but still no action.

Now I’m not telling you this to belittle him, or make me look bigger than I am.

I am telling you this to illustrate HOW over-extending the planning phase can lead to no action.

And guess what? With no action, nothing’s gonna happen and your situation will not change. Try sitting on the sofa, binge-watching Netflix and tell me how that works out for you?

I love Netflix by the way, but as entrepreneurs, we just have to learn to manage our time more efficiently if we want to see results.

The Action-man Entrepreneur

Now, there’s this other guy that I know who was the complete opposite: he never seemed to plan anything, and wouldn’t even talk about what he wanted to do, but I would hear things like: “Oh he started this company” and “You know that sportswear brand? Well he created it and it’s selling like crazy!”.

That man was in a 100% builder mentality.

So if I stopped the story here, you’d probably tell me, Kay, I guess I should go builder-style all the way? But, as you’ve probably guessed, the story does not stop here.

Because he didn’t put much thought and planning into his ventures, he lost a lot of money and had to close down most of his businesses because he just didn’t care about making it right with the tax administration or or being fair to his business partners, just to name a few hiccups.

If only he had hired or partnered with someone with the architect mentality, I think he would be doing great today, but he never anticipated what would happen.

So… Architect Entrepreneur or Builder Entrepreneur?

I personally think that you need to find a balance between the two profiles that are the architect and the builder profiles.

If you have both profiles in you from the beginning, then you are very lucky. Most people though are either more of an architect (Steeve Jobs for example) or more of a builder (Steve Wozniak).

But the key is to be able to complement your profile with the other one. If you have the funds to create a business with employees from the beginning, then hiring the right person for the task will be crucial.

But if you are starting a freelancing career, it often means bootstrapping, and if you need to keep the starting costs low, then the best thing you can do is educate yourself about the profile that you are lacking.

And in today’s time and digital age, you have no excuse whatsoever to not educate yourself: you can get free education on platforms like YouTube, or very affordable education on platforms like Lynda.com and Udemy, just to name a few.

Many people have been through the entrepreneurship path, before you even started thinking about it, and you can learn from their mistakes, so that you don’t waste THE time and money they had to waste in the process.

Which kind of entrepreneur are you?

So, I hope that this video helped you assess whether you are more of an architect or more of a builder, and which one of the two profiles you should educate yourself about.

Now I’d be curious to know about you and where you stand, as well as the issues you are struggling with, so just let me know in the comments.

If you watched the companion video and if you like it, please give it a thumbs up, as it really helps growing the channel and if you know someone that could benefit from it, I’m going to ask you if you’d like to share it now.

Because let’s face it, there are so many things to do in a day that if you don’t do it now you’ll probably forget.

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So, that’s it for today, and in the next episode in these series we’ll discuss about what your relationship to money is, and how it can make or break your entrepreneur career.

So I hope to see you around here or on the Youtube channel, and in the meantime, don’t forget to invest in your success!