If you were the type of kid always looking to earn a buck — setting up lemonade stands, selling services to neighbors, and whatnot — it’s likely you’re a natural born entrepreneur. But there are several subtypes of entrepreneur and where you fit provides important clues to the type of business venture in which you’ll likely succeed. See if you recognize yourself in any of the following:
The Inventor. You see the world in terms of problems and un-met needs for which you are constantly imagining and building innovative solutions. You’re driven by passion more than money. You love nothing more than tinkering in your garage or basement workshop, building crude prototypes with your hands (or with your new 3D printer!).
The Starter. You’ve got the vision of an inventor, but your passion is more around commercializing and monetizing great ideas. You’re the type of entrepreneur who drives tech and other business startups into being. You’ve got the audacity to seek serious investors and the discipline and knowledge to navigate a business through multiple growth stages.
The Talent. You’re a person who excels at a craft or vocation — an artist, chef, graphic, interior, fashion, or floral designer, writer, photographer and so forth – whose talent enables you to be self-employed and perhaps to employ others in complementary roles such as sales, marketing or accounting. However, you tend to have a fundamental scalability problems. You have trouble delegating your talent and, without you working every day at the helm, your business would likely cease to exist.
The Professional. You’re a person with a well-defined skill set — a plumber, electrician, HVAC pro, carpenter, builder, accountant, lawyer, physician or surgeon. While there may be art to what you do, others can essentially learn the same skills. Unlike the Talent, your business or practice has opportunity to scale and grow as you invite and/or train similarly skilled professionals to join. Your brand and/or client base can also be sold on the open market, meaning your business or practice has market value.
The Lone Wolf. You may possess characteristics of any of the above entrepreneurial types, but, by nature, you’re also: introverted, contrarian, anti-authoritarian, non-collaborative or some combination of the above. You’re in business for yourself because you know you don’t work well in corporate or team-driven business environments. Your business is neither scalable nor sellable, but you don’t care because you are doing what you love.
The More-to-Life-Than-Just-a-Worker. You are very much like the Starter, but have different ambitions. You want healthy, growing income, but aren’t looking to build the next Apple, Amazon, or Google. Instead, you want balance between work and play. You’ve got talent and/or professional skills, but ultimately, want to end up with a business that’s scalable, can eventually run without you (or with very little effort on your part), and has market value that you can either sell or leave as a family legacy. Unlike the Lone Wolf, you also enjoy being part of a work community, sharing knowledge and advice, and working collaboratively to improve your business brand over time.
If you see yourself in this last description, YOU might be an excellent candidate for small-business franchising and precisely the type of entrepreneur that MaidPro would like to talk to. Complete the contact form here to chat with us today!
