Hey there fellow entrepreneurs, trendsetters, future business moguls and fellow unemployable… I have a question for you. “Do You Know Which Type of Entrepreneur You Are?”Today, I want to dive into the fascinating world of business owner types so you can Discover which type you are for yourself.
The 3 Types of Business Owners
- The Mountain Climber
- The Freedom Fighter
- The Craftsperson
Let’s Take a Quick Look at Each One
And Discover Which One Resonates With You…Shall We?First Up, The Mountain Climber: Mountain Climbers want to change the world.
They want to build empires, change the way things are done, and may want to take down an enemy.
The mountain climber is a daring visionary who thrives on conquering challenges and reaching new heights. They set ambitious goals, chart their course, and fearlessly tackle obstacles along the way. When you ask them about their business, they will talk about their vision for the future.
If you’re always striving for bigger, bolder, and better achievements, you might be a mountain climber. A few Mountain Climbers you might be familiar with are: Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Bill Gates of Microsoft. Love them or hate them, these folks set off to change the world, and they did!
Do you identify as a mountain climber?
Next Up, The Freedom Fighter: The freedom fighter is the spirited entrepreneur who is
driven by the desire for freedom, flexibility, and independence. They are motivated by freedom and independence and loathe being tied down. The Freedom Fighter charts their own path, they make their own decisions, and they live life on their own terms.
They’re the type to talk about the lifestyle their business is creating rather than what they’re achieving with their business.
They make the business work for them. (at least they try to) Instead of them working for the business.
If the idea of breaking free from traditional constraints resonate with you?
You just might be a Freedom Fighter.
Challenges For The Freedom Fighter
As a Freedom Fighter, you don’t particularly want to change the world or be an inspiring leader. You want to live an amazing lifestyle on your own terms doing work you love and have time to enjoy life and family. Your reward is you feel like you are in control of your life.
Freedom Fighters excel in sales and marketing and generally guide the ship in the right direction. This means the freedom fighter might be more comfortable taking on the supporting roles in the business as well as delivering the main product or service, but their business should never feel like it has handcuffs on them.Last, But Not Least, We Have The Craftsperson. The Craftsperson is the meticulous
artisan who takes pride in their craft and does their very best to deliver excellence in every detail of their work.
They pour their heart and soul into their work, perfecting their skills and honing their craft so they can deliver their creations with precision.
Nothing is good enough for the Craftsperson. They are the ultimate “no one can do it better” type of person.
The programmer programs, the builder builds, and the chef cooks.
These are the entrepreneurs who say, “Business would be great if I didn’t have to deal with people!”
How about you?
Personally, I’m in the middle of the Freedom Fighter and Craftsperson.
I tend to dive into a project or business idea as a craftsperson, build the business up to Freedom Fighter status, get rather bored and move onto another venture. My dad used to say: The problem with you son, is you climb to the top of the mountain, look around and jump to another mountain to climb. Dad, in his defense, dad was a craftsperson who climbed to the top of his mountain and stayed there for 60 years as a Freedom Fighter.
If you’re the type of person who feels no one can do it better, you just might be a Craftsperson.
Challenges For The Craftsperson
As a Craftsperson, you just want to do what you do, to the best of your ability, and without being bothered by anyone. The craftsperson just wants to complete the job, so they can move on to the next one and in doing so, maybe pick up a bit of praise for a terrific job.
Think of it like this:
The big movie stars don’t manage their calendars or emails or transportation or even their health and fitness regimes – they have a support team that does all of that for them which makes them free to show up on a set and practice their craft.
In business, the equivalent might be outsourcing everything that you don’t like to do to a support team. Think of it like this: “If you can’t change the outcome, delegate it.”
If you’re a contractor, for instance, you can focus on the project(s) while the assistant manages your emails and appointments and a customer care person takes care of sales calls, customer feedback and communication.
The Craftsperson loves the work but doesn’t really like the rest of the business stuff.
actoid: Studies Indicate:
- Approx. 75% of Entrepreneurs are Craftspeople
- Approx. 23% are Freedom Fighters
- Approx. 2% are genuine Mountain Climbers
Which Type of Entrepreneur Are You???
Most Business Courses Today
Are Not Designed for
Freedom Fighters or Craftspeople.
That being said, there is a HUGE GAP in the marketplace and 98% of the people have been left out in the cold forced to figure it out on their own!
The easiest way forward for the Craftspeople and Freedom Fighters is to figure out which one you are early on and take action! If in the future you change, you can simply move into that role because you are the boss!
The 4 Stages of an Entrepreneurs Journey:
These stages are:
- Startup – Struggle Zone
- Lifestyle Zone
- The Second Struggle Zone
- High-Performance Zone
Startup: The startup stage is when you are launching your business. You have a lot of excitement and enthusiasm, but there is no money or structure yet. You’re super excited about the future and jump right in. Not much of a plan, no budget, and you figure if you work hard enough in the beginning, the money will follow.
- The First Struggle Zone: At this stage, there is a lot of competition in the marketplace. You need to work really hard to bring in money. This means you have very little time for yourself or your family, money is tight and you often feel stressed or burnt out. As a rule, businesses like this have less than three employees and are generating less than $300,000 in revenue.
(Many craftspeople find themselves here because they are the only ones producing the product). - The Lifestyle Business: Your revenue in this stage is between $300,000 and $2 million and you have between three and twelve people on your team. At this stage, your revenue is strong but your overhead is low, which gives you the freedom and the finances to enjoy the lifestyle you want, and the support to take a break from the business as your team can take care of it.
(The Freedom Fighter Sweet Spot) - The Second Struggle Zone: This stage happens once you’ve created a lifestyle business and you think, ‘I’ve gotten pretty good at this – let’s get bigger!’ The problem is that growing beyond the lifestyle business stage requires drastic change – you need to hire more people, take on more debt, open more offices … and suddenly your expenses go through the roof. While your revenue increases, because your expenses have gone up so much, your profit falls dramatically. This then causes more stress. (Many businesses collapse here because they haven’t put a plan or personnel in place to handle it)
- High Performance: The fourth stage is the high-performance zone. You have a team of over 50 people, have a presence in several markets, and have people wanting to buy your business from you. Your profits are over $10 million and you take on the role of the visionary leader.
There are a couple of things I’d like to clarify about these business stages.
The first is I believe it’s possible to have a great lifestyle business as a Craftsperson:
This is what the Craftsperson’s business is about – because you are providing the service and your expenses are low, you get to enjoy the profits and don’t need to work an insane number of hours to do so. Yes, when you take time off the business will stop, but if you’re charging a decent amount for your services you can manage this by putting income aside in a holiday fund.
The Freedom Fighter Lifestyle Business
You have a team working for you, revenue is dependable and overhead is low, which gives you the freedom and the finances to enjoy the lifestyle you want, and the support to take a break from the business as your team can take care of it. The Freedom Fighter’s business is the lifestyle business defined in the previous stages – up to 12 staff and up to $2 million in revenue.
The Mountain Climber’s big business is the high-performance business – over 50 staff and over $10 million in revenue.
If you do decide you want a bigger business, the key is growing it quickly, otherwise, you could get stuck in the struggle zone – more stress, more time, and less reward – until you might forget why you even started your business.
Business Courses and Business
They can alert you to hidden opportunities, help you avoid mistakes, help you optimize what you’re doing, and push you to achieve more than you thought was possible.
The key in any course or coaching program is to remember why you got into business in the first place, and for God’s Sake… if you buy into a course or hire a business coach, make sure the person behind the curtain has business experience!
No need to waste your hard-earned money
on some inexperienced wizard of Oz.
I’m going to leave you with this ….
No matter which one you choose, be honest with yourself.
Do you really want to change the world, or do you want to live life on your own terms and do the work you love?
If you want an awesome lifestyle doing work you enjoy, then focus on doing amazing work, charging decently for it, and enjoying the spoils of your labor.
Leave world domination to the Mountain Climbers.
