Last week, Michael Banks of the Orange County Entrepreneurs Center invited me to participate in a professionally-done studio video shoot showcasing a variety of Orange County entrepreneurs in their various stages of business development. I spoke specifically about being a woman entrepreneur. I’ll let you know when Michael posts his videos, but watch this video to hear my thoughts right after the shoot:
Now of course, after I shot THAT video, I thought of still MORE I should have said. The above post-OC-Entrepreneurs-video really explores more WHO would make a good entrepreneur, and what skills and attitude they need to possess to be successful. But one of the things I didn’t touch on, and felt I should have, is the difference between a Work-At-Home-Mom (WAHM), a Freelancer and an Entrepreneur of the Female Persuasion. I think it’s a difference of commitment level.
I consider myself an entrepreneur. By my own definition, a freelancer takes on short-term jobs and moves from one project to the next. A work-at-home-mom (again, my definition) is juggling kids between phone calls and work - and often the work is done for an employer. I’m neither a freelancer or a WAHM. I work with my clients long-term, usually a minimum of 3 months and some …basically forever… and my kids are in school and at sports all day.
The other reason I consider myself an “entrepreneur” is because I have a grander vision of Tornado Marketing’s business potential. Today Tornado Marketing focuses primarily on marketing consulting and coaching - but that’s not where we’ll be forever. While I love my customers (thank you for all your support!!!) - and I adore my existing employees (thank you as well), I don’t want to grow significantly in size in either customers or employees. Instead, I want to continue to extend my reach beyond 1:1 engagements, to continue to grow and learn. I want to create info-guides. I want to do more speaking engagements. I want to run more one-to-many training sessions to reach the small businesses who can’t afford their own dedicated marketing coach / consultant. That’s one of the reasons I became a Duct Tape Marketing Coach.
(BTW, if you’re looking for a 1:many marketing workshop, make sure you sign up for my Tornado Tips Marketing Newsletter, and I’ll let you know the dates for upcoming sessions. They’ll also be posted on my http://Tornado-Tools.com website. )
My friend Matthew Scott runs a business called The Life’s Work Group whose Men@Pause program helps men transitioning from the corporate world to entrepreneurship. Over the past few months we’ve shared our perspectives about about men vs. women owned businesses. In a previous post, I talked about what we could learn from each other: http://tornadomktg.com/blog/men-vs-women/. I joke with him that I should start women@pause- but I don’t think that many women want to be true entrepreneurs. They’re more often looking for work-life balance than for total-world-domination… ok, small-piece-of-the-world-domination. Am I wrong? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with work-life balance. I know I keep looking for it myself! It’s just a different mindset and goal.
I want to hear from you. What do you think defines an entrepreneur? What do you think holds women back from becoming entrepreneurs?
Adrianne,
Thanks so much for the kind mention.
I love this discussion.
What I am learning about this discussion is not that one is better than other (male or female entrepreneurs), but how our unique giftedness and experience shapes our vision as a man or woman.
Matthew Scott
September 3rd, 2008
They are all different, but I think they can really intersect as well. I know freelancers, me included, that have regular clients. I freelance my writing skills, but I also work regularly for someone as an independent contractor (almost 2 years now). Some of my freelancer friends have 2 or 3 regular clients they do work for almost daily then some clients that only stick around for one or two work-for-hire tasks.
The fun part is doing it all with a 3 year old at home. Makes life interesting.
Angel
September 4th, 2008