The Idea of leaving traditional employment and seeking the entrepreneurial or freelance lifestyle is a choice that many have decided to make for this year.

Maybe you want to quit your job and start that bakery business you always dreamed of, or maybe you want to follow a life long passion such as writing or doing tasks that you are qualified to do.

Knowing the commitment you will have to make and how it will fit into your life is very important.  Entrepreneurs and freelancers play different roles in society, but make no mistake, they are both key in our economy and to its growth.

How do you decide if you want to be an entrepreneur or freelancer?

Here are 5 ways to determine which job might be the best fit for you:

1. Are you a creator or a contender

Entrepreneurs are the people who have the skills and initiative necessary to create new ideas that will solve a systemic problem in our cultures; this includes but is not limited to, cultivating new jobs out of those ideas, and deciding how those ideas can be recycled and implemented into profitable outcomes.

A freelancer is not employed continuously but is hired by one or more people or companies to do specific assignments. They often contend in an entrepreneur’s vision or cause but are not in charge of the total outcome. They provide a service and do so on an hourly, by project, or set fee agreement. A freelancer has the security of knowledge that once their task is complete there is nothing else to appertain to.

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” – Scotty Belsky

2. How do you define yourself

A freelancer is defined by what they do. They can be a good web designer, a good seamstress, or even a good writer. Their primary value is in their skill set and how they perform it. If you want to be a successful freelancer make sure you are the expert in what you do and do it exceptionally well, If you do, opportunity will always be open to you.

An entrepreneur is defined by what they create. They put into use the intangible unseen forces of unborn opportunities and convert those thoughts into conveniences that make life easier for all those who are in a space in which they create.

When one thinks of an entrepreneur they think of people such as Steve Jobs who created Apple, and Sam Walton who created the Walmarts.  Both men possessed dominating thoughts of what things would look like if they took their ideas and cast them into the world.

3. What you think about when everyone is asleep

When everyone else is asleep entrepreneurs are the ones that are up all night thinking of new ways to assure that ideas come to fruition. Their time is often spent figuring out how all the pieces will work, as well as determining how the project might get funded, from starting at scarcity without finances, content to marketing, customer care, recouping losses, and calculating how they will gain profits.

While freelancers are also often up all night when others are asleep they are thinking of ways they can improve the way they do their tasks, how to get more clients, or they are working on doing the actual tasks themselves.

4. How you make money

The most money a freelancer can make is equal to the number of hours in any given month multiplied by their going rate. The plus side in this is the only person they depend on or have to worry about to assure payment is themselves.

An entrepreneur is someone who can make money during all hours of the day (even when they are sleeping) if they find the right people, and put them in place to make sure ideas work for the benefit of a vision, organization, and others. However, unlike freelancers, an entrepreneur’s success is dependent on everything they put in place to work as planned. If one of the moving parts fail to work it can slow down the payment process and they can even lose money.

5. Working in your business or on it

People often mistake owning a business with being an entrepreneur. Owning or starting a business does not necessarily make someone an entrepreneur. Nor does it make them a freelancer. If you start a business based on a skill that you have and it requires you to be involved in that business to produce the product or service then you are a business owner.

You may take the time to develop new ideas and visions for your business but they are not new concepts to the world. You are expanding on skills already known to the world. If you are only willing to perform a certain task in a business and envision only working a certain amount of hours in a day or week, you will be playing the role of a freelancer.

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

The realization is that times are changing, and quality of life holds a new set of values for people. The world we live in is demanding new ideas and new ways of doing things. With ingenuity and perseverance, new opportunities are being created every day and modern technology has given us accessibility to resources that were once out of reach.

These very resources have given us the ability to fulfill those demands for new ideas and allow us the chance to live a life that is built around our passions and dreams. Whether you start a new business, become a freelancer, or create the next life changing thing… whatever you do– Do Good Things!

When are you going to start your new business or become a freelancer? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!