Employee vs Entrepreneur Mindset

 This should come with a potential trigger warning as we are going to be diving into whether you are creating your dream life, complete with legacy building business, or if you are creating a job under the guise of being an entrepreneur. 

This is physically how you set up your business which has the underpinning of employee vs entrepreneur mindset. 

Before we go any further I want to clarify that there is no good or bad here, not judgement that comes up, as long as you are fully aware and have consciously chosen how to run your business. 

In my experience, you could be running an employee mindset whilst trying to scale your business which leads to frustration and burnout. If you are an entrepreneur struggling with burnout - I recommend reading & trying this self-hypnosis blog.

We are going to be looking through the lens of a mindset strategist and coach, to stop you if this is holding you back. 

Let me ask you a couple of questions and scenarios, to see how you feel?

How do you feel when you meet successful people? 

An Employee mindset can be threatened by successful people, and calculate that success as it impacts their own goals. 

Entrepreneurs, however, love to be around successful people. It inspires them. 

In an employee mindset, we are at 'win/lose'. 

The only way to win is if someone else loses or we beat them. This could be getting a promotion over someone else, or someone spending money with you and not another entrepreneur. 

This can show up in a business owner with an employee mindset: you might stop reaching for your dreams and legacy goals because you think someone is ahead of you or has already done it. 

What I’m describing won't make sense in the conscious mind: it is a mindset issue and as such is in the unconscious mind.

In an entrepreneur mindset, we believe that there is unlimited success and abundance in the world for everyone. We are at a 'win/ win' scenario. Our win is independent of another’s win and we WANT people to win. 

Do you believe in work/life balance or work/life blend?

Those with an employee mindset are constantly looking at balance: 'Is work and life balancing out?'. "How much time am I spending at work, and how much time am I spending at home?". "How much time at work, and how much vacation time?'"

There is nothing wrong with this in an employee mindset. After all, there is limited freedom to your balance. 

However, if you know me and have heard me talk before, in an employee mindset we are in a work/life blend because balance is for yoga posses.  

It is a golden unicorn. A perpetual state of desire and immobility that can add more stress. 

In an entrepreneur mindset's work/life blend, you don’t need to escape from what you do. It is integrated and blended into your everyday life. 

This has nothing to do with hustle culture and working until you burn out, it is a mindset that focuses on motivation.

In an entrepreneur mindset, a business can be seen in seasons. When you are in the building season of your business the blend could include more working on and in the business. Whereas in post-launch season, the blend could include more rest and recovery. 

Do you focus on tasks or goals? 

In an employee mindset, there is a set amount of work to do that is required to satisfactorily do your job. Employee mindset is more 'to-do list' and task orientated rather than questioning or focusing on the larger goal. 

If you are an employee with an entrepreneur mindset, this is where it gets interesting. You may find yourself questioning WHY a task even needs doing in the first place, and how it relates to the larger goal.

In an entrepreneur mindset, you are focused on the goal and the most efficient and result-driven way of making that happen. 

Are you good at delegating, or do it all yourself?

If you're an entrepreneur who IS NOT looking to create a job for yourself, you cannot try to do everything yourself. Think about how someone else could do this task/achieve this goal/take on this role, other than you?

The entrepreneur mindset is about scaling and growing, which becomes capped very early if you are doing everything yourself.

There is only so much of you and you can get burned out very quickly.

How would we define creating a job as an entrepreneur?  

One where you are 100% trading time for money. Where if you aren’t working, you aren’t earning. Where you might be working in and on your business in 'corporate hours'. Where if you switched out yourself for an employer there isn’t a noticeable gap in differences. 

Let’s ask the question; if you are an entrepreneur right now, are you creating a well-paid job for yourself or are you creating a business? 

In my case, and this is the case for many people, I went from corporate life to start my own business. I had an employee mindset and while I also did have an entrepreneur mindset, it was a question of conditioning. 

When I had my 'quit day' and had my first day working 100% for myself, I did what I had been conditioned to do for over a century. I acted like an employee.

I started at the same time I had always done, I finished when I had always done and was very fixed on when I should be working. 

I see this in many of my clients, such as a 121 client who came to me to set up her consulting business, after being made redundant from a 6 figure corporate role. 

She had a defined set of parameters, which included the level of income to reach to match her corporate salary, as she had a lifestyle to pay for.

During our sessions, one of the biggest areas she struggled with was the employee mindset conditioning that she had had for 25 years, including how to define success regularly. 

In her corporate world, success wasn’t defined by her but at board room level. That defined success in her role, including bonus structure, regular presentations and reporting on her department's performance.

Take all that away in her new role as entrepreneur and business owner, this was still a mindset and behaviour that she desired to demonstrate. 

So we did. We made her the CEO and once a quarter, with me as her trusted advisor, she presented her results during our session. 

We also modified the presentation to include her life goals.

Utilising her corporate conditioning and transitioning to an entrepreneur mindset allowed her unique skills from her corporate life to accelerate her business growth. 

When we first started working together, it was an idea and a concept. Two years later, the team has grown to 3 full-time employees and one part-timer, with a 75% profit margin for her consulting firm and winning her largest contract of £107,000 for a single-unit piece of consulting work. 

So think about your mindset and your business. Are you creating a well-paid job for yourself, or are you creating a business?

Do you still act as an employee potentially through corporate conditioning, or are you fully embracing an entrepreneur mindset?

Are you in transition and need to flip the switch to be in the entrepreneur mindset?

Bring your attention and awareness to your model and mindset right now, and ask yourself if you are creating your desired life? 

When you are ready to explore your legacy, success and impact on the world, here are ways to start the journey:

1.   Wielding Legacy - weekly audio insights from Laura to help you build a legacy for yourself and your family. Gifted to you by Laura. Download the Kajabi app to have the weekly insights delivered straight to your phone. Limited to 100 active members.

2. Your legacy as an entrepreneur is rooted in your ability to sell your offerings to those to who you can be of service. Persuasion is the entry point course that will allow your business to thrive. 

3. Stop being the best-kept secret in your industry. Brand Seduction will get you seducing your ideal clients in integrity to desire your services, and becoming sought after. 

If you are looking to create a hugely impactful legacy, my one-to-one success coaching will change everything. The next available spot is August 2021.