Seth Godin on How To Stop Being a Freelancer and Start Being an Entrepreneur

When you are both a freelancer and an entrepreneur, you end up hiring the cheapest person possible to do the work.

Who is the cheapest person to hire? You Are!

If you want to build a company that is larger than yourself and become an entrepreneur...

Never Hire Yourself To Do Something Someone Else Can Do.

Every Single Thing That Someone Else Can Do, YOU MUST HIRE SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT.

At first you may be frustrated knowing you could do a better job, but you will quickly realize you can raise your prices, than you can start hiring better talent. Eventually it snowballs into a big organization.

I know I struggle with this and have the mentality that I should do everything that I can do and only outsource the work I can't do.

Seems like that is why I am stuck as more of a freelancer and less of an entrepreneur.<p>Do you agree with Seth Godin? (he said this today at Authority Intensive, Copybloggers first content marketing conference.

2 comments

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trvd1707 12y ago ↗

I don't think so. Because I might be good at doing the task, but not as good as hiring and managing someone else doing the task and if the quality of the job done by a third party is questionable, you won't be able to raise your price or even selling to the same customer anymore. I don't think it is a black and white decision. Instead I decide to hire someone to do the tasks I can't do, either because of lack of skills or lack of time/resources.

davemel37 12y ago ↗

This just means you are a freelancer, not an entrepreneur.

Nothing wrong with that, but its hard to conceive a scenario where you can try to be both.