Becoming an Entrepreneur

Are you an entrepreneur? By the end of this video, you'll have a better understanding of what it takes to be an entrepreneur. First, let's talk about the differences between self-employed, business owners, and entrepreneurs. To do this, I want to talk about my friends Travis and Bridget Hargrave.

Travis is a licensed plumber, and when he first started out, he was working for his father as an independent contractor. After a few years, he gained experience and had the confidence to go out on his own. He named his business, he had a helper, and he started getting jobs. As time went on, his business started to grow, so he bought another truck, hired a journeyman plumber and another helper. His wife, Bridget, was helping with the books and with scheduling, and they started to define the processes and their culture and they continued to grow.

At one point, they realized Travis’ role had evolved from being a plumber in the field to actually leading the crews and overseeing the operation. Today, Travis and Bridget own Hargrave Plumbing, a successful plumbing contractor here in Lafayette, Louisiana. They now have five trucks with a crew of two men on each truck and I just found out today that they're closing on a three and a half acre lot where they're going to build a brick and mortar business and just take their company to the next level.

Entrepreneurship has much more to do with the way you think about yourself and the way you feel up here than it does in the role that you do on a daily basis. You can be self-employed and you're technically a business owner, but you don't have to open up a brick and mortar store to own your own business. And you can also be entrepreneurial when you're self-employed.

Business owners are technically self-employed, but they're not necessarily entrepreneurial. Most business owners like being right in the middle of the business. Entrepreneurs are technically both self-employed and business owners, but they think differently, they act differently, and most certainly they take much, much more risk. So are you an entrepreneur? Take some time to think about it. Think about where you are right now and where you want to be.

I would say if you're an entrepreneur, you know that your role is to lead your people, grow your company and live your life.