Entrepreneur, Homepreneur, Freelancer, Employee- A comparative study series; Part 3 (Concluding part)

Disclaimer: This analysis/ study is my personal opinion based on the experiences i have had as a freelancer. This is not in any way an authoritative document. However, you are free to discuss your perspective with me. Will be glad to know what you think.
Part1 synopsis:

  1. Becoming a freelancer is a transition, and not a degree/diploma.
  2. Help yourself – Educate yourself – Make informed choices.
  3. When in doubt, google it/him/them.. and… google some more.
  4. Perseverance is the key.


Part 2 Synopsis:

  1. Freelancers and Homepreneurs are indeed (dis)similar.
  2. Their dissimilarity lies in the manner in which they manage their time / priorities.
  3. Look deep into your upbringing, may be you have that homepreneurial spark, waiting to show up.

Couple of months back, I had been to the NASSCOM Product conclave 2010 at Bangalore. As an independent freelancer / homepreneur, I was not associated with any company. My business card read “Freelance Consultant” along with Homepreneur.com as the url. My corporate friends would agree that, formal way of introducing oneself is to say “I am __ from ___ Company.” All I had was, “Hi, I am Deepa & I am a homepreneur”.
This spiked the interest (.. which is good for me… I get to do my sales pitch), and wanted to know more. Here is a small snapshot of our conversation.
I do not have permission to disclose the identity of the fellow attendee, so here is the rest of the conversation.
Fellow Attendee: Hi, I am ___ from ____ (Company), heard about us.
Myself: Yes, I was briefed about your products and services by your colleague Ms.____ a little while ago. It is something very new to me. I should try it out soon.
FA: Great! Sorry I didn’t catch whom you represent.
Myself: :-), I am Deepa & I am a homepreneur. I do freelance consultations for Zoho applications.
FA: Yes, we have been hearing a lot about Zoho at this conclave. So you work with Zohocorp? Is it so?
Myself : Oh No!. I do not work for zohocorp… I am not employed by zohocorp. I do freelance consultations (Customizations, Developments etc) for people using zoho suite of applications. My focus is primarily on Zoho Creator. I develop customized applications in zoho creator for people who want to use a web based database oriented application with their business.
FA: Thats interesting. So what kind of applications have you developed?
— and we chat about it for some more time—

FA: You mentioned that you are a homepreneur. What is this supposed to mean?

Myself: Homepreneur is an Entrepreneur working from home.

FA: So, more like a Garage-Startup? Is it?

Myself : No, not exactly. All start-ups, however small, nourish the dream of growing into something big – have an office space – hire more hands etc. Homepreneur, on the other hand, is contended with being busy (& paid) for the time she can allot herself to work on any given day.

FA: So, you mean to say, homepreneurs don’t dream big? They would not want to have an office for themselves?

Myself: Some homepreneurs move on to become entrepreneurs. Some just remain as homepreneurs. For such enterprising minds, Homepreneurship is a transitory phase.

FA: How exactly do you think homepreneurs and entrepreneurs are different? Coz, As I see it, they are just the same, except for their place of work.

Myself: Indeed, that is the most obvious difference. However,

Homepreneur

Entrepreneur

Place of work Home Office
Nature of work Products / Services that can be predominantly handled by a single person Focuses on products / services as complete packed which involves diverse skill sets.
Delivery of work Physical products: Clients usually drops by to collect items personally. Popular example being Pico work on sarees. Physical products are manufactured & shipped to the clients.
If Services, it is usually delivered electronically. Most services are delivered electronically, but also tends to have a company representative at the client location to set things up.
Team Size Just 1 (oneself – to start with). However, if an ongoing client comes up with additional requirements, other like minded homepreneurs/ freelancers are called in to work as a team. So, Teaming-up is basically the need of the hour and not the essential driving factor. Vary from 5- 15 depending on the nature of the business.
Recruiting new hands Practically non-existent. Entirely based on client’s demands & if existing team members are unable to contribute or does not match the requirements. Aggressive recruitment.
Tends to have at least 2 (skilled) team members on the bench who can start of immediately (ASAP) on a new project.
Working hours Self Chosen.
(- multiple factors determine the exact working hours-)
An Entrepreneur is forever working. Yet, the general perception of 9 am – 7 pm stands true to almost all of them.
Work Load Takes extra care to accept projects that fit just into her chosen working hours.
Being at home, does not ensure that she is available to work 24x 7.
Most often “Little Less” tends to be “Just Right” for harmony between work and rest of her responsibilities.
Entrepreneur has a business to run & payroll to attend to. So, every employee on the bench is a resource underutilized && Costs $$ to company without any returns.
Hence aggressively looks for projects (so that CTC is justified)

The gentleman appeared to be convinced about my take on the difference between homepreneur and entrepreneurs. The conversation continued for a little more time, until the conclave volunteer announced the commencement of the next programme in the agenda.
I have to admit, it is this conversation with this gentleman that prompted me to make this comparative series between Employee: Freelancer : Homepreneur and Entrepreneur. It is likely that I missed out on few other things in this comparative study. Do feel free to share them at the comments. Will be glad to know more on your take on the (dis)similarities.

5 Replies to “Entrepreneur, Homepreneur, Freelancer, Employee- A comparative study series; Part 3 (Concluding part)”

  1. Deepa – Visiting your site after a looong time (when you were writing on beta-template-testing).
    Never knew that you’d started homepreneur-online. Wonderful! You have come a long way. I agree with you – “Perseverance is the key”. Wishing you all the best. (There is no need to wish when you have persevrance). 🙂
    PS: I forgot to mention – very well analysed and expressed series on homepreneurship.

  2. oh My !! Long time indeeeed…..
    Thanks for the appreciation. Now that you mention the beta-template blog, it feels really a loong time back.
    Back in those ‘good ol days’, we never bothered about SEO and stuf.. isnt it… we still managed to connect with like minded people. Things are tough these days 😀
    so, what have you been doing?

  3. Mam am doin a project in women homepreneurs marketing strategies can you give some factors influencing the market and some statistical report on Indian homepreneurs and their prefernces to my mail.id

  4. Hello Deepa,
    Iam very much inspired reading your blog. Being a freelancer is my dream. I have just started on OD. I need help about paying taxes as a freelancer in india. If you had already written articles related to it, kindly send me the link. That would of very much helpful for me.
    Good day!

  5. Hi Kamlesh,
    Thanks for dropping by. Glad you found something of use here. Wish you all the very best with your feelancing dream. Remember, perseverance is the key.
    One Mr.RanjithXavier has been kind enough to share some thoughts regarding tax laws for freelancers .
    This is very basic. I am still trying to locate a CA who would be willing to share financial guidelines for freelancers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *