Congratulations, You’re an Entrepreneur!

By Will Brackenbury on March 31, 2012

Imagine sitting in a cubicle amidst hundreds of others, punching numbers into a spreadsheet, working as a wage-slave. Can you picture it clearly? Yes, this could be you after college. Good news: it doesn’t have to be you. Even when you work flipping burgers in a McDonald’s, you are acting as an entrepreneur, and you can use this to avoid the trap of just working for a wage.

How can this be? Allow me to outline some basics of business acumen, and show you how you can avoid getting stuck into this trap.

It’s a trap! {Image by JD Hancock on flickr.com, modified by Dubbrack}

You’re being paid to complete a task. When you work for an hourly wage, you often get a mistaken impression. If you’re working as a bagger in the grocery store during a slow, late-night shift, it seems as though you’re getting paid to wait until closing. Really, though, you’re being paid to take care of the store, and when everything is busy, your specific task is to bag groceries. When it isn’t busy, you take care of the other aspects of the store. Don’t work for the wage, work to complete a task. As you get promoted, you get bigger tasks.

Take pride in your work. This idea is a natural result of the first. At its most basic level, the idea of taking pride in your work means that you do a good job on everything because you care about the quality of the result. Expanded, however, it means that you appreciate your work environment, and will take initiative to find ways to better complete your assigned task, so as to do the best job possible.

Self-respect and forthrightness.  If you work well with the first two ideas, your managers and others will notice you. Once they do, talk to them about promotions—be polite, but also remember that you’re a hot commodity as well, and know that they’ll want to get you doing more good work within the company, so don’t be shy about asking for more opportunities.

Willingness to accept challenge. If (more like when) you are offered a promotion, don’t be afraid to accept something that might seem challenging or uncomfortable for you. Going out of your comfort zone earns you more money, and looks fantastic on your résumé.

Asking for promotions is scary, but not as scary as breathing fire. {Image by David Stanley on flickr.com}

To return to the original question, how are you an entrepreneur? The definition of an entrepreneur is, “an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative”.  Well, businesses negotiate with their suppliers for things such as ingredients and packaging. How is labor any different? Learn to display risk and initiative so you can make money in your business: the business of supplying labor.

 

Congratulations, entrepreneur.

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