What Your Relationship With Business Says About You

There are many different facets of the entrepreneurial world. For example, you could be an 

investor, a business owner, or even an employee. Your role will vary depending on what kind of 

company you work for and what kind of work you do. Given that there are so many options 

when it comes to your relationship with business, what exactly does your relationship say about who you are?

If your answer is “I have no idea”, don’t worry! This blog post by Jonathon James will help clarify 

things for you! We’ll discuss all the different ways to think about your relationship with business in order to figure out which one fits best.

1) Employee

First, we’ll start with the most typical relationship with business: being an employee. This is the 

definition that most people will think of when they hear the term “relationship with business”. 

Employees work for a company and get paid to be there. This is a very simple relationship, but it does have a lot of variations in practice.

Let’s look at a few of these different ways being an employee can apply in real life. For example, 

you could be a salaried employee who works 9-5 at a desk doing their job or you could be an 

hourly wage earner who works on busy days and sleeps during slow ones. You could even be a 

freelance employee or a part-time worker. Whatever the case may be, as an employee you will 

typically work for a single company and follow their rules and regulations. It is worth noting that 

due to the nature of this relationship, it is not always one-sided. You can gain many different things from your employer as well as paychecks!

2) Business Owner (and Investor)

The next relationship we’ll talk about is one that’s likely very familiar: business ownership. Most 

people associate the phrase “relationship with business” with this definition in particular. Being a 

business owner means that you own a piece of a company, possibly through an investment 

group or even another company. You then get to make decisions about that business and set 

the tone for how it operates. It’s also possible to hire employees and get paid. The focus of this 

relationship is obviously on the business you own rather than your place in it.

However, there is another side to this relationship: investor. As an investor, you give money to a 

business in exchange for partial ownership and compensation if the company does well 

financially (but no say in how the company is run). This works almost exactly like owning a stake 

in a company except that there’s no actual ownership stake involved. Often times this investment can be a way to make a lot of money quickly.

3) Entrepreneur (and Business Ownership)

The last relationship with business that we’ll discuss here is one that’s very creative and can 

also be used in conjunction with the two above: entrepreneurship. Being an entrepreneur means 

that you start a company without any money or employees, but eventually you make a profit. 

This is a creative endeavour and there are several ways to do it depending on your skill set and 

goals. For example, you could find investors, develop your idea into something tangible, or even 

just keep working on your idea until someone buys it from you for an amount of money greater than the original investment.

As an entrepreneur, you get to make your own rules and set your own pace. The biggest thing 

to note here is that often times entrepreneurs don’t work for other people, but other 

entrepreneurs. They help one another run their companies while also pursuing their own interests.

4) Business Owner (and Entrepreneur)

Lastly, there’s the special type of entrepreneur called a business owner / entrepreneur. These 

people are essentially both entrepreneurs and business owners at once! Whilst they might not 

do everything on their own, they usually find ways to work together with fellow business owners 

for profit or profit-making purposes. Many times this relationship involves both being your own 

boss and running an account on one of the many business management platforms available.

5) Business Owner (and Entrepreneur)

As mentioned at the beginning of the post, you could be an employee, entrepreneur, or 

business owner. The more definitions there are for your relationship with business, the greater 

your opportunities are to have a rich, fulfilling experience. If you are just starting out in this 

industry you might be curious about how to choose which business type works best for you! 

Take this time to think about what kind of role best suits your personality and how it will fit into 

any future plans. Remember, you can have a relationship with business in more than one way. 

You don’t have to choose just one! http://macledge.com/

. Statements of Opinion and/or Professional Advice are those of Authors; your alternative