There are 582 million entrepreneurs worldwide with over 5.4 million new businesses started in 2021 in the US alone. The number of self-employed Americans and business owners in America is only expected to increase over the next decade and more of your financial advising clients could be business owners as a result. But the financial advice you give to employees might not work for those who own businesses. Instead you have to understand entrepreneurs’ motivations and money situations in order to serve business owners as a financial advisor.
The Psychology of Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs tend to think outside the box, consider career achievements a priority and will take risks to achieve their goals. While some follow the typical image of an entrepreneur and run a large company with many employees or own a small business, others are “intraprenuers”, salaried workers who carve out an entrepreneurial niche within corporations or businesses. Others work a full time job and have a side hustle outside the office.
In their money management, entrepreneurs are driven by growth and are willing to take risks as they see them as a necessity for high performance. While wanting to achieve results quickly often helps this type, it can also be a blindspot when it comes to financial advising since assets are often built slowly over time and not overnight.
They also might need to learn how to create more balance in their life. The common stereotype for an entrepreneur includes sacrificing their personal lives for their business, but they might be sacrificing more than just that. Often, this type will sacrifice properly managing their money to instead focus on making more money. As this type learns the importance of money management, they can achieve better financial balance instead of striving for more money without a proper management infrastructure in place.
While intrapreneurs might think like a business owner, the tactical financial advice would be similar to the advice given to employees. There are three other types of Moneymax entrepreneurs which might need different advice than those working for someone else:
- Full time employees with a side hustle
- Solopreneurs
- Entrepreneurs with employees
No matter which of the three types of entrepreneurs someone falls under, all entrepreneurs are driven by professional goals. This personality type is driven to excel and is happiest when they are challenging themselves and striving for better achievements.
While all entrepreneurs have similar motivations, weaknesses, and strengths when it comes to money management, they can be in very different professional scenarios. Each professional scenario has different considerations for you as a financial advisor.
Full Time Employees With a Side Hustle
Many people these days are building side hustles on top of a full-time job, whether that side hustle is a passion project or intended to replace a 9-5 down the road. Clients with full-time jobs and side hustles might have a greater cash flow and more to invest, but they may also have more challenges.
Unlike employees with a consistent income, those with side hustles might have varying income from month to month, making it more difficult to know how much they should be investing. They also might be looking to reinvest in their business instead of building up assets. While you might be tempted to convince them to build up their investment portfolio, you should honor where they are and the investments they need to make into their own business.
To fully understand how to best serve these clients make sure you consider how much money they need to invest in themselves, what the end goal with their side hustle is, and how much the monthly income from their side hustle varies.
Soloprenuers
Solopreneurs can take a variety of forms from freelancers to those who are just starting out in their business and can’t afford to have other employees. These entrepreneurs may have subcontractors to help with their workload or could be doing all the work themselves.
Similar to full-time employees with a side hustle, these entrepreneurs may need to focus more on investing in themselves and their business. It’s important to keep in mind their financial and professional goals when working with them, not how much you could make off their investments.
Another concern with full time entrepreneurs, whether they work alone or have employees, is that they need to fund their own retirement and provide health insurance themselves. Since they don’t have a 401K through a company or company benefits, they need to do more financial planning. With these clients, it’s especially important to focus on building out a sustainable retirement plan as well as a fund to cover benefits such as health insurance and life insurance.
Entrepreneurs With Employees
The most typical image of a business owner is someone who manages employees, has a large overhead, and might have funding from venture capital or business loans. These entrepreneurs’ finances will be the most complicated to manage because there are so many moving parts and stakeholders involved.
Unlike a solopreneur, they have to consider the benefits, employment taxes, maternity leave, and more for multiple employees. They might also have external stakeholders, such as angel investors, a venture capital firm, or a board of advisors. This entrepreneur’s finances not only impact themselves, but the livelihoods and interests of many parties.
In order to best serve this entrepreneur, you need to take into consideration these different groups and what their cash flow looks like. While you might provide them with similar financial advice about building up their assets that you would provide to other entrepreneurs, there are more moving parts to consider than with other clients. Set aside extra time to fully understand their financial situation and the varying stakeholders and considerations these entrepreneurs have.
No matter what type of entrepreneur you work with, you should be working with them as well as working for your own interests. Compared to some other money personality types, entrepreneurs take great pride in their professional accomplishments and often prioritize their business goals above other considerations.