The Five Freedoms of Entrepreneurship

*Originally published on my blog on 08/08/2022*

Entrepreneurs have access to freedoms that others may find difficult or impossible to achieve. However, our society and education trains us to be private citizens, people who work for another. As a result, new business owners may not realize they can work toward these freedoms.

I want you to have access to these freedoms as well. The first step to achieving them is knowing about them.?So here are the five freedoms of entrepreneurship.

One, location independence.

The freedom to move wherever you want and be wherever you want in the world is an enormous gift. While it is technically accessible to everyone, it is enormously difficult to achieve this level of freedom as someone who is not a business owner, as career people typically rely on the auspices of an employer in order to move cities, states, or even countries.?

As entrepreneurs, we have the freedom to be able to structure our businesses in a way that allows us to be location-independent. I know what I'm suggesting is difficult. It's not magic, it's not a snap of the fingers. But it is possible.?It took me several years to reshape my life in order to achieve an international lifestyle after I realized that I wanted location independence.?But it can be done.

You do not have to stay in a place that does not serve?you or serve your business. I knew I needed to leave my past residence because, whenever I traveled, I complained about its lack of offerings and open-mindedness. I was carrying that negativity with me every day, and unnecessary and added stress. What might life look like if you could live wherever you choose??More on location independence and becoming a Digital Nomad here.

Two, freedom of time.

A properly scaled business means that you can take as much time as you would like away from the business.?For example, when I had COVID two months ago, I was able to take time off to heal without fretting. There was no employer breathing down my neck waiting for me to get well.?

Equally, my business is structured in a way that allows me to make money in my sleep. I was not concerned about bills or the care of my clients while I was out of the office. It's all automated, which is the First Pillar of Business Scaling.?Learn more on that in my free Scaling Roadmap Guide.

Just so, if you want to take a long weekend, or you wish to skew your schedule toward the evening because that's when your energy is best, that is entirely within your grasp as an entrepreneur. Your time is completely and utterly your own. Yes, you have to show up to the appointments and events that you commit to, but it is you that gets to choose those commitments, not somebody else.?

Three, financial freedom.

Let me start by saying financial freedom means different things to different people. What you want with your finances is completely up to you. For some of us, the financial goal is enough income to purchase a house or property. Depending on your location, you may need more or less funding to sustain that dream.?

Others want enough to?FIRE, or achieve "Financial Independence and Retire Early," or LeanFIRE, to retire early but on a much smaller budget.?

Many of us really like what we do and don't necessarily want to give it up in the name of retirement.

You make your own money through the activities of your choosing. You choose the activities through which you make your money, passive or active income. It is up to you, and that is a level of financial freedom that many people do not receive when working for an employer.

Four, freedom of connection (or freedom of relationships).

This freedom is both underrated and critically important for underrepresented groups. For example, as a queer entrepreneur or?queerpreneur, I get to choose who I work with. If they are discriminatory towards me, or the people that I love, I get to choose?not?to work with them.?

Just the same, if there is a toxic client or employee, I can say no to them. There is no one forcing me to hold a harmful relationship or pander to someone else. This also means I have the personal relationships that I choose, without fear of losing a job or income. Freedom of relationships is highly underrated in entrepreneurship, and yet, to me, it is one of the most precious freedoms that we have as business owners.?

Five, freedom of activity.

Of course, this relates to freedom of time and even freedom of relationships, but I want to point it out specifically because it is an important, and often taken for granted, freedom in entrepreneurship.?

As business owners, we get to choose what we do each day. We get to choose the activities that bring us income, and we get to choose how much of those activities we wish to do. I am a business owner who is neurodivergent, and some days I can't work the full nine-to-five or eight-hour schedule that would be expected of me if I was working for an employer. As a business owner, I can segment my day if self-care is more important than the to-do list.?

Freedom of activity is a critical freedom of entrepreneurship and one that I would have been remiss to skip.

So there you have it, the five freedoms of entrepreneurship. Of?course, this article is written with my own bias, and so these are the freedoms that I most value. What other freedoms do you see in entrepreneurship that you think are important??Please let me know!