Most often, people get confused between being an Entrepreneur or a Freelancer. Although in both the cases the person is fiercely independent and they work for themselves, maybe managing a team and/or hiring people.

But if we observe the thin lines of accomplishing goals and creating plans for expansion, then both freelancer and entrepreneur are as different as strawberry and gooseberry.

8 personality traits of an Entrepreneur and a Freelancer

A freelancer is a person who gets paid for the work. He may charge based on the hours consumed in finishing that task or based on per project. Some of the most common professions where freelancers are pretty much active are: Writing, Designing, Consulting, Coding, Advising, Filling Taxes etc.

An entrepreneur is a person who uses money (either his own or someone else's) to create a business and make it bigger than himself. Entrepreneurs focus on the growth and expansion of the business more than just revenues and profits. Scalability is the keyword here.

The goal of a freelancer is to provide higher quality of work so that his hourly compensation or project charges increases gradually. The freelancer, at heart, wants a steady, long term 'job' with no bosses around. It is the skills which a freelancer has that have value. Contacts, networking and knowing influential persons in the industry matter heavily for a freelancer.

The goal of an entrepreneur is to build a massive business, which can be either sold out churning out huge profits or to create a self-sustaining profit machine which works even if he is not around. The entrepreneur can hire resources to manage that or can outsource some of the tasks. Generally, entrepreneur work as a team, having key people responsible for major tasks

When a freelancer says he built something, he usually means that he wrote it, painted it, shot it, designed it or programmed it. Freelancers are more or less associated with creating art and craft.

When an entrepreneur says he built something, he will usually mean a mega business, for which he hired people to create it. It can be an idea, a product or a service. Internally, an entrepreneur thinks huge, and would want his business to scale to infinite lengths.

- In his younger days, an entrepreneur must have been selling things to his friends and making money while still being a student. A typical entrepreneur couldn't accept things at face value, whatever is his age. Buying and selling stuff for small profit is a trait which has been observed in lots of entrepreneurs, all over the world.

- On the other hand, a typical freelancer in his younger days must have been playing games all through the night, or drawing comics or writing something or the other at the back of his school textbooks. Money or talk of money normally frightens an artist!

The transformation from a freelancer into an entrepreneur is tough, but not impossible. There are some entrepreneurs who started as freelancers and made it big.

But the important thing is to identify yourself either as an entrepreneur or a freelancer so that there is no confusion and ambiguity.

Can you identify yourself within these traits?

Who are you, entrepreneur or freelancer?

For all the talks of unity, it so happens sometimes that the tact of politicians seem right- We are divided at the core.

For those who do not know, recently, an ad was posted on 99acres.com which stated as follows:

"Excellent brand new 2BHK fully furnished flat with cross ventilation, natural light. Cosmopolitan society, no Muslims, with car parking on immediate sale, fifth floor interested please call".

We decided to do a quick check on the site 99acres.com to see if there were still any listings that said "No Muslims". Our Google search yeilded not one or two but over 1000 results. When we clicked any of those links, the actual listing from the pages have been removed. Here is a screenshot of 1000+ search results on 99 acres!

The advt in question was posted on the site sometime back and was removed on Nov 2. Before it was removed however, it was quite propagated to social networks and a lawyer and social activist Shehzad Poonawalla filed a petition with the National commission for Minorities. While she has directed the case towards both the broker and 99acres.com, the company will be protected by its fine print.

This whole incident is very important as it shows three major points:

1. The rampant discrimination that is still present in the society.
2. The issues with an open listing.
3. Lack of tact in writing the listing.

The first one is out of scope and pretty much impossible to discuss in short. It is here and while we may sweep it under the rug, it rears its ugly head in such times.

The second is the lack of filtering that such postings have. As there are thousands of postings being done every day on such sites it is quite resource intensive to put an effective filter on it. Also, as the rules on internet are lax in India compared to countries like US, there is obviously an air of carelessness about the whole system.

While 99acres did say that they were upset that the website was misused in such a fashion. Also, Hitesh Oberoi, managing director and chief executive, Info Edge (owner of 99acres.com) said- "We are in the process of putting in place more rigorous checks and processes to prevent the recurrence of such listings."

The third point is something that is of more prominence for me.

The days where you could do or say anything and get away with it are long gone. With mobile phones having cameras and internet archive where everything stays forever, the world has moved to a very unforgiving place. In such a scenario, one cannot simply put words out there as they might not just hurt others but end up backfiring on you.

There is a thing called online etiquette that a country just finding the roots of internet needs to learn. We are fairly young internet population with good broadband (or 3G) speed only just making itself easily available in the country. It might take some time for things like tact to come into place.

What is your opinion on this?

Dhingana, Pune based Indian music streaming service has partnered with Idea cellular to offer unlimited music downloads streaming to Idea subscribers without incurring any data charges.

With mobile tariff's set to increase, Mobile VAS offerings are the next frontier for Telecom operators in India to gain new subscribers on their network. Idea recently became 3rd largest operator in India after after reliance culled over 10 million users from their network on account of non-usage.

Dhingana already has free Android and iOS apps that offer free music streaming to users. While on iOS they have a premium version called Dhingana Gold, Android app has only the ad supported version. However, in both the cases the user attracts data charges for music streaming and downloads.

Interestingly, the offer of free music downloads is extended to Android users only that are on Idea Network. We tried using it, and normal music streaming did not seem to attract any data charges when we used.

However, when we tried downloading songs, it asked us to subscribe to their service at a cost of Rs. 50 which was valid for 30 days and would allow only 50 song downloads.

So, it seems that if user wants to download it and hear offline, they will need to subscribe at cost of Rs. 50. Also, because of the partnership in place, the billing will be done through idea itself and charges will be either deducted from the balance for pre-paid users or will appear in monthly bill for post-paid users.

The music downloaded through Dhingana mobile app will be DRM protected and will be played through mobile app only – It cannot be played through any other music player. Also, music streaming is available through Idea Mobile WAP with some restrictions apart from Dhingana mobile app.

According to the terms and conditions given on Dhingana site, but it was not clearly mentioned whether data charges are applicable for only streaming music without the subscription. You can see the T&C here.

In the age of Internet, trends change faster than blink of an eye and businesses are evolving faster than ever. By the time you realize that a technology or business trend is emerging, something else is already come up to disrupt the situation that quickly makes the business / technology plans you are thinking of, look obsolete.

This continuous churn creates challenges for entrepreneurs who may quickly get disoriented and confused. In order to demystify this churn, and make sense out of it, the entrepreneur begins to reach out to the 'Sages'. Which begs the question, who are these Sages?

These Sages can come under various names, such as Mentors, Advisors, Experts and so on….

Now, as an informed entrepreneur, it's your responsibility to really understand how, when and what to engage these Sages on. You may approach one of these Sages for…

1. Getting highlight level perspective on a specific problem
2. Engage them for solving specific business / technology problems
3. Getting connected with the right people in the Industry, etc.

But as you think of engaging with Sage, I would suggest that you think of one, more or all of these things, so that you get best and most out of the engagement with the Sage.

And it's a fulfilling experience for both of you…

1. Think about what you want from the Sage

The input that you are going to get is going to be directly related to what and how you ask for it. Hence, define your ask as crisply as possible. This will prevent getting vague answers and keep the discussion focused. Another thing that will help, is, setting the context / background of where you are coming from and where you want to go as person and a company. Remember that right conditions are required for the catalyst to create a catalytic reaction. Therefore before you decide to engage, think about the following aspects of the engagement model:

a. Time spent: How much time is the Sage expected to spend with you during the engagement? Is that time being spent in once a week meeting or on-going email communication? What is the protocol to respond to urgent issues where help / guidance is needed?

b. Expected out come: What is expected out from the engagement? Is it only soft conversation or are there are any specific deliverables?

c. Onsite / Off-site: Is the Sage supposed to be onsite for specific duration? Or is it a virtual engagement? What is the impact of that on the outcome of the engagement?

d. Payment: Is it a retainer model with cash + equity / cash only / equity? Or is it milestone / deliverables based?

e. Duration: What's the duration of the engagement? What would be the minimum amount of time to figure out if the engagement is working as expected or not? Will it be sufficiently long for something meaningful to come out of it?

f. Activities (core / non-core): Which activities will the Sage spend most time on? What are some of the associated auxiliary activities that you may want the Sage to focus on?

g. Primary point of contacts: Who would be the primary point of contacts for engaging with Sage, so that Sage is not getting distracted?

h. Communication methods: Given that Sages are busy people and communication methods like emails are abused, its best to discuss the communication method with the Sage for various type of activities? When would the Sage prefer phone to email or in-person meeting and vice-versa?

i. Effectiveness metrics: Aspect of measurement should always be nailed down upfront, so that you can prevent having a conversation like… "I engaged with this Sage, but after 3 months I really don't know what I got out of the engagement." But as a person / company engaging with the Sage, you must know what you want out of it and how you are going to measure it, otherwise you will never know.

j. Exit criteria: Knowing the exit criteria is as critical if not more than the entry criteria. Cause' that is what, is going to decide the success or failure of the engagement with Sage. Hence think about when and how you would want to exit the engagement with the Sage.

2. Research the background of the Sage

Knowing the background ahead of time will help you in really understanding if the Sage can possibly provide you with the information that you are looking for. For example, if you are looking for business vertical specific information, then find a Sage that has deep background in that vertical and can connect you with others in that vertical.

Talk to people and research to find out experience that the Sage has in solving business problems. Understand the scale of problems that the Sage has been a part of. Once you know what you are looking for in a Sage, it will help you immensely in identifying the right one directly or with the help of people.

3. Use the Sage's time wisely

'Time is Money' couldn't be more true in case of your engagement with the Sage. This is because Sages are always time crunched and so are you, especially if you a Startup entrepreneur.

Hence, think about how and where you would want Sage to spend their time. Otherwise you will end up being in a situation, where clock is rapidly ticking but value you are extracting from the Sage is minimal and below your expectations.

To prevent getting into this situation, make a list of all the activities that you would want the Sage to be part of. Prioritize those activities based on your needs. After that review those with the Sage, so that you will know where you can leverage Sage's time most effectively.

Perform this activity with rigor every once a week or fortnight and you should be able to get best and most out of the Sage's time.

4. Don't abuse the Sages capabilities

There are a number of conversation which I have been a part of, where the Sage is asked to provide commentary on a topic that the Sage is not an expert on. Most Sages at that point will provide some high-level insights and stop at that. But there are a few that you should be aware of.

The ones that provide misguiding advice in the hopes of squeezing more business from their clients. But as a person seeking advice, you must also be cautious of not providing encouragement for such conversations. Use your judgment wisely to save time, money and preventing yourself going on a wild goose chase based on misguided advice.

5. Don't look for a Silver Bullet

As a Company / Person soliciting Sage's advice, it's your responsibility to not expect Silver Bullet answers from Sages for your business situations. In all probability, as a person who is in the middle of the situation, you have a better understanding of the situation.

Leverage the Sage's input as independent 3^rd party perspective to see if you have missed anything from data or problem-solving perspective. Also, know that what the Sage is known for may not work for you. There might be some useful pointers there, but everything the Sage knows may not be always fully applicable to your situation.

If you expect answers that will solve your problems then, you would have set wrong expectations and measure the Sage's effectiveness on the wrong scale. This would be an injustice for both you and the Sage.

So as you begin your journey of looking for the Sage take these pointers into considerations and share you experiences…