Entrepreneur. Multipreneur. Entrepreneur.

Are not all entrepreneurs, in essence really multipreneurs? When looking for a definition of multipreneur I came across the following:

A multipreneur is a business professional that follows many passions and offers quality services or products that enhance other individuals and professionals personal and business lives.

Finding a balance in the juggling act of different job descriptions and responsibilities requires an entrepreneur to be ready for anything and prepared for everything. With business planning, market research, sales and financing on the go – being an entrepreneur is more than a full-time job. The comfort of a “9-to-5” is quickly lost on entrepreneurs, who realize that life happens at all times of the day (and night) and to succeed in this business world, you need to be committed.

Most entrepreneurs think about growing their businses by finding new markets, increasing sales or developing a new product or service. But what about starting somewhere else? Personal and professional development plays an important role in determining the viability of a business. Business growth and development are imperative to survival and often relate directly to growing the knowledge of the person running the company – you! At the beginning of March I had the pleasure of attending my first professional development event – a two-day course on design software. Realizing that I would be improving my technical knowledge, I did not realize the value-added of such a program. Two days out of the office, with no to-do list or schedule of events and I was able to step out of the drivers seat and be a passenger. Without the distractions of a typical work day I was able to take this professional development “break” for a personal development “reflection”. It is interesting how these two experiences go hand-in-hand, but given the chance to take a step back, I was able to critically reflect on my work ethic, personal goals and skill set and evaluate where my strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvement were, making me more effective, creative and knowledgable once I was back behind the wheel. As entrepreneurs in a competitive business market, we spend so much time sizing up our competitors, but how often do we have a look in mirror and evaluate ourselves.

If you were to invest 5% of your time and income per year in yourself, you would be able to expand your knowledge in a way that would help you see positive returns that would keep you moving at a high gear for many years to come. Things change fast and it is easy to fall behind very quickly. Unless you consciously put in the effort to stay on top of things, you will most certainly fall behind and get passed.

Keeping up is easier than catching up, and if you keep up, you can usually find a way to stay ahead of the traffic. When things gets busy with detours and roadblocks, this might require you to take off the multipreneur hat and instead be an entrepreneur and look within yourself for the best route. So, the next time you're looking for ways to grow your business, think differently - invest in yourself and see how quickly you go down the road of success.