There are several general definitions in business. You have to learn it. It will be mentioned in this section, including:
Employee: is someone who has a job with an employer (a business, government or NGO).
It is important for employees to know what is expected of them and to have the knowledge, skills and commitment to do their job. Being an employee can be a good option if you can find a job. Jobs are not available for everyone, and there are many people who want to be hired for good jobs.
If you are interested in starting your own business, being an employee first can be a good thing. You have a new learning environment that can help to teach you how an employer runs business. When you start your own business, this learning can be put to practice. So focus on your job, but learn widely about how your employer’s business and organisation runs.
Talk with different people about their jobs and learn as much as you can. For example, you could talk with a carpenter who is hired by a building constructor. The constructor is building a new school that will need 20 twenty desks for students. The constructor has tools and a workspace where the carpenter makes the desks. The constructor pays the carpenter an agreed salary.
Self-employed person: is someone who has both a business and a job.
Being self-employed is actually having a one-person business. For example, the carpenter could offer to build and deliver twenty desks. But instead of becoming the constructor’s employee, using the employer’s tools and workspace, the carpenter plans to use his own tools and workspace to get the job done. When the desks are finished, the carpenter will deliver them to the constructor. If the constructor is happy with the quality of the desks, the carpenter will get the agreed price for the twenty desks from the constructor. It takes both business skill and job skill to be self-employed.
An employer can be a business, a government or a non-governmental organization. The employer needs different skills to accomplish this mission. The employer appoints employees, pays them a salary, and asks them what to do. Employers choose employees from among job seekers and employ those who think they are most efficient for their business.
Business: is a larger organisation than your organisation, if you are self-employed.
For example, maybe the business was started by a self-employed person who had good business and job skills. Because of good business and job performance, the customers were happy and told others about it. Soon there was too much work for only one person to do. So, the self-employed person decided to hire some employees to help to get the job done. This is how the self-employed person took the next step and developed a business organisation.
In a business organisation, there are people working in different roles. In small companies with less than ten people, someone is the manager, while various specialists and other workers take care of other job roles. If the business grows more, the organisation will need to have more people and more job roles. There is no limit to how big the business can grow if the business idea is good and the business is managed well. Many big companies were first started by people who were self-employed. It is possible to make a good business bigger or to copy the business many times over, opening it up in new locations.
DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN DEFINITIONS ABOVE Employee Self-employed
person Business Looks for a job Looks for customers Looks for customers and new business opportunities Is hired by an employer Employs himself Hires employees Is told by the employer what to do Needs to tell himself what to do Tells employees what to do Gets a regular or agreed salary Gets paid what is agreed with customers Earns business income to pay to employees Gets a regular salary and maybe overtime pay for working more Gets no income if no work is done. Gets more income when working
more and sales are good May get business income even when not working Get the same salary even if the employer is doing badly or gets
fired Gets no income if there are no customers If there is no business, it is not possible to hire employees,
and the business may have to be cut down Gets same salary even if the employer is doing well Gets more income if there are more sales to more customers Gets more business income and can employ more people if there are
more customers and business opportunities Needs job skills Needs business and job skills Needs business and organising skills and understanding of the
business sector Is disciplined by the employer if job performance is poor Needs to take good care of self-discipline. If job performance is
poor, it is difficult to find customers Needs to take care of business discipline and makes sure that
competent and diligent people are hired for jobs