Many people think that those who do telecommute jobs are a completely different breed to Entrepreneurs. Telecommuting has a plodding, safe, reliable quality about it. Entrepreneurship sounds exciting, dynamic, and is associated with huge earning potential. However, anyone who is telecommuting, or working in a regular job can also be an entrepreneur.

Long gone are the days when you have to have lots of capital behind you. You don´t need the right contacts, or a huge loan to get you started. Which means that anyone can start a business and become an entrepreneur. It is important to understand that unless you have a fairy godmother waving her magic wand, there will be a cost to getting ahead. The cost is paid in either time or money – or both!

You want to get from A to B. You have two ways of getting there. Paying for other people to do the work or help you get there, or you do it yourself to start with. One way takes longer but costs you less. The other way is quicker but costs money.

The slow plodding approach has advantages:

You can´t afford to make mistakes so you choose your investment of time and money more carefully.

You learn a lot because you do your own research and learn new skills instead of having others do it for you.

You are not relying on anyone else to do the work and have control over the time it takes.

The fast costly approach also has advantages:

An expert will get the job done in a much shorter time.

You can have your business up and running sooner.

You can focus on the things you are good at and outsource the rest.

Which one is right for you? That answer will depend on your personal circumstances but I can tell you about my own experience in the hopes that it might save you some time and money!

Outsource whenever you can afford it The chasm between telecommuters and entrepreneurs is often the difference between doing everything yourself and outsourcing some of your work. Getting rid of tasks you don´t like and are not good at, but that are business critical, can give you an important boost onto the next step to entrepreneurship.

The cheapest contractors are rarely the best. Freelancers or contractors who have experience will not need to offer the lowest bids to get work as they are likely to have a portfolio to show or feedback from previous clients. Those offering the lowest bids are usually lacking in experience, or offer poor quality work in exchange for low pay. (Of course there are exceptions, but with thousands of freelancers to choose from, this could save you hours of searching through profiles).

Pay for premium services You can get started for free because there are so many services that offer a free starter plan. However, the free plans are usually limited in functionality. Whether you are talking about hosting or software, premium services almost always give you more options and a better service. The more options you have, the less time you spend trying to make the free options work and the more professional you will look.

If you are telecommuting, I am going to guess that you can yet afford to go full speed to entrepreneur paying for all the bells and whistles approach. Which is OK, it just means you do the slower but more affordable approach. What is very important is that you be consistent in working towards your goal. That could be 30 minutes a day, an hour 3 times a week, or 5 hours a day at weekends. Whatever your schedule will allow.

The time bandit will steal away days, weeks and months without you even realising it if you don´t schedule time to work on your business.