When it comes to entrepreneurship, many people find it difficult to define this broad term. Instead of complicating it, keep it simple, it is creating business opportunities and taking risks to create profit. Failure is inevitable when taking big risks like diving into the entrepreneur world, but if I know one thing, the risk is outweighed by the possibilities and profit you can make.
Fellow classmates, when asked to describe my best qualities said this, “Brennan Balzi is passionate about making a difference, and succeeding no matter what.” When entering into the world of entrepreneurship you have to be hungry to put in the work and time. Without this drive you won’t make it in this fast paced world of creativity and innovation.
With over 580 million entrepreneurs in the world, how can someone feel motivated to give it a try? To make their passion come to life. There are four different types of entrepreneurship and knowing which one you fall in is important for growth. Each type believes the other isn’t a true entrepreneur, but continue reading and see which class you may fall under.
Small Business Entrepreneurship
The most popular type of entrepreneurship in the United States is small business entrepreneurship. With a little over 99% of all businesses in the US being small businesses, these companies provide jobs for 50% of all non-governmental workers. Many of these smaller businesses are not extremely profitable and oftentimes were created to keep their families fed. Does this make it any less of an entrepreneurship than the others?
A mentor of mine once said, “Brennan Balzi, what makes his or her idea that they turned into a profitable business better than the next?” I asked myself why people belittle and think less of these types of entrepreneurs. They had a passion and an idea that they worked hard towards to make it a reality. These small businesses can be anything from a hairdresser, grocery store or your local plumber. No one can discredit their efforts to make something of themselves, and we all have to start somewhere.
Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship
Unlike the first type of entrepreneurship, whose ambition when starting their company was not to make it big or create a multi-million dollar business, there is scalable startup entrepreneurship. These businessmen and women start their companies with the idea and goal in mind to make their business flourish. These entrepreneurs believe their vision can and will change the world. They receive most of their funding from venture capitalists and hire the best of the best.
Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, would be considered a scalable startup entrepreneur. He had an idea that he believed would change the way the world would communicate online and brought it to life. He wasn’t looking to make any old social network that would dwindle off with age, he wanted his idea to stand the test of time. His goal, seventeen years later, is still going strong with Facebook being the third most visited website behind Google and YouTube.
Due to the risk capital and outsize returns, the scalable startup only makes up a small part of all businesses.
Large Company Entrepreneurship
This type of entrepreneurship has a solid and long lasting life cycle. This is because new opportunities and advancements are made within the already established companies to keep them growing. To simplify it, it is creating a new business or products within the present organization to continue to grow profit.
Google is a prime example of large company entrepreneurship. It began as an online search form, but now offers over 50 internet services and products. Google was already a huge company being the number one visited website. With this statistics, they keep adding features, products and services to continue this profitable life cycle. Technology and how the world works changes and evolves every day, but companies like Google make sure to stay one step ahead.
Social Entrepreneurship
This last type of entrepreneurship is much different from the rest. Instead of focusing on personal gain and profit, the products and services they create are focused on solving social issues and needs. These can include non-profits, for-profits, or hybrids with the focus on making the world a better place.
A great example of social entrepreneurship is TOMS Shoes, which was founded by Blake Mycoskie after his trip to Argentina in 2006. Mycoskie invested thousands of dollars to create this company and their mission was all about giving back and the one-for-one campaign. Every shoe purchased donated a pair of shoes to a child in need. In 2019, TOMS provided developing countries with 95 million pairs of shoes.
Giving back and helping people in your community and around the world is the foundation behind these types of businesses.
Which Motivates You?
Entrepreneurship is important because it creates job opportunities, it creates change and diversity and gives back to the society. Whether you want to start a small business to pay your way through graduate school, or have a massive idea you think will sky rocket, each idea is a type of entrepreneurship. All you have to do is think it, and put in the hard work to make it happen.
Signing off,
Interesting read about the four types of entrepreneurship. I’m mostly motivated by the small business type. As a stay-at-home mom, I have so many other responsibilities.
I hadn’t heard of most of these different types of entrepreneurship. It’s very interesting to read the differences.
I love this. My passion is social entrepreneurship. I love to share my stories on my blog and hopefully help people in the process.
This is such a great post. So many people think of entrepreneurship as just one thing, but it’s so much more.
This was a very informative blog! I never knew there were different types of entrepreneurship! But this makes so much sense. I think Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship motivates me most.
It is interesting to learn some more about entrepreneurs. I would love to start my own business some day.
Thanks for making the distinction between the different types. That’s so much easier to understand.
Also interesting to reflect on yourself and maybe understand more about your way of doing business!
I love that I’ve learned something new from your post. I thought entrepreneurship was just one type, I didn’t know it was more than that.
I’m within the small business realm personally. Or at least I’m trying to be but it’s easier said than done!
I didn’t realize that there were four types of entrepreneurship! I learned a lot from this article.