Entrepreneurship is one of the resources economists categorize as integral to production, the other three being land/natural resources, labor, and capital. An entrepreneur combines the first three of these to manufacture goods or provide services. They typically create a business plan, hire labor, acquire resources and financing, and provide leadership and management for the business. This blog mainly focuses on how entrepreneurs make and get money.
What Is Entrepreneurship?
Economists have never had a consistent definition of “entrepreneur” or “entrepreneurship” (the word “entrepreneur” comes from the French verb entreprendre, meaning “to undertake”). Though the concept of an entrepreneur existed and was known for centuries, the classical and neoclassical economists left entrepreneurs out of their formal models. They assumed that perfect information would be known to fully rational actors, leaving no room for risk-taking or discovery. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that economists seriously attempted to incorporate entrepreneurship into their models.
Three thinkers were central to the inclusion of entrepreneurs: Joseph Schumpeter, Frank Knight, and Israel Kirzner. Schumpeter suggested that entrepreneurs—not just companies—were responsible for the creation of new things in the search for profit. Knight focused on entrepreneurs as the bearers of uncertainty and believed they were responsible for risk premiums in financial markets. Kirzner thought of entrepreneurship as a process that led to the discovery of opportunities.
Fast-forward to today, entrepreneurs commonly face many obstacles when building their companies. The three that many of them cite as the most challenging include overcoming bureaucracy, hiring talent, and obtaining financing.
Social Entrepreneurship
The goal of social entrepreneurship is to create a benefit to society and humankind. This form of business focuses on helping communities or the environment through their products and services. They are not driven by profits but rather by helping the world around them.
Consume Content Across Multiple Channels
As important as developing a diverse skill set is, the need to consume a diverse array of information and knowledge-building materials is equally so. This content can be in the form of podcasts, books, articles, or lectures. The important thing is that the content, no matter the channel, should be varied in what it covers. Aspiring entrepreneurs should always familiarize themselves with the world around them so they can look at industries with a fresh perspective, giving them the ability to build a business around a specific sector.
Identify A Problem To Solve
Through the consumption of content across multiple channels, an aspiring entrepreneur is able to identify various problems in need of solutions. One business adage dictates that a company’s product or service needs to solve a specific pain point, either for another business or for a consumer group. Through the identification of a problem, an aspiring entrepreneur is able to build a business around solving that problem.
It is important to combine steps three and four so it is possible to identify a problem to solve by looking at various industries as an outsider. This often provides an aspiring entrepreneur with the ability to see a problem others might not.
Solve That Problem
Successful startups solve a specific pain point for other companies or for the public. This is known as “adding value within the problem.” Only through adding value to a specific problem or pain point does an entrepreneur become successful.
Say, for example, you identify that the process for making a dental appointment is complicated for patients, and dentists are losing customers as a result. The value could be to build an online appointment system that makes it easier to book appointments.
Network Like Crazy
Most entrepreneurs can’t do it alone. The business world is a cutthroat one and getting any help you can will likely help and reduce the time it takes to achieve a successful business. Networking is critical for any new entrepreneur. Meeting the right people who can introduce you to contacts in your industry, such as the right suppliers, financiers, and even mentors, can mean the difference between success and failure.
Attending conferences, emailing and calling people in the industry, speaking to your cousin’s friend’s brother who is in a similar business, will help you get out into the world and discover people who can guide you. Once you have your foot in the door with the right people, conducting a business becomes easier.
Entrepreneurship Financing
Given the riskiness of a new venture, the acquisition of capital funding is particularly challenging, and many entrepreneurs deal with it via bootstrapping: financing a business using methods such as using their own money, providing sweat equity to reduce labor costs, minimizing inventory, and factoring receivables.
While some entrepreneurs are lone players struggling to get small businesses off the ground on a shoestring, others take on partners armed with greater access to capital and other resources. In these situations, new firms may acquire financing from venture capitalists, angel investors, hedge funds, crowdfunding, or through more traditional sources such as bank loans.
Resources For Entrepreneurs
There are a variety of financing resources for entrepreneurs starting their own businesses. Obtaining a small business loan through the Small Business Administration (SBA) can help entrepreneurs get the business off the ground with affordable loans. Here, the SBA helps connect businesses to loan providers.
If entrepreneurs are willing to give up a piece of equity in their business, then they may find financing in the form of angel investors and venture capitalists. These types of investors also provide guidance, mentorship, and connections in addition to capital.
Crowdfunding has also become a popular way for entrepreneurs to raise capital, particularly through Kickstarter or Indiegogo. In this way, an entrepreneur creates a page for their product and a monetary goal to reach while promising certain givebacks to those who donate, such as products or experiences.
Bootstrapping For Entrepreneurs
Bootstrapping refers to building a company solely from your savings as an entrepreneur as well as from the initial sales made from your business. This is a difficult process as all the financial risk is placed on the entrepreneur and there is little room for error. If the business fails, the entrepreneur also may lose all of their life savings.
The advantage of bootstrapping is that an entrepreneur can run the business with their own vision and no outside interference or investors demanding quick profits. That being said, sometimes having an outsider’s assistance can help a business rather than hurt it. Many companies have succeeded with a bootstrapping strategy, but it is a difficult path.
Small Business vs. Entrepreneurship
A small business and entrepreneurship have a lot in common but they are different. A small business is a company—usually, a sole-proprietorship or partnership—that is not a medium-sized or large-sized business, operates locally, and does not have access to a vast amount of resources or capital.
Entrepreneurship is when an individual who has an idea acts on that idea, usually to disrupt the current market with a new product or service. Entrepreneurship usually starts as a small business but the long-term vision is much greater, to seek high profits and capture market share with an innovative new idea.
How Entrepreneurs Make Money
Entrepreneurs seek to generate revenues that are greater than costs. Increasing revenues is the goal and that can be achieved through marketing, word-of-mouth, and networking. Keeping costs low is also critical as it results in higher profit margins. This can be achieved through efficient operations and eventually economies of scale.
How Do Taxes Work For Entrepreneurs?
The taxes you will pay as an entrepreneur will depend on how you structure your business.
Sole Proprietorship: A business set up this way is an extension of the individual. Business income and expenses are filed on Schedule C on your U.S. personal tax return and you are taxed at your individual tax rate.
Partnership: For tax purposes, a partnership functions the same way as a sole proprietorship in the U.S., with the only difference being that income and expenses are split amongst the partners.
C-corporation: A C-corporation is a separate legal entity and has separate taxes filed with the IRS from the entrepreneur. The business income will be taxed at the corporate tax rate rather than the personal income tax rate.
S-corporation: An is corporation is a corporation that is not taxed like a typical corporation. All the income passes through to the individual owner or owners and is reported and taxed on their personal returns.
Limited liability company (LLC): An LLC can either be taxed as a corporation, a partnership, or on the individual’s return. This will depend on the number of members and how they elect to be taxed.
By Adam Hayes in Investopedia. Reviewed by Natalya Yashina. Fact checked by Michael Rosenston.
Albert A. Van Daalen Group 