Entrepreneur is a broad term that covers a wide range of individuals who can be classified by type, based on their reason for starting their own business. Most people reading this will see themselves in one of these six categories.
The Manager Entrepreneur
Manager entrepreneurs want their own business, where they are the boss. They will research business opportunities that match their skill set and available capital, and then choose the one that offers the best chance for success. Manager entrepreneurs gravitate toward franchises, since they don’t have a burning need to start a business based on their own idea for a product or service.
Lifestyle Entrepreneurs
Lifestyle entrepreneurs typically start small business where they can interact with their customers. They don’t dream of wealth; lifestyle business owners are amiable individuals that dream of owning a quaint store, restaurant or bed and breakfast in a small town where they can greet their customers by name. Challenges include having to be a jack-of-all-trades and growing their customer base.
The Tycoon
Tycoons are the people who pitch their idea to venture capitalists, certain that their revolutionary company will begin as a Silicon Valley startup and then they will go public or a major corporation will buy them out and make them millionaires. These individual are typically very intelligent, driven and very confident.
Serial Entrepreneurs
Often starting in their teen years, serial entrepreneurs have so many ideas for profitable business ventures that as soon as one business takes off, they look ahead to the next business that they will develop. Serial entrepreneurs sometimes fail, however, unlike other types of entrepreneurs, they don’t give up. They learn from their mistakes and immediately move on to their next idea.
The Social Entrepreneur
Frequently activists or environmentalists before they started their own business, social entrepreneurs will start companies that have a positive impact on humanity. A person who is passionate about eating healthy may start a restaurant that serves organic, locally-sourced food, since social entrepreneurs open businesses in line with their interests.
The Natural Progression Entrepreneur
Dentists, attorneys and other professions frequently work for others before they are financially ready to start their own practice. Success is defined as opening one’s own office; it is a natural progression in certain fields. While frequently neglected by media that focuses on business owners, the natural progression entrepreneur faces many of the same challenges that other entrepreneurs do, including building their client base and differentiating themselves from the competition.