When children are asked about what they want to become when they grow up, you’ll hear answers like pilot, cricketer, or astronaut.
How often do they come up with – entrepreneur or businessman – as the answer? Almost never. Here, I would like to point out that it seems they mean the same thing, but they aren’t.
Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg.
All of us aspire to be like them and not just because they are rich and famous, have a laidback personality at work and in their personal life. What we fail to see is how much time and hard work it took them to reach the heights they are at now. The business world appears buttoned-down and serious-faced from the outside, but there is a lot more going on behind the scenes. In other words, the most important aspect is knowing how to start a business or run a
business.
Through this article, I would like to explain how you can take one look at the guy in front of you and decide if he is an entrepreneur or a businessman.
1. Planning stage
Suppose you look at a problem and find a unique solution that is faster and more efficient, making life easier for others. On the other hand, you take up an already existing solution and work on building it further, earning a handsome profit while you’re at it. We can easily say that when it comes to originality of concepts or ideas, an entrepreneur takes his creative and never-once-tried idea and makes sure it comes to fruition.
2. Risk factor
A businessman faces competition which is completely different than the one an entrepreneur faces in his journey. Since there are rivals already existing in the market when a businessman decides to start working on his business, the risk factor is relatively low. Then we have entrepreneurs who have a unique idea which is why chances of failure are high but that doesn’t mean they give up on it. They take on risks and uncertainties that come with the entrepreneurial journey. Who knows, they might become the next Steve Jobs.
3. Reasons behind the journey
For a businessman, the main objective is generating revenue whereas for an entrepreneur, offering products or services that make life simpler. An entrepreneur wants to bring about a change in the world with their innovative ideas. A businessman embarks on the journey mostly wanting to earn a monthly handsome profit while infusing part of the profits to grow the business over time.
4. Economic differences
A critical difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman is based on two financial principles– risk vs return concept and the going concern concept. For entrepreneurs, the main concern is whether a year later their start-up will fail or succeed. A businessman, on the other hand, is confident that his business will succeed even though he is not sure of how much profit he will earn.
This is why an entrepreneur must put the capital in bonds or fixed deposits in order to have
something to fall back on. Now that we have learnt about the difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman, their attitude, and their end goals.
