ENTREPRENEUR AND BUSINESSMAN

 Is ‘entrepreneur’ another word for ‘businessman’?

No, although both are self-employed and carry out business activity, there is a fine line separating the two.

A businessman treads a well-defined path by setting up a business with an existing idea offering products to the customers.

A businessman may start a new business or he/she may inherit one and take it forward. Typically, he will opt for a business where he thinks he can make good profit. However, as there will be existing players, he often faces tough competition. For example, Mukesh Ambani is a businessman.

An entrepreneur on the other hand is a person who charts out his/her own path by starting an enterprise with a fresh idea or concept, to solve a problem or meet a latent need.

An entrepreneur is usually a creative, innovative person who is willing to take significant risks. He conceives a unique idea and translates it into reality knowing well that it may or may not succeed. His company is known as a ‘start-up’. If his idea works, an entrepreneur may eventually become a businessman and others may follow him. But he will always remain a pioneer or market leader.

For example, entrepreneur Garret Camp came up with a unique concept of an on-demand car service that is available via a mobile phone application. He co-founded a company called Uber, which became popular in a short time, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google) and Bill Gates (Microsoft) are all examples of successful entrepreneurs.