Types of Businessman

Explore the diverse world of entrepreneurship and the vital skills needed to thrive as a businessman in 2024, including understanding different entrepreneur types. Learn how to navigate the entrepreneurial journey, from digital ventures to lifestyle businesses, and transform from a wantrepreneur to a successful entrepreneur.

By Brad Nakase, Attorney

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Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.

Table of Contents

What are the different kinds of businessman?

1. The Digital Businessman

2. The Small-time Businessman

3. The Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur

4. The Lifestyle Businessman

5. The Influencer Businessman

6. The Self-Starter Entrepreneur

Conclusion: The Wannabe Businessman

What are the different kinds of businessman?

Over the course of your life, you should evolve as a businessman. It takes a collection of talents to learn and expand your business. Being an entrepreneur is not a personality type.

A businessman is basically an independent contractor. However, if you peruse the discussion boards and Facebook groups debating the nature of running a business… you’ll find that the majority of them have never before started a legitimate business. Everyone is engaging in strange status games with one another in which nobody truly wins.

But you deserve to succeed. Therefore, once you make the decision to launch your own business, keep in mind that the road is long and that you must never give up on learning new abilities.

Every single good or service that we make use of on a daily basis is produced by businesses run by entrepreneurs, who also create jobs. In these four categories, entrepreneurs are able to sell anything:

Produce
Service
Attention
Information

And starting a business is now less expensive than it has ever been, which explains why it appears like everyone is attempting to launch a company. In actuality, though, there is more than enough space for everyone to launch their own company. Let’s take a look at the various kinds of entrepreneurs that are out there today and explain how, in order to succeed in 2024, you’ll need to be a combination of them all.

It’s possible that you will alternate between these groups along your adventure. Certain forms of entrepreneurship cannot succeed without resources or connections. While hard effort and sweat equity are required for other forms of entrepreneurship.

REMEMBER: This is not a filler guide. With the tools to support you in becoming an entrepreneur, this action plan will demonstrate the kind of person you can be. So keep in mind that you won’t be the same businessman that you were at first. To develop your own growth strategy, it is therefore helpful to understand how all the various facets of entrepreneurship interact with one another.

A businessman is defined as someone who launches a firm and assumes financial risks with the aim of making a profit.

Success is not guaranteed, and assistance is typically unavailable when difficulties arise. A businessman reaps all the rewards while taking on the majority of the risk.

Furthermore, since there has been an increase in entrepreneurship in recent years, a general description is no longer helpful. Furthermore, you don’t need to wear black turtlenecks or drop out of college to become a businessman. To help you determine where you fit in, we have compiled a list of the many kinds of businessmen.

1. The Digital Businessman

A person who makes a living by selling goods, services, or information online is known as an online entrepreneur.

How does an internet businessman make their money?

Putting goods up for sale on their website (dropshipping, private label)
Utilizing Third-Party Marketplaces (Wish, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, etc.)
Information Selling (Online Course)
Providing an Online Service (Paid Advertising, Freelance)

Online Product Sales Business Models

To sell real goods online, there are just three different business models available:

Exclusive brand
Retail Dropshipping and Internet Arbitrage
Choosing a product to sell, having a factory make it, keeping the inventory, and selling it on your own website is known as private labeling.

Consider private labels such as Lulu Lemon or Nike. These are companies that produce their own goods and market them directly to consumers. A factory produces a product using the dropshipping business model, which allows you to sell it online without keeping any inventory. Getting the goods in front of the buyer at a fair price is your responsibility. But making your own product to your exacting standards and releasing it into the public may be tremendously fulfilling if you have a strong passion for it.

Third-Party Internet Marketplaces for Product Sales

You can use online marketplaces like Amazon or eBay if you don’t want to build your own website or find clients on your own.

The top three internet marketplaces are as follows:

Wish
Amazon
eBay

Because you can test ideas and see whether there is a market for them, using websites like Amazon or eBay makes starting an internet business easier. It’s an excellent method to bootstrap your first business because it doesn’t require a large initial investment.

Recall that you may sell on Amazon, eBay, and Wish using both dropshipping and private label business strategies. However, if money is tight to begin with, people are purchasing goods from thrift stores and reselling them online.

How to Market Online Courses

Online learning platforms are a useful tool for entrepreneurs to market courses on subjects they are knowledgeable about. Maybe you know how to dunk a basketball or perform magic tricks.

Now, before you assume that nobody would purchase such online courses, think again. Global Industry Analysts, a market research group, predicts that by 2025, e-learning would reach $325 billion. Selling online courses can be done in three ways:

Independently hosted on your own domain
Enroll to be a course host
Make use of an online marketplace for courses

Let’s examine a few choices in each category. If you want to make an online course and host it on your website, these are your best options.

WordPress Courseware
LearnDash
Lifter LMS

However, what happens if you decide against hosting a course on your own website? There are, however, two choices. Your online course can be hosted on several platforms and branded under your domain. Making sure people know you have a course for sale is, however, your responsibility.

Utilizing an online course marketplace is the second choice. There, you can post your complete online course so that those who want to learn more about what you teach can see it and purchase it. It resembles Amazon for online education.

These four solutions are an excellent approach to getting started with course building at a cheap cost if you’re just getting started.

Educatable (Course Provider)
Kajabi (Online Course Host)
Udemy (Course Marketplace)
Skillshare (Course Marketplace)

There has never been a better moment to launch an internet course. Because large firms and companies want their personnel to stay up to date with changes in their industry, in addition to individuals wanting to learn new skills.

How to Market a Service

Selling services is the last option for becoming an internet entrepreneur. By providing a service, you can bootstrap your firm in situations where you have no capital at all. To earn money, all you need is a laptop, some talent, and hustle.

These websites are excellent for getting your freelance career off the ground:

Upwork
Freelancer
Fiverr
Freeeup
PersonsPerHour
Online freelancers who offer their services can earn $10,000 a month.

Although it may not fit the “ideal image” of an entrepreneur, you are in complete control of your services, and you can never be fired. As long as you continue to attract clients, you are in charge of your own fate. For someone who wants to become their own boss but still works a full-time job, freelancing is the ideal side gig.

2. The Small-time Businessman

Usually, a businessman offers a service to an individual or another small company. The majority of local companies are regarded as tiny, particularly if they are family-run and employ less than fifty people. Because they offer a service, lawn care and pool cleaning companies are examples of small businesses.

For the solitary entrepreneur who has capital but possesses a skill that someone would be willing to pay for, service firms are ideal. It’s a frugal method of launching a company gradually and avoiding debt.

How to advertise your small company

Chamber of Commerce Meetings
At Local Businesses
Online
Local Flea Markets

During the weekends, you can find people selling handcrafted soap, artwork, decorations, and music at any local street fair or flea market. The transition from small business ownership to online entrepreneurship is not a particularly big one. The key is to position yourself appropriately. The street musician might also be a well-dressed local guitarist at a wedding or party. The way you perceive various opportunities determines what kind of entrepreneur you are.

3. The Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur

Angel investors are the pinnacle of entrepreneurship. This is the Silicon Valley type of businessman, the kind that built their fortunes founding companies and is now trying to give back to the next generation. As an angel investor, you must be the kind of businessperson who is willing to take significant risks. They can invest in businesses in the early stages of funding by using their reputation and the connections they’ve cultivated over the years.

To become an angel investor, you must abide by the following guidelines:

Pretend that you will lose every penny you own.
If you don’t have a net worth of at least $1 million or an annual income of at least $200,000, don’t do it.
Aim to have at least fifteen companies in your portfolio.
Ten percent of your investible assets should not be more than 10% of your angel portfolio.

Few people succeed in entrepreneurship to this degree, but the truth is they began with everyone else. After working hard to earn their money, they now want to support the growing startups of the upcoming generation.

4. The Lifestyle Businessman

A businessman who concentrates on building a lifestyle where they can live anywhere they want and set their own schedule is known as a lifestyle entrepreneur. Being as adaptable as possible while maximizing enjoyment is the aim. Lifestyle entrepreneurs are typically referred to as solopreneurs or “digital nomads.”

A person who runs their business completely independently, without assistance from a team, is known as a solopreneur. They don’t have company partners, and when they do require assistance, they employ independent contractors to do tasks. Solopreneurs are concerned with ensuring that they can continue to finance their simple lifestyle for as long as possible, which is why they are interested in keeping expenses low. Solopreneurs’ businesses can expand and generate six figures annually, but expansion isn’t their primary objective. They frequently enjoy operating an internet t-shirt company.

How do businesses that lead a lifestyle earn money? They base their entire business—which they maintain entirely online—on their passion. Usually, they concentrate on low-cost internet enterprises such as:

Blogging
Independent Contractor Work
Online Programs
Online Retailers

Tim Ferris made digital nomads well-known with his book “The 4 Hour Workweek.” These are independent contractors who can reside anywhere they choose and work full-time from any location with a strong internet signal. They both generate revenue from internet product sales, service provision, and information course sales.

5. The Influencer Businessman

An influencer is a person who has developed a following around a subject and then markets exposure to that following. For instance, Hollywood celebrities used to be the largest influencers, but with the internet, anyone can build their own following.

Four strategies exist for expanding an audience:

Speaking in public
Writing on social media, books, and blogs
YouTube or TV video
Sound (Podcast)

Entrepreneurs with a devoted following are known as influencers. It is evident how this may intersect with other categories of entrepreneurs. An internet entrepreneur differs from an influencer in that the latter is engaged in the business of selling goods, services, or information. The influencer charges advertisers to sell to their audience after freely sharing their information.

6. The Self-Starter Entrepreneur

An individual with an entrepreneurial mindset who works for a larger company or organization is known as an intrapreneur. Because they may be indispensable to the decision-makers, intrapreneurs can be just as valuable to the company as entrepreneurs. They frequently launch their own ideas and campaigns on their own, without assistance, and they exhibit the same commercial acumen, inventiveness, and originality as entrepreneurs. Every business owner on this list NEEDS intrapreneurs to support them. Because they accept responsibility for their work, never shirk responsibility, and concentrate on all the things an entrepreneur cannot, intrapreneurs are essential to a company.

What to anticipate from intrapreneurs:

Self-driven and responsible
Use corporate resources with caution, just like you would
Become outstanding company leaders
When they get to work, they feel like they own the place

The internal entrepreneur is a mode of behavior rather than a kind of entrepreneurship in the conventional sense. Because they support the company’s mission and don’t want to take on the additional risk of working for themselves, internal entrepreneurs stick around.

A company needs people who consider themselves to be intrapreneurs in order to develop as much as possible.

Exploring the diverse types of entrepreneurs enriches understanding and adaptability in the evolving business landscape

Conclusion: The Wannabe Businessman

A wantrepreneur is a person who has the desire to launch their own company but hasn’t yet made any moves to make it happen. In the early stages of their start-ups, all entrepreneurs are, in fact, wantrepreneurs. Keep in mind that anyone who aspires to launch their own company and escape the corporate world is a wantrepreneur, and there are many of them around the globe.

Only a few succeed in launching and advancing their concepts. Why not you?

Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.

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