So much about being an entrepreneur is romanticized. The TV shows, the money, the fame, the power, the freedom. There are few and far between that have achieved this level of entrepreneurial success. Does that mean that entrepreneurship is only for those select few? I don’t think so at all! Literally, the word entrepreneur is defined as “a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses…”. The second half of the definition goes on to say “…by taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so”. I agree with the first part, I don’t really agree with the second part. “Normal” financial risk can mean completely different things to two different people. Let’s bring that definition down to earth.
What is the difference between a person that builds a go kart in their garage and sells it to their neighbor and Elon Musk? Tesla. You can sell one product, or you can sell millions – both persons are entrepreneurs! To me, entrepreneurship is the creation of value that someone else is willing to pay for.
How might you already be an entrepreneur today? Or can become one right away?
- Sell something on eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist
- Sell a service on Upwork, Craigslist, or Fiverr
- Organize a garage sale
- Rent out an extra bedroom in your house
- Rent out your whole house!
- Lend your car or other physical belongings
- Drive for Uber/Lyft
- Write and sell a book
- Sell a product/service for others (affiliate marketing, internet marketing, etc.)
- Baby sit, dog sit, house sit, anything sit
To me, the difference between these things and the idolized version of entrepreneurship definition is scale. Scale is the ability to take any of the examples listed above, and multiply and grow it aggressively. Heck, you don’t even have to have a legal business structure to do most (if not all!) of these things. People that actually do these for a living (yes, they do exist) without even a business name are no different than the entrepreneur with their name plastered on the side of their skyscraper. They are simply different business models.
But let’s make sure there is a healthy dose of reality as well: having the creativity, vision, resources, execution, and managerial skills to scale a business is no easy feat. This is the reason why successful entrepreneurs are rare, and the majority of people end up working for someone else; it simply is a lot less work and a lot easier.
Let’s slosh around that dose of reality in our mouths a little more. Not everything can be scaled. Let’s say you rent a bedroom in your house on AirBnB. Can you rent a second bedroom? Maybe. A third? Umm, possibly. A fourth? Ehh I don’t think so. Can you rent them all at the same time? Can you rent out the closet separately? The garage? The kitchen? The bathrooms? The more you try to scale, the more the “business model” falls apart, to the point where you are unable to provide value, and nobody wants to pay for your service. Who wants to rent a closet in your house with 8 other strangers? If you were to remove some of these limitations, and change the business model by providing an identical and private bedroom and bathroom and multiply this hundreds of times within the same structure, NOW you have more scale… and you probably can submit your letter of resignation to your boss. What I just described of course, is exactly what a hotel is… and hotels make money.
If you are able to create something valuable, and are able to get paid for it, congrats! You are an entrepreneur! Please think of me whenever you have an extra seat in your private jet.
