We explain what an entrepreneur is and where this concept comes from. Also, what are the types of entrepreneurs and what is their role.
The word entrepreneur comes from the French term entrepeneur.What is an Entrepreneur?
The businessman or entrepreneur (from Latin prehend, catch) is that person that holds strategic control over an economic company, making decisions related to setting the objectives production, establish the most adequate means to achieve these ends and organize the management.
Not every entrepreneur is a entrepreneur, since the first could have inherited or bought a business or be a high-ranking employee in charge of directing the management. The notion of entrepreneur is more associated with the idea of taking a risk, while the entrepreneur is more closely associated with the decision making about a process.
The word entrepreneur comes from medieval French times, where it was designated "entrepeneur”To the individual in charge of using the production factors (the work of the serfs, the materials and resources of the feudal lord or the king) and take the risk for the construction of buildings or armaments.
The forms of entrepreneurship vary throughout the history, as the processes of economic transformation take place. During the initial stages of the industrial age, the entrepreneur was the founder and owner of his business, assuming all the risks of production.
Subsequently, the economic accumulation allowed several entrepreneurs to jointly control a company or an owner hires an entrepreneur to manage their company. Besides, the globalization Economic has generated the appearance of international companies managed in many cases by their large shareholders.
It is called this way at present, more specifically to the person who makes the binding decisions on the production of goods or services in a company for sale in the market and the consequent obtaining of Benefits. The entrepreneur may also (but not necessarily) be the owner of the company and the owner of the capital, and the person in charge of assuming the risks of innovation and investment.
What does an entrepreneur do?
The entrepreneur can consist of both a natural person and a legal subject, and you can perform your task both individually and collectively. The concept of an entrepreneur is directly linked to that of a company: an entrepreneur acts as a personification of the company, not only because he is legally represented, but also because in many cases he is its owner and because it is common for the company to bear his surname.
The activity of an entrepreneur occurs both inside and outside the company, understood as an economic unit:
- Inside. He is in charge of the Administrative organization, of the articulation between capital and labor to achieve the production objectives and of establishing what type of administration of resources and personnel are the most convenient.
- To the exterior. It is in charge of establishing relationships with other companies, of linking with other organizations and institutions (such as the Condition) and to act as a spokesperson for the company against the society.
Types of entrepreneurs
Three classes of entrepreneurs can be distinguished, according to the way they relate to the operations of the company.
- The sole proprietor. It is the self-employed worker with no employees in his charge (or with very few), who concentrates the power of the company, usually small.
- The key partner. It is the entrepreneur who assumes the active role when making the decisions of the company, when the rest of the partners contribute the capital.
- The member entrepreneur. They are less autonomous from a group and are more in charge of providing financial and administrative support and consulting (which usually happens in companies with many shareholders).