9 Types of Entrepreneurship for the Right Path to Success

Delve into different types of entrepreneurship and understand how driven individuals dream to redefine and revolutionize business ventures like never before.

Identifying gaps in the market and coming up with products to close such gaps with the promise of customer convenience is an everyday job for entrepreneurs. The urge to be the owner of a successful and innovative business is off the charts. In fact, 83.1% of business owners start their business from scratch.

When moving towards taking the steps to becoming an entrepreneur yourself, bear in mind that the term is far more elaborate than you imagined. There are different types of entrepreneurship to take into consideration when launching your own business. However, the right understanding of the type you’re looking for will help cultivate the right attitude in you and take advantage of an expanding market.  

This blog will help you shed light on the various types of entrepreneurship with examples. 

What are the Nine Types of Entrepreneurship to Know About?

The inclination towards entrepreneurship has increased over the years. In fact, many young individuals have become braver when it comes to delving into this arena, taking a learn-as-they-move approach in their stride. There are some of the most profitable industries that you can consider to invest in as an entrepreneur, which can offer you the right start. 

However, before that, youneed to learn about the 9 types of entrepreneurship you should look at. So, here’s a breakdown.

Also Read: Want to be an entrepreneurial leader? Here are top apps for entrepreneurs to reach that stature!

1. Small-Business Entrepreneurship

This type of business entrepreneurship lays down the guidelines for starting a business with limited capital. Entrepreneurs hire local people or get assistance from their family members to run their businesses. A mind-numbing 99.9% of American companies are still classified as small enterprises. So, it’s not hard to figure out the kind of help that people can bring to the business. 

Because they did take the initiative to run their own business, small business owners also know the risks involved. As a result, they are highly focused on ensuring that the business generates profits. They know how to take calculated risks to make the best use of their small investment.

These business entrepreneurs identify niche markets and create solutions that cater to market demands. Often, they add many unique features to their common services or products to help them overcome competition, which is usually high in this sector.  

They have a long-term vision and carefully assess the potential and risk associated with their idea.
Operating a small business requires resourcefulness. With limited capital and workforce, entrepreneurs must find creative ways to tackle challenges and have excellent problem-solving skills. Prominent examples of business entrepreneurship include: 

• Running grocery shops.
• Building a small café.
• Offering freelance services in digital marketing, graphic designing, etc. 
• Offering tutorial services.
• Fitness trainer.
• Working as an agent for tax management, real estate, etc.

2. Large-Company Entrepreneurship

Large-company entrepreneurship involves advanced professionals with the ability to sustain innovation. In this type of entrepreneurship, owners run companies with limited lifecycles and involve large-scale investments in resources and capital to run the organization.

Certain large company entrepreneur characteristics make individuals suited to this cause. They are:

• Collaborative attributes to address challenges strategically to help you scale your business.
• You need to define your goals and objectives clearly so that the stakeholders can always be informed of them. 
• You must create an environment that offers immense scope for innovation and risk-taking.

Operating on a large scale also requires you to have good industry knowledge. You must have regular insight into the current industry needs and innovation. This will be crucial to identify market potential and growth opportunities.

Large-company entrepreneurship doesn’t mean you need to start big. Small ventures can also transform into large firms with rapid growth, and it may also happen when a larger company acquires them as well. 

Tech giants like Google and Apple are great examples of this type of entrepreneurship business. These companies started from scratch and became leaders in their areas. Tesla is another example of a large company that took the risk of implementing a new idea and taking it to success.

3. Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship

Scalable startup entrepreneurship is one of the most exciting types of entrepreneurship. Startup owners become scalable startup entrepreneurs when they strongly believe that their ideas can make a deep impact. Right at the launch, they aim at their startups for rapid growth to scale the company in newer markets.

Technology-based businesses and ones that can have global implications are the most popular businesses in this entrepreneurship type. 

Venturing into a scalable startup entrepreneurship business requires you to have an eye for potential opportunities in the market. You must be able to identify the present market needs and also offer an impactful solution based on your business idea. 

Scalable startups are always looking for startup funding opportunities to launch their business. Thus, they follow the best portals and channels to secure funding opportunities. They are mostly using venture debt financing or venture capitalists who believe in their ideas.

Let's look at Facebook or Uber to explain this type of entrepreneurship with examples. These companies became global phenomena and achieved success as they were able to rapidly scale their operations and sustain their feasibility among the masses.

The sheer scope of innovation is one of the biggest advantages of this type of entrepreneurship. You can think outside the box and confidently pitch an idea to get funded through different startup accelerators that believe in your idea. 

However, it comes with its challenges. To run a scalable startup, you need a highly skilled and professional team to work with. Another big challenge is funding, as you need substantial capital to fund an innovative idea.  However, with the right startup funding options, entrepreneurs can use third-party services to address some of these issues.

4. Social Entrepreneurship

When business professionals observe societal needs and also take up the responsibility to fulfill them, they are termed social entrepreneurs. 

Social entrepreneurship focuses more on social motives than profitability. Social entrepreneurs are successfully able to generate revenue and also create a positive impact on society. These entrepreneurs are also associated with a lot of non-profit organizations. There are many investors for startup who like to invest in such projects.

Social entrepreneurs explore different underprivileged domains too, such as marginalized, economically disadvantaged, and underserved communities to offer solutions to improve their conditions, such as:

• Developing environment-friendly products.
• Providing clean water to underprivileged countries.
• Education for underprivileged children.
• Creating mobile apps and other technology to help people, and so on. 

Some well-known real-life entrepreneur examples are the following two initiatives:

• Ocean Cleanup: Initiative aimed at eliminating plastic pollution from the world’s oceans.
• CleanCook: The company offers ethanol and methanol cookstoves in areas with households where people still use traditional cooking procedures such as firewood, kerosene stoves, or even charcoal.

5. Innovative Entrepreneurship

When it comes to the right type of entrepreneur, every entrepreneur is undoubtedly an innovator. However, innovative entrepreneurship places more focus on creating new products and services to improve or replace the legacy ones. Majority of startups take the route of innovative entrepreneurship.

Some of the most prominent innovative entrepreneur examples are:

• Jeff Bezos: Mastermind behind Amazon who changed the e-commerce and cloud computing sectors.
• Elon Musk: Founder of Tesla and SpaceX, highlighted how to use technology innovatively and completely transformed the automotive industry.
• Mark Zuckerberg: Redefined digital communications by launching social media giant Meta (formerly Facebook).

Innovative entrepreneurs take the initiative to come forward and explore ideas or new technology that haven’t been tried before. They often have a great understanding as well as the capability to discover potential opportunities.

These entrepreneurs try to understand the driving forces behind a market and the influencing factors to aim and create room for innovation. They are also very vigilant to the diverse peoples’ needs and ensure to mold their product or business as per the requirements. In fact, there are many angel investors for startups that are willing to support such projects in exchange for equity.

They are more passionate about their products and aspire to make them valuable for people. So, they put in all their efforts to make their product or service stand out.

However, the challenge in this type of entrepreneurship is that people don’t easily believe in a new product, so it becomes a tough prospect to sell it. Apart from that, laying the foundation for an entirely new customer base is also very difficult. There is also the fear of other brands copying your idea, which only brings more competition to the forefront.

6. Hustler Entrepreneurship

Hustler entrepreneurship is another one among the different types of entrepreneurship. The hustling and determination of an entrepreneur majorly distinguish this type of entrepreneurship from others.

Passion is one of the biggest driving forces for hustler entrepreneurs. While they are confronted with multiple challenges, their focus and grit enable them to see through everything and enjoy business success. They are very resourceful and have a great understanding of the areas where risk is prudent and where it can be avoided.

Hustlers place a lot more trust in their work rather than their work capital and constantly look to make more efforts for smaller wins.

Let’s understand this type of entrepreneurship with an example: Imagine a hundred calls being made in a day to make just a single sale. While a less motivated individual may not necessarily complete the task, someone with a hustler attitude is going to do everything to make that sale.

Another superb example of a hustling entrepreneur is Sarah Blakely, founder of Spanx undergarments. She started Spanx with no entrepreneurial experience or business capital but turned it into a billion-dollar business with her market understanding and great determination. Today, she’s the youngest self-made female billionaire.

7. Imitator Entrepreneurship

Imitator entrepreneurship follows the tried and tested business strategies of other entrepreneurs to replicate them. They closely observe the activities of successful business people and then craft their next move along the same proven success formula.

Where innovative entrepreneurship is concerned with making the first move, imitators get the biggest advantage of evaluating the market response to their product or service.

They can then launch a similar or better product or service at competitive prices to attract customers. These entrepreneurial ventures scale quickly as the groundwork is already established and an audience is ready for the product.

Spotify is the best example of successful imitator entrepreneurship. The company followed the idea of online music streaming apps established by already famous names such as Pandora and Apple Music. 

While the core product was the same, Spotify ensured that its app was more user-friendly. It also offered personalized recommendations with a free model that attracted many users. Today, Spotify is among the most dominant players in the entire music streaming industry.

While imitator entrepreneurship has its fair share of advantages, there are a few shortcomings too, as is the case with other types of entrepreneurship. There are high chances of legal cases and action if the proper licenses are not in place.

8. Researcher Entrepreneurship

Research entrepreneurship evaluates multiple factors and then analyzes the market thoroughly before the business launch. It involves meticulous research of the untapped areas, identifying the gaps, and then creating innovative solutions from the derived results.

Other than leveraging market dynamics, it also involves the use of statistical data to forecast future demand and then create strategies accordingly.

Here are a few instances of professionals with this type of entrepreneurship:

• Actress Jessica Alba founded ‘The Honest Company’ after analyzing and researching deeply about the need for safe consumer products for families.
• Brian Chesky understood the need for alternative lodging options after a lot of extensive research before he went ahead and launched Airbnb.

9. Buyer Entrepreneurship

This type of entrepreneurship involves people who can buy companies or acquire other businesses that can supplement their processes. Buyer entrepreneurship allows access to significant capital and always helps in exploring different opportunities that can combine different companies for more value. Entrepreneurs with a buyer mindset also have really good networking skills, which they require to craft new business relationships.

Buyer entrepreneurship has many benefits, such as higher profits and scaling opportunities. However, these entrepreneurs also have to face the risk of overpaying when they acquire companies or face legal hurdles during their acquisitions.

One of the best examples of this type of entrepreneurship is tech-giant Google. The company has over the years, acquired multiple businesses with great products that complement all the other products that are offered by Google.

Final Words

Entrepreneurship is a huge domain without any fixed road to success. At present, the world has around 582 million entrepreneurs worldwide. If you have a great business idea and are looking to turn it into reality, you can explore from among the types of entrepreneurship mentioned above.

Be it small or large business entrepreneurship, social or imitator business idea, or any other form, you can step into any type of entrepreneurship that you find suitable.

Always analyze your skills and interests before venturing into any type of entrepreneurship. Additionally, it is important to consider the risks and disadvantages associated with each type before making a decision. This will help you strategize better and prevent financial losses or failure.