Entrepenuerers vs Business Owneers

nothinglikeit

I`m reading a book called If you don`t succeed, The 8 Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs.  It`s a pretty good read. Nothing new but a good introspective thing to read for yourself. It`s also funny because they talk about Startupnation and the Sloan Brothers.But I read something that struck me as odd.  The author believes that there`s a difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur.  I always thought they were one in the same. It`s all semantics anyway. But I`m curious what are the differences between these two groups to you all.

steve

In many cases a "business owner" simply owns a job. They are the business. (See Robert Kiyosaki`s Cashflow Quadrants
for additional explanation.) An entrepreneur builds a business system
that has intrinsic value. One way to tell the difference is to ask if
this business could be sold. Another way is to ask if the business
would continue to function without the owner. If so, you probably have
an entrepreneur. If not, you`re looking at a business owner.

nothinglikeit

ah. This was deeper than I thought. I agree with what your guys are saying. But consider this: Can an entrepreneur ever become a business owner or vice versa. Steve, what you said was really interesting. The Author of the book I mentioned said the exact same thing. "A business owner simply owns a job." but hey who`s to judge if they`re happy or not? Also would anyone agree that starting a business takes as much risk and guts that an entrepreneur displays several times over.

nothinglikeit

so do you guys walk around calling yourselves entrepenuers or do you let people label you as such?
 
For me I think if you have to call yourself one, you`re probably not 

onlineeater

I was going to respond the way Steve did with regards to the B/S/E/I Quadrents from Robert Kiyosaki. 

Draven

Personally, I don`t think being a business owner versus an entrepreneur has anything with what Kiyosaki was talking about.  I read that book and perhaps I misinterpreted the spirit of his message, but his main distinction was between someone `creating a job` for themselves where there`s no scalability and you have to be there all the time in order to make it work, versus creating multiple pipelines that reduce your risk and you don`t have to active do the `doing` of your business in order to make money.To the question of entrepreneur versus business owner, I think it`s all in your spirit and how you do what you do.  Bill Gates was an entrepreneur in the early days of Microsoft.  Now he`s a business owner.  Steve Jobs is still an entrepreneur.  One plays it very safe and pretty much just makes minor changes to existing products.  The other reinvents his company and product offerings on a regular basis.  I think it`s about your willingness to invent and reinvent yourself, and instead of trying to move along the curve, jump it.

tyreedillard

  I use the venture capitalist definition of a business owner vs an Entrepreneur. Where a business owner is someone who physically does what the business was launched to do, usually targeting a local market and using the surplus profits to finance their lifestyle.....and an Entrepreneur as someone who organizes a business to target a high growth market, with the goal of an ipo or sale.   Because a "business owners" venture can become a growth venture (i.e Subway or Dell Computer), I personally think it only matters during the startup phase that you choose to label your role as an entrepreneur instead of a business owner.