There are millions of entrepreneurs in the world, but they operate in various classes of business and endeavors. Their models of businesses and their sphere of operation determine the classification and type of entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur in the fintech space with 10 digital programmers as employees is not the same as an entrepreneur in the book printing business with four staff. Here then are some classifications and types of entrepreneurs based on their categories of business:
1. Classification by type of business
Entrepreneurs can be classified according to the type of business they engage in. Some of these include –
- Entrepreneurs engaged in trading activities
- Entrepreneurs engaged in manufacturing products
- Entrepreneurs engaged in agricultural activities
- Entrepreneurs engaged in digital technologies
2. Classification by type of technology
There are entrepreneurs whose line of jobs are technology-based and those who are not. They are divided into –
- Technical entrepreneurs into science and technology-related industries
- Non-technical ones whose line of business is not related to any technologies
3. Classification by type of ownership
The business structure or model run by an entrepreneur also determines how he is classified in terms of ownership –
- Sole entrepreneur or one-man businessman
- Joint entrepreneur when the business is owned by two or more individuals
- State entrepreneur when it is the government running the business for profit
4. Classification by gender
Businesses can be classified by gender when it is run along the line of sexes –
- Men entrepreneurs are business run by men alone such as transportation and farming
- Women entrepreneurs are enterprises run by women alone such as beauty and makeup
5. Classification by size of the enterprise
These are businesses that are determined by size and volume of operations –
- Small-scale entrepreneur
- Medium-scale entrepreneur
- Large-scale entrepreneur
6. Classification by behaviors
These are businesses classified by the motives and tendencies of the entrepreneurs –
- Solo operators – they work largely alone and may later employ one or two employees
- Active partners – they work together by contributing time, efforts and capital in varying measures to manage the business
- Inventors – these love to create new products and innovate existing ones to create newness
- Challengers – these go into a business because of the challenges and cross to another business when the initial challenges are resolved
- Buyers – these do not like the risk of loss or failure so they prefer to buy up existing businesses
- Life-timers – these prefer to advance the family business with a view to handing it over to the next generation
