What makes someone an entrepreneur?
Am I an entrepreneur?
Are you an entrepreneur?
Do I know any entrepreneurs?
Is it genetic?
Can I catch it?
Is it fatal?
Wait, what?
The word “entrepreneur” seems to be thrown
around everywhere for everyone doing anything.
It’s used to describe celebrities and business
tycoons like Beyoncé, Elon Musk, Marie Kondo,
and Jessica Alba.
But your brother who keeps bringing up his
idea for coffee-flavored toothpaste might
make the list too.
Mmm!
Entrepreneurs pop-up in all types of industries
and can have widely different backgrounds.
Some build personal brands, while others work
tirelessly on a physical product they believe in.
Really, anyone can be an entrepreneur, given
an idea and the right tools to develop it
into a functional business.
Together, we’ll develop our business acumen
and learn the importance of grit, determination,
and a fair bit of luck.
I’m Anna Akana, and this is Crash Course
Business: Entrepreneurship.
[Opening Music Plays]
Some people define an entrepreneur with buzzwords
like “trailblazing,” “innovative,”
“problem-solving,” “passionate,” and
on and on.
These might all be traits that entrepreneurs
can strive for.
But, at its core, an entrepreneur is someone
who sees a need and takes on the financial
risk to start a business to fill that need.
That may sound kind of vague, but that’s
kind of the point.
There’s no cookie-cutter entrepreneur.
Unless you, like, start a business to sell
cookie cutters.
In which case, yes, there is a cookie-cutter
entrepreneur.
Your idea might take the form of a physical
product with a physical store -- called a
brick and mortar business.
In Montana, Charlie and Barbie Beaton of Big
Dipper Ice Cream
took their passion for locally made ice cream
from one shop in downtown Missoula to appearing
on Good Morning America.
Daaaaaamn.
Or instead of a tangible product, your venture
might be a national empowerment network.
GirlBoss New Zealand was founded by 20-year-old
Alexia Hilbertidou after she was the only
woman in her upper-level physics class.
Her goal is encouraging high-school-age women
to pursue STEM and leadership careers.
Or you might set your sights on an international
online media empire, like Arianna Huffington,
the founder and namesake of HuffPost.
She founded her site (with partners) as a
friendly alternative to news aggregators.
And she eventually sold it to AOL in 2015
for $315 million US dollars.
Get it, Ari.
It’s clear that entrepreneurs come in all
flavors.
I mean, according to the Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor, over 100 million businesses are launched
each year.
That’s 11,000 per hour or 3 new businesses
per second.
...There they go!
So instead of just defining who is an entrepreneur,
since it is such a wide scope - we can instead
narrow down our definition by understanding
who isn’t one.
Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
Say Congress works for Me-Wow, a feline health
and fitness company.
He notices a need -- a shocking lack of cat
transportation -- and comes up with the idea
for the Cat-Cycle, which he pitches to his
boss.
Me-Wow immediately sends the Cat-Cycle into
production because it’s a genius idea, obvi
and it flies off the shelves.
Even though Congress is using an entrepreneurial
mindset, by our definition, he isn’t an
entrepreneur yet.
The company Me-Wow actually took the financial
risk to develop, produce, and sell the Cat-Cycle.
Meanwhile, Beetle sees the same need for cat
transportation and sketches out the Cat-Board
in his personal idea notebook after work.
He’s gained valuable experience working
for Me-Wow and develops the Cat-Board in the
evenings and on weekends before striking out
on his own.
Using his personal savings, Beetle commissions
a prototype that he shops around to local
stores.
A few are interested and he sets up contracts
with them.
As his sales begin to grow, Beetle creates
new designs, but he doesn’t pay attention
to what his customers like or dislike about
the Cat-Board.
Because he failed to make valuable improvements
to the Cat-Board for his customers, sales
plummet.
It’s a tough decision, but Beetle cuts his
losses and sells his Cat-Board designs to
Me-Wow, which revamps his idea as the Dog-Board.
Beetle is an entrepreneur because he saw a need and
took the financial risk to fill it!
It didn’t go so well because he didn’t
incorporate customer feedback.
But now he knows where he went wrong and won’t
make the same mistake in his next entrepreneurial
endeavor.
Thanks Thought Bubble!
For a while, the classic story of an entrepreneur
was someone who created one business that
became a long-term project,
like opening a new restaurant or founding
a tech startup to make flashy phone games.
But that’s not the whole picture anymore.
There’s been a shift in the global job market
that has opened the door for entrepreneurship
to become more mainstream.
Specifically, I’m talking about the rise
of the Gig Economy.
Contract work, called gigging, is becoming
more popular and taking up more of the labor
market.
And I don’t just mean gigs like musicians
and comedians hopping between open mic nights.
Instead of a long-term relationship where
employees are paid salaries by the hour or
year, businesses are temporarily hiring people
for specific projects.
This shift has made it financially easier
for entrepreneurs to find people to get their
businesses going, without committing long-term
to paying employees.
And it’s allowed early-stage entrepreneurs
to find flexible work to support themselves
as they develop their product or service.
This doesn’t mean everyone in the gig economy
is an entrepreneur, it’s just given more
people the opportunity.
So a more traditional path might be joining
an accounting firm right after college and
working 9 to 5, Monday to Friday until you
retire.
Or die of boredom.
Spreadsheets?
For LIFE??
NO THANKS
Some people might feel fulfilled with that
kind of steady employment.
And the stability that comes from being a
salaried employee with health insurance can
be incredibly valuable.
Others, like us entrepreneurs, might itch
for more independence.
In the gig economy, you could have a couple
ways to make money, in addition to or instead
of that 9-to-5 job.
And you can go online to look for gigs from
anywhere -- not just your real-life community.
So you might consult for a network of women
small business owners on their day-to-day
accounting, create vlogs with tax software
tips, and sell unicorn knit hats on Etsy that are knit out of the softest fabric there is.
On the plus side, this allows workers to build
robust portfolios of work and find fulfilling
gigs.
Having separate jobs can also provide a stronger
sense of income security than one full-time
job.
Even if you lose one, you’re still making
money.
All hail the side-hustle!
Today’s entrepreneurs are well-suited for
the gig economy because we know how to hustle.
We’re independent thinkers who are comfortable
with developing our own diverse income streams,
marketing ourselves, and connecting with others.
I mean, who hasn’t had a Lyft driver who
moonlights as a cinnamon roll artisan, right?
But there are still problems with the gig
lifestyle.
Sure, someone might become a Lyft driver to
help fund their sugary dream.
But they’re almost certainly not doing it
because driving strangers around is their
passion.
For some people, participating in the gig
economy is a necessity, not a choice.
Scrambling to pay rent and afford food is
another reason to have a bunch of gigs.
And, depending on the country and government,
gig workers can have fewer legal protections
- like mandatory breaks and standardized pay
-- or they might have a harder time maintaining
insurance and retirement accounts.
This makes some countries more attractive
to entrepreneurs, such as New Zealand, Singapore,
and Denmark, based on The World Bank’s annual
analysis of the “Ease of Doing Business.”
But even in those countries, there’s a difference
between legally being able to take a break
and actually taking a break.
It can be a struggle to turn off the hustle
-- especially for those of us trying to create
a personal brand with our art or online presence.
But taking time for fun hobbies and spending
time with friends and family are important
parts of being successful, and so necessary
to stay mentally healthy. Trust me!
So it’s not all blue skies and rainbows.
But if you ever wanted to be an entrepreneur,
the gig economy has made it more possible
now than ever.
Even still, entrepreneurship isn’t easy.
Taking a financial gamble is stressful, and
so is working long hours to try and get a
project off the ground.
I know for me, the lack of structured work
time often means that my business has no off
time.
And if I’m not careful, I can work around
the clock and get myself exhausted.
But tons of us take the leap to start a new
business and stick with it through the ups
and downs, so what exactly keeps us motivated?
At the top of the list is freedom.
Entrepreneurs get to be their own bosses.
This can mean setting your own hours and deciding
on dress codes... or lack thereof.
Sweatpants all day everyday amirite?
Maybe you want to work from bed or while you
travel, writing emails by a pool.
And for traditionally underrepresented groups
in business like women, people of color, or
the LGBTQ community, ding ding ding,
I am all those things. It can mean defining
your own destiny.
You can create an inclusive company culture
and work environment, rather than feeling
stuck in an uncomfortable -- or even possibly
illegal -- situation with a boss or coworker.
If someone keeps talking over you and dismissively
says women can’t be funny, you don’t need
to hire them for your writer’s room or film
set.
Or if a coworker from a previous job got fired
for having a natural hairstyle, you can create
a business where that would never happen.
You wield the power.
A study in the Social Science Research Network
journal found that entrepreneurs start companies
because they mostly believe that:
They are inherently more valuable than how
they appear on paper.
They are wasted working for someone else
Their resumes don’t show “the real them”
Large companies can’t appreciate their full
potential.
And
They are capable of turning their internal
value into real life money.
Basically, entrepreneurs believe in themselves.
And sure, building self-confidence over time
isn’t always easy, but it can be a powerful
motivator.
And then, there’s potential wealth.
Yes, there’s financial risk in starting
a business, but there’s money in running
a successful one.
Entrepreneurial lore is full of rags-to-riches
tales, where people pitch the next SnapChat
and are launched into the business stratosphere.
Like, Oprah Winfrey has said she spent her
early childhood wearing overalls made of potato
sacks.
But she became North America’s first black
multi-billionaire and “Queen of the Daytime
Talkshow.”
Sure, this is the stuff of inspirational posters,
and not everyone can make it this big.
But entrepreneurship does create a culture
of opportunity that might work for some non-traditional
workers.
Of course, every entrepreneur with a massive
success has also had hundreds of failures.
Yep, the dreaded F word.
Lean Startup methodology is basically the
globally recognized guidebook for entrepreneurs
created by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.
And it says stumbling is perfectly fine if
we learn as we go.
But to identify and learn from failures, every
entrepreneur has to ask themselves: what does
success look like to me?
Is it earning $30,000 a year in your food
truck and skiing every weekend?
Is it selling your idea for a million dollars?
Is it becoming the CEO of a mid-size media
production company and writing novels on the
side?
Thanks for hiring us, Hank!
Also where is the sequel and when can I star
in the movie adaptation?
Or is it owning 6 cats and producing your
own films?
Whatever success is, it’s entirely up to you.
Of course no one wants to fail.
But together we’ll learn how to redefine
failure and pick up the pieces if it’s truly
unavoidable.
It’s not that successful entrepreneurs never
faced failure; it’s that they didn’t quit.
So the bottom line is /anyone/ can be an entrepreneur
with a little grit, determination, and luck.
And remember, you may have stopped believing
in unicorns, but they’ve never stopped believing
in you.
Next time, we’ll talk about that fundamental
piece at the core of any entrepreneur: their
ideas -- where ideas come from, who to take
them to, and how to turn them into feasible businesses.
Thanks for watching Crash Course Business. And thank you to Thought Cafe for the amazing graphics.
If you want to help keep Crash Course free
for everybody, forever, you can join our community
on Patreon.
And if you want to learn more about labor
markets, check out this Crash Course Economics Video.
