What is Your Definition of an Entrepreneur?

I have been working with two groups lately. One is a group of entrepreneurs in a metropolitan area and the other a group of small business service providers in a non-metropolitan area. Both need to define the term entrepreneur, in order to move forward with future initiatives.

Having taught entrepreneurial finance at the college level, I have nearly a dozen definitions dating back to the 18th century and evolving to the 21st century - Most developed by economists and finance professors. These definitions refer to innovation or creation of something new. They mention redirecting resources in a different manner. Words like visionary, risk taker, barriers to entry, opportunity and uncertainty are often used. The popular press seems to have a much broader definition, many times using it interchangeably with any small business owner. Others see the definition as somewhere in between.

I certainly don’t believe that all small business owners are entrepreneurs. Is the son or daughter who inherited a clothing store, manufacturing facility or restaurant from their parents, an entrepreneur? Is the person that decides to build a convenience store at a busy intersection where two others already exist, an entrepreneur? I would argue no. But, what about someone one who starts the same type of business in a community of 2,000 people where no one has tried it before? Does it depend on the circumstance – on the location?

I believe that if we are going to promote entrepreneurism in rural or even small urban areas we must use a broader term than that used in Boston, San Francisco or even Madison, Wisconsin. For those, like myself that have seen hundreds, if not thousands of business proposals it may be similar to Justice Potter Stewarts’ definition of Pornography, he stated in a Supreme Court decision, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it….” Just like those that have seen hundreds of business plans, Justice Stewart had seen his share of pornography. You see, Stewart was a Navy lieutenant during World War II. He was the watch officer for his ship that was based in Casablanca. He had seen volumes of locally produced pornography brought back by the ship’s crew and knew the difference between the hardest of hard core pornography and that which may be slightly offensive to some. He called it his “Casablanca Test."

But if we use a “Casablanca Test” for the definition of an entrepreneur we are apt to be criticized as Justice Stewart was, as being too vague. We need to have a workable definition for all those that don’t know it when they see it. We need a workable definition yet quantifiable. Maybe it’s several definitions. I’m not sure what it is. So, I would like to hear your definition of an entrepreneur. Please comment below.