Why I Hate the Word "Entrepreneur"

Jun 26, 2019 by Bob Voss

As the Business Entrepreneur instructor at Dakota County Technical College for over 15 years, I feel I have every right to hate the word “Entrepreneur.” Because it is in my title and identifies the program I helped create and taught for fifteen years, I was required to spell that stupid word over and over again. It seems like each time I spelled it, I get it wrong! So right here and right now I choose to change the word to something that has more meaning and is far easier to spell.

In our society the word “Entrepreneur” means many things to many people. To some it means the small one person business. To others it means any small business. However, when I look at the students who came into my program, most (about 95%) fall into the category of micro-business owners. These people have not started a business to make millions of dollars and become rich and famous. Rather they have started a business to do what they love and what they are good at.

These people have started businesses to replace income lost by layoff, or they have started business to give them the extra money they need to take vacations, send kids to college, or just pay bills and get out of debt. These are the “owner/operators” who are the true backbone of the American economy.

How many of these micro-business owners are there? I decided to look it up for my home state of Minnesota. In my research I discovered that Minnesota has about 510,000 businesses registered, but only 24% have any employees! This means that in Minnesota alone there are over 380,000 of these one- or two-person businesses! Just think how many of these businesses there are in the entire United States!

I believe that these business owners need their own designation. They need to be separated from the rest of what the world calls “entrepreneurs.” After much soul searching I finally came up with the name that I believe gives meaning to this massive group of business owners. The name I have chosen is “BizOwner.” This is one word with the B and the O capitalized. This word is not found in the dictionary and is made up of the slang for business “Biz” and the word that all these people truly are, which is “owner.”

So what is my definition of a BizOwner? Since I am creating a new word, I also have the right to define the new word. My definition of a BizOwner is someone who owns, operates, and is responsible for everything in his or her business. These people wear multiple hats. During any one day they are the salesperson, the marketing director, the accounts payable and accounts receivable person, and the customer service agent, and they do all the work that produces the income into the business. And on top of all of those tasks, they are required to make 5, 10, 20 or more decisions every day.

So how do you know if you are a BizOwner? If you can answer “yes” to the following five questions, then you are a BizOwner.

1) Have I legally formed by business and listed myself as the owner?

2) Am I the person responsible for everything in my business?

3) Do I do almost all the sales and marketing for my business?

4) Do I generate most of the income that comes into my business?

5) If I put “owner” on my business cards, does it feel right?

If you are one of the 380,000 BizOwners in Minnesota, then I applaud you! It about time we had our own name and our own definition! We are the backbone of this state and the backbone of our country. We are the BizOwners of America, and we are a force to be reckoned with! If you would like to comment on this article or ask a question on starting, planning or growing a small business, email me at Bob Voss.

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