What is the difference betweeen buisness management and Entrepreneurship?
Hello My name is Hunter and I would like to know the difference between business management and Entrepreneurship. My dad owns a company and I have gone down to the company with him and worked a little and seen that that would something of interest as a career in the future. There lies my problem though, I really don't know the difference between business management and Entrepreneurship. Any help will greatly appreciated and suggestions to other fields of business that sound closer to what I'm going for is also greatly appreciated.
4 answers
Janean’s Answer
I agree with all of the above! I'll add my two bits and try to keep the jargon I usually use out of it. If you think of building a house, business management is like making sure you have enough workers with the right expertise, you get the house built on time, you comply with all the city codes, you predict what it's going to cost and it actually winds up costing what you said it would. In the end the buyer is happy and pays you what you need to make a profit. An Entrepreneur is more of a leader. They see an empty plot of land and think... "I could put a house here... but what if I built a theme park... or what if I built an entire community all run off of solar energy." Then they hire a management type to do some research and discover that the average age in the area is 62.... there goes the theme park idea. The entrepreneur will either say hey... maybe we should build a retirement home or let's move to a different location where there are more kids. Maybe the solar energy community is just an idea that gets thrown away as things evolve. The point is they have a vision and they can articulate enough of it to be able to test it out, then they don't give up. School can teach you business management. To become an entrepreneur you need understand what makes you tick, have a passion for what you want to achieve and the wisdom to know when you need help (often the help of a solid business manager). Some folks have both skill sets. If you want to be an entrepreneur I'd suggest finding someone who already is one and watching what they do. Work for them for a while and learn.
Joe Frushon
Joe’s Answer
Hi Hunter,
Good question.
The distinction is subtle, but here is how I would describe it:
Business Management is understanding of how a business operates and includes strategic planning, and how to lead and manage a team of individuals toward a business goal.
Entrepreneurship is related to how to operate, grow, and manage your business from the ground up. In many cases, a self-starter who can develop ideas and bring them to life within an organization or launch your own business is consider an entrepreneur.
Sounds like you Dad may be a great resource to tap into.
Hope that helps.
Michael’s Answer
Hi Hunter I like the question and also joe's answer i agree its subtile.
My way of explaining it would be Business management is the task of tracking progress and managing operations moving towards a strategic goal... So keep doing what is already being done better.
Entrepreneurship to me is find creative ways of doing things differently that scale. Entrepreneurs build business that then have to be managed, and they get paid in equity and salary, whereas business management is typically just a paid job with often some performance bonus.
Hope that helps.
Lionel’s Answer
Broadly speaking "Business Management" I would help to prepare you for corporate life and Entrepreneurship more for start-ups. I would guess the classic MBA would be more Business Management oriented... how to read P&Ls, Balance Sheets, 10Ks, Organizational issues, Product Management. Start-up issues like venture money, pivoting your company, maturing issues, would be different. There certainly are overlaps and perhaps business schools today are responding to the need.
Best,
Lionel