Look mum, I’m an Internet Entrepreneur!
….well, actually your not son. You just happen to own a website…which anyone can do!
You have noticed the ps at the end of my about page which says :
if you ever hear me referring to myself as an entrepreneur. mogul, net wiz, guru or whatever please throw something at me!!!!
I wrote this because of the ever increasing number of bloggers who blog about money or blogging are referring to themselves as internet gurus. I’ve been building, maintaining, buying and selling websites for over 7 years now and ive been self employed via the internet for the last 3 or so. I wasnt an internet mogul back in 2000 and im certainly not one in 2007.
Now, lets get the boring bit out of the way. An Entrepreneur is defined as
a person who takes the risk of turning an opportunity into profit; a person who takes the risk of managing and operating a business or businesses; term often used: a. for one who does this for one or more businesses that he or she entirely or largely helps to create; b. for one who takes on ownership, or significant ownership, of one or more business franchises
From the above, a lot of bloggers could argue that they are technically Entrepreneurs. Some dictionaries define it simply as ‘An individual who starts his/her own business’.
So what’s my beef?
Well i dont really have a beef with anyone, this is more of a sunday morning petty rant. I find the whole thing quite funny actually 
The blogs which make me laugh are the ones which are only a few months old and have an about page which boasts about them being an Internet Entrepreneur. They usually start off with something like :
Hi there, My name is Arnold Amazing. I’m 21 and im an Internet Entrepreneur…
The irony being that they only run 1 blog and that blog isn’t even making money.
I was browsing Sitepoint the other day and came across this blog for sale. It was an ‘Entrepreneur Blog’ (his words not mine) and it actually sold for $300! Do you think the guy who sold this 3 month old blog is actually an Entrepreneur?
So what is an Internet Entrepreneur?
I personally find it difficult to label myself or any other blogger or webmaster an Entrepreneur when we are all doing something unoriginal ie. how many thousands of blogs or websites are there to yours on the web?
What does everyone think? Im interested in hearing how everyone else views this.
Do you guys think that any person with a blog or a website is an Internet Entrepreneur? Do you think being self employed via the internet makes you one. If not, how much should you be earning before your classed as a ‘Internet Entrepreneur‘
Food for thought
Tara | April 23rd, 2007 at 10:34 am #
I think a better term is “wannabee entreprenuer”
I think you need a certain amount of success before you can call yourself an entrepreneur.
However I do not necessarily think you have to do something original to be entrepreneur. There are self made millionaires out there who haven’t necessarily done something original but what they have done, is do something very well.
ses5909 | April 24th, 2007 at 5:40 am #
I’ll disagree with Tara’s statement here. According to dictionary.com,
n. A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.
Tom LeDree | May 14th, 2007 at 5:53 pm #
“A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.”
I don’t think most blogs really count as a real ‘risk’ money wise. Under $50 a year hosting and domain is not much for most people. If your blog is a free blog then there is zero risk.
Maybe if you count the investment of time into a blog as a risk then perhaps. But really unless you have something to lose it’s not really a risk. Therefore I wouldn’t count 99.9% of Bloggers as ‘Entrepreneurs’. Just my 2 cents…
Yuwanda Black | April 9th, 2008 at 12:39 am #
Kevin it’s so funny you wrote this. I just reorganized my about page a few weeks ago, and used the title “Web entreprenuer” for the first time. I’ve had a website since 1999, have been a freelancer since 1993 and started selling products on the web in 2002. I just now feel comfortable using that title since 90% of my writing is now SEO writing. I also write and sell ebooks.
Technically though, I think anyone who “actively” assumes a risk is an entrepreneur. If you throw up a blog, only post twice a week and hope to make 5K/month in AdSense revenue, then no, I don’t think you’re an entrepreneur.
But, if you start a blog, post multiple times a day, create your own products to sell and actively promote your online presence, then whether you’re making a $1/day, or $1,000/day, you’re an entrepreneur.
Just my 2 cents.
Insightful post.
Yuwanda
Kevin | April 9th, 2008 at 7:48 am #
thats really strange you commentated on this as I discussed the subject again in a post recently called I don’t know what to call myself anymore!!.
Basically my beef with this whole thing was people using fancy titles for themselves to make them sound more important.