A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, ownership, or Shareholder in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) to generate cash flow, sales, and revenue by using a combination of Human capital, financial, intellectual, and physical capital to fuel economic development and growth.
History
Medieval period: Rise of the merchant class
Merchants emerged as a social class in
medieval Italy. Between 1300 and 1500, modern accounting, the bill of exchange, and limited liability were invented, and thus, the world saw "the first true bankers", who were certainly businesspeople.
Around the same time, Europe saw the "emergence of rich merchants."
Renaissance to Enlightenment: Rise of the capitalist
Europe became the dominant global
commercial power in the 16th century, and as Europeans developed new tools for business, new types of "business people" began to use those tools. In this period, Europe developed and used
paper money,
, and joint-stock companies (and their shares of
capital stock).
Developments in actuarial science and
underwriting led to insurance.
Together, these new tools were used by a new kind of businessperson, the
capitalist. These people owned or financed businesses as investors, but they were not merchants of goods. These capitalists were a major force in the Industrial Revolution.
The Oxford English Dictionary reports the earliest known use of the word "business-men" in 1798, and of "business-man" in 1803. By 1860, the spelling "businessmen" had emerged.
Merriam Webster reports the earliest known use of the word "businesswoman" in 1827.
Modern period: Rise of the business magnate
The newest kind of corporate executive working under a
business magnate is the manager. One of the first true founders of the management profession was
Robert Owen (1771–1858). He was also a
business magnate in Scotland.
He studied the "problems of
productivity and
motivation", and was followed by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915), who was the first person who studied work with the motive to train his
Employment in the field of management to make them efficient managers capable of managing his business.
After World War I, management became popular due to the example of
Herbert Hoover and the Harvard Business School, which offered
MBA (management) with the motive to develop efficient managers so that business magnates could hire them with the goal to increase productivity of the private establishments business magnates own.
Salary
Salaries for businesspeople vary.
The salaries of businesspeople can be as high as
of dollars per year. For example, the
ownership of
Microsoft,
Bill Gates makes $4 billion per year. The high salaries which businesspeople earn have often been a source of criticism from many who believe they are paid excessively.
Entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or multiple businesses (serial entrepreneur).
Entrepreneurship may be defined as the
value creation or extraction of
economic value. It is generally thought to embrace
business risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business. Its motivation can include other values than simply economic ones.
In general usage, because the distinction is not clear-cut, the term 'entrepreneur' may be used as a (self-)promoting
euphemism for 'businessperson', or it may serve to objectively indicate particular passion and risk-taking in a business field. Still, the distinction is only one by degrees.
See also
