Side Hustler or Entrepreneur: What’s the Difference Anyway?

Every day I spend some time browsing the internet on my device for local small businesses to support. Like most women, moms of school-age or younger children, I prefer having “side hustle”, “gig” and calling myself a “mompreneur” or “solopreneur” rather than what I am – an independent entrepreneur and small business owner.

Today more people in the US (and in the world) are engaged in the process of entrepreneurship than at any point in history. According to the SBA, 81% out of more than 600,000 new businesses that are established in the US every year, are solo entrepreneurs working from their desk or computers at home. And yet legions of entrepreneurs are not owning this prestigious title having an outdated perception of what does it mean. As Entrepreneur Online Magazine points out: “There’s still this legacy understanding of what it means to run your own business, and who can run a business: an elitism that presumes you need a business plan, an MBA and investors knocking on your door. This has been glorified by Silicon Valley’s prototypical techies, who seem to be in a perpetual state of scaling and funding rounds. The implication? Entrepreneurship takes big money and big connections.

But the reality is entrepreneurship is no longer limited to those who have access to the one percent. Twenty percent of small business owners use rollovers of their retirement savings to fund their companies; a full 10% get investment from family and friends.”

And 2020 Pandemic drastically changed the way small businesses operate: technology allowed entrepreneurs to overcome financial, educational, marketing, manufacturing, distribution barriers. Entrepreneurship is no longer an elitist club – it belongs to everyone. If you are running a business – big or small, local or national scale, online or in person, after your 9-5 work or in between your family members’ schedule, on Instagram or Shopify – you are an entrepreneur.

We at Shop a Small Business and Women’s Council of Entrepreneurs encourage women business owners and leaders to embrace entrepreneurship and continue to grow their business by sharing their experience and lifting up business owners in their areas.

Check our Online Marketplace for products and services locally produced and distributed. Related articles on entrepreneurship could be found in our Blog section. And visit our WCE events page for upcoming business meetings and networking opportunities.