5 Types of Business Owners: Which One are You?

Let’s be honest — is there anyone who has started their own business not wanting to be the next Steve Jobs, Larry Page or Sara Blakely? Surely, you don’t need to copy your role model to gain success, but you can still learn from them.

The Founder Institute explored the characteristics of more than 30,000 business owners and categorized them into several groups according to their priorities and main qualities.

I took a closer look at the research and made some adjustments of my own. Knowing which type of business owner I am, helped me in presenting myself and positioning my personal brand. By knowing our leadership style and following it, we can send a clear and distinct message to the world.

1. Hustler

In the business world, hustlers are achievers who are chasing their dreams tirelessly and never giving up. They usually start small and get to the top not due to the capital, but due to hard work. They are self-confident and are never afraid of difficulties.

They treat disappointment just like another step in their professional journey. A hustler is not afraid of rejections and seems to be able to sell literally anything to anyone. A great example of this type of business owner would be Sophia Amoruso, founder of Nasty Gal, who started with a small eBay store and grew her project into a multimillion-dollar business. She is well known for her belief in the power of hard work and determination, and nonstandard methods, like digging into a dumpster searching for vintage clothes to sell on eBay.

2. Visionary

Visionaries strive for innovations, creativity, and new approaches. These people are inspired by a big idea and know how to inspire others by it. Such a leader knows how to motivate their team and gives them a lot of freedom and space for creativity.

A typical visionary would be Reed Hastings, a co-founder of Netflix, who went all the way from opening a DVD rental shop to changing the whole picture of online streaming. As a leader, he is known for rejecting micromanagement and giving his team maximum independence. For example, Netflix employees can have unlimited vacation time, as long as they deliver good results.

3. Strategist

Strategists are very data-driven. They research, calculate everything, think through each step, and build long-term plans. These are not people who would just go by instincts or risk everything. Strategists leave themselves no room for making mistakes. They sometimes may dig too deep into data and facts, and usually need a lot of time to make a decision, but it will be as informed as possible. This type of entrepreneurship is brightly represented by Melanie Perkins, a founder of Canva, who pursues data-driven decision-making to compete with Adobe and Microsoft successfully.

4. Machine

The Machines are the most reliable and sustainable people ever. They just get things done, quickly and effectively. These are natural problem-solvers who work hard and are ready to put in as much effort as needed to provide quality.

The Machines often rely heavily on automation and tech solutions to increase efficiency. Along with many strong points, Machines typically have a weak spot — fear of delegating. This approach is typically called “solo entrepreneurship”, as business owners who follow it, prefer to do everything on their own and need to schedule every minute to follow the track. This is an entrepreneurship style brightly represented by Tim Ferris, entrepreneur, podcaster, and author, famous for his self-help book “The 4-Hour Work Week”, which he came up with, while working 14 hours a day.

5. Prodigy

People often look at the Prodigies with a question: “How are they even doing it?”. These entrepreneurs just seem to be gifted with a high IQ and a natural instinct which help them earn their millions with seemingly no effort paid.

We can easily think of tech geniuses who would be perfect examples of the Prodigies, like Mark Zuckerberg. He became world-famous due to his high intelligence, innovative ideas (like turning Harvard students’ platform into a network billions of people could use), and instinctual approach to decision-making.

Which One Are You?

Do any of these resonate with you? If you’re struggling with choosing one — you’re right. Our personal leadership style is usually a combination of different approaches with one prevailing. But we can still benefit from getting inspiration from our role models and examining their ways of managing business. Myself, I find the Visionary’s leadership model most appealing and always keep a picture of how to follow it in mind. I feel that pinpointing my predominant type of leadership made me one step closer to my ultimate business goal.