Marketing as Entrepreneurship: Business Ideas and Mindset
This paper examines entrepreneurship as both a marketing philosophy and a practical business orientation in the 21st-century global economy. Drawing on the concept's French origins and its connection to innovation, risk, and growth, the paper argues that entrepreneurial thinking extends beyond business into psychology, education, and social science. The author reflects on personal background in military leadership and evaluates three potential business ventures: a beauty supply store, a gentlemen's cigar club, and a dental clinic. Each idea is assessed through demographic, competitive, and financial lenses. The paper concludes with a broader vision of systems thinking, ethics, and global cooperation as drivers of the next wave of entrepreneurialism.
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Marketing: Defines entrepreneurship and its marketing origins
- Entrepreneurship as a 21st-Century Mindset: Global forces reshaping entrepreneurial marketing models
- Beauty Supply Store: Market Analysis and Strategy: Evaluating a beauty supply startup opportunity
- Gentlemen's Cigar Club: Demographics and Concept: Cigar lounge business model and target market
- Dental Clinic: Niche Markets and Differentiation: Dental practice startup with demographic targeting
- Entrepreneurship, Ethics, and Global Thinking: Ethics, global cooperation, and entrepreneurial society
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What makes this paper effective
- It connects theoretical frameworks (entrepreneurship as marketing philosophy) to concrete, personally motivated business ideas, grounding abstract concepts in practical analysis.
- Each business concept is evaluated across multiple dimensions — target market, barriers to entry, competitive landscape, and financial considerations — demonstrating applied business thinking.
- The paper moves logically from the macro (global entrepreneurial society) to the micro (specific venture ideas) and back to the macro (global ethics and systems thinking), giving the argument a satisfying circular structure.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper exemplifies applied synthesis: it draws on scholarly sources (Audretsch, Hultman, Foreman-Peck) to build a theoretical foundation, then uses that foundation to evaluate real-world business decisions. This technique — grounding personal or practical analysis in peer-reviewed literature — is a hallmark of undergraduate business and entrepreneurship writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a theoretical overview of entrepreneurship's origins and its role in 21st-century marketing. It then transitions to personal reflection on military-derived leadership skills before presenting three numbered business concepts in structured mini-analyses. The conclusion broadens the lens again, connecting individual entrepreneurialism to global citizenship, ethical transparency, and lifelong learning. The appendix-style "100th Monkey" anecdote functions as a metaphor for societal tipping points in innovation.
Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Trends in globalism, stakeholder knowledge, and technology — all part of the 21st-century environment — have changed marketing from a monolithic approach to the market into a model that has actually been in place for centuries, yet has now found a way to move from the small business environment into the larger organizational model. This shift has occurred precisely because its strengths are exactly what is needed to perform in a new environment. This concept, entrepreneurship, has its origins in the French verb entreprendre, meaning "to undertake" (Hultman et al., 2011). In a sense, every organizational idea starts with a core concept and thus carries some entrepreneurial tendencies. These ideas share a fundamental relationship in that they require innovation and risk in order to come to fruition — that is, to achieve economic gain.
More than anything else, the idea of entrepreneurship is a mindset — a mode of operating as opposed to a strict method, a style of thinking. It represents the difference between management and leadership, and the degree of tenacity necessary to successfully complete a project. From the Western model, entrepreneurship is about growth opportunities, motivation, and a style of approaching the impossible to make it possible. Indeed, the very nature of capitalism and modern growth depends on culture, economic conditions, and, essentially, the idea of risk versus reward (Foreman-Peck & Zhou, 2010).
Entrepreneurship as a 21st-Century Mindset
In the 21st-century global culture, hyperactive competitiveness, rising expectations, advancing technology, and increased buying power all contribute to marketing-as-entrepreneurship by driving job creation and method integration that allows forward momentum. This activity tends to result in new types of organizations, new products, new services, and a revitalization of older business units and ideas. Marketing as entrepreneurship does not exist simply as a business activity; it is instead a multidimensional source of innovation and inspiration that transfers from business into psychology, engineering and re-engineering, organizational theory, the social sciences, and even education. This phenomenon is so pervasive in the 21st century that some scholars now view marketing as entrepreneurship as the core basis of a successful economy, driving growth (Audretsch, 2007).
Having served in the Army, my training in leadership, customer service, time management, and organization has proven extremely valuable and appropriate for taking on an entrepreneurial venture. When thinking about personal entrepreneurial possibilities, three major ideas emerge that — depending on location and demographics — would be both intellectually and emotionally satisfying, while offering a high degree of personal growth and a way to proactively engage with people.
Beauty Supply Store: Market Analysis and Strategy
The appeal of opening a beauty supply store is twofold. First, the customer base extends beyond cosmetologists to the general public seeking higher-end products. Rather than relying on a single draw for foot traffic, there is a broader customer base to serve. The U.S. Bureau of Labor estimated at least 1.2 million cosmetology jobs, with 20% growth expected throughout the decade — each representing a potential customer. Barriers to entry are relatively low: a decent-traffic location, adequate shelf space, and sufficient capital to appropriately stock the shelves are the primary requirements.
To market the business, one would need to network with surrounding salons by potentially providing delivery and bulk discounts, identify ways to carry their most-needed materials, and build operating hours around salon schedules so that owners and stylists can pick up products on their way to and from work. The key will be thorough market research to identify the number of existing supply stores, their service areas, and potential market share. One strong possibility is to locate in areas with strong consumer growth but few existing suppliers (Smith, 2012).
References
Audretsch, D. (2007). The Entrepreneurial Society. Oxford University Press.
Foreman-Peck, J., & Zhou, P. (2010, August). The strength and persistence of entrepreneurial cultures. Cardiff Business School. Retrieved from
Frazier, L., & Madjidi, F. (2011). ICT and social entrepreneurship. Research in Information Technology, 8(2), 3–10.
How to start a cigar lounge. (2012). eHow. Retrieved from
Hultman, C., et al. (2011). Influence from entrepreneurship in marketing theory. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, 13(2), 120–125.
Smith, C. (2012). Can I make money opening a beauty supply store? Chron/Demand Media.
Wicks, D. (2012). How to start your own dental practice. Chron/Demand Media. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/start-own-dental-practice-17378.html
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