Rural entrepreneurship has grown widely popular recently. This article deals with some important types of rural entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship has not only remained limited to the conventional idea of setting up new businesses or establishing fine work parameters for making our profit. It has evolved a lot over the passage of time because of the requirements of the new era. This evolution has led to the development of new entrepreneurship kinds which were once unknown. These areas from which the business experts were once unfamiliar are now making huge profits in the mainstream market and out of the many successful categories of entrepreneurs, we have rural entrepreneurship as well.
Also Read: Top 10 Interesting Facts About a Business Entrepreneur in 2021
A BIRD’S EYE VIEW
- Rural entrepreneurship is the act of setting up entrepreneurial ventures in rural areas.
- There are four major types of rural entrepreneurship.
- Rural areas are active agents of providing raw materials and manpower.
- Many of the leading brands in the world have relied upon the resources fetched through the gardens and fields of rural areas.
- Starting an entrepreneurial venture in a rural area is comparatively cheap to that of initiating a setup in an urban area.
What Is Rural Entrepreneurship?
Just as the name indicates, rural entrepreneurship involves a rural area where the urban concept of starting a venture makes way and leads to the formation of new startups which are purely rural in terms of their essence.
These rural ventures are based in the rural areas mostly because the raw materials or resources available for starting the rural entrepreneurship are easily available in these areas along with manpower needed to do the work.
Why Rural Entrepreneurship Became Popular?
Compared to the earlier trends where urban level entrepreneurship exceeded all other ventures, now rural entrepreneurship is also standing on firm grounds and proving itself to be a tough competition. This is because of the following reasons:
- Increased Competition In The Urban Domain
Because everyone is jumping into entrepreneurial ventures today, the market in the urban domain has become full of entrepreneurs who are all fighting for one single rule.
In the end, only those who succeed well in the market who are there in the field from a much older time and have better resources and technology to handle the business.
Their trust makes them stand first among the list of the perfect clientele choices. The rest of the entrepreneurship ventures either stay mediocre or fail miserably because they are unable to handle the competition.
So, entrepreneurs, these days are shifting the areas of their interest. Now rural entrepreneurship is seen as a good fighting ground because of the low level of competition primarily.
- Low Expense On Resources
Compared to the mega-level business projects which guarantee you success in the urban business domain, in the rural setup, you don’t have to do a lot of effort from your pocket. Here, with the help of cheap raw materials and low-cost machinery, you can easily manage your business effectively.
- Availability Of Manpower
If we look at the prominent reasons for migration. We will often find the logic of lesser jobs in the rural areas.
It not only creates an imbalance of population among lower and higher class but also creates a rift in the social setup where the people of low-tier are concerned about sustaining their lives.Â
A number of people lack good jobs to sustain their life and that is why they migrate. In villages, you become readily accessible to the manpower who works hard and efficiently because of being a soil soldier.
Some Common Types Of Rural Entrepreneurship
Rural entrepreneurship also extends its arms further to embrace different adjoining kinds of entrepreneurship. The most basic types of rural entrepreneurship that are in action at the moment are:
- Agricultural EntrepreneurshipÂ
- Livestock And Dairy EntrepreneurshipÂ
- Medicinal EntrepreneurshipÂ
- Textile And Clothing EntrepreneurshipÂ
Agricultural Entrepreneurship
This is the most common type among all the significant types of rural entrepreneurship. It focuses upon agricultural products and takes them as raw materials to set up a business or an industry.
Most of the time, agricultural entrepreneurship is accompanied by the establishment of small-scale factories managing sugarcane for the production of sugar to high-scale flour mills to make flour out of wheat. Both the low and high-scale entrepreneurs’ setups require manpower and raw materials which are easily available in limited resources. So, if you are an aspiring businessman who wants to set his mark in the business industry, you can think of starting from right here.
Why Is Agricultural Entrepreneurship Needed?
- It is needed to overcome the food-based needs of the large urban population.
- It promotes effective growth of crops becoming an active cause of the promotion of agriculture which is considered the backbone of any economy.
- Helps individuals find work in factories without migrating to bigger areas.
Common Examples of Agricultural Based Entrepreneurship
- Lipton industries have gained wide acclaim because of their tea which corresponds to the presence of tea leaves.
- Nestle industries gained immense success because of their fruit juices, depending directly on the gardens of the countryside.
Livestock And Dairy Entrepreneurship
This is another prominent type out of the significant types of rural entrepreneurship. This one focuses upon the breeding of cattle and domestic animals for fulfilling the livestock and dairy needs. In addition to this, it also involves the beekeeping and fish farming industries which have grown widely popular in modern times.
Why Livestock And Dairy Entrepreneurship Is Needed?
- It helps the shepherds and fish farmers to earn a good livelihood in exchange for the cattle and fish.
- The dairy needs are easily manageable with this kind of entrepreneurship.
- You can make a lot of money by exporting the products obtained from domestic animals and insects.
- Leather tanneries and industries are established because of this entrepreneurship which becomes an active source of style and comfort for many people.
Common Examples of Livestock And Dairy Entrepreneurship
- Organic Valley is one of the leading business brands which sets its mark high solely because of dairy entrepreneurship.
- Glory Bee became one of the chief brands which told the world about the significance of the beekeeping industry.
Medicinal & Skincare Entrepreneurship
Apparently, thousands of years old, medicinal & skincare entrepreneurship has always remained an active source of profit for the apothecaries in the old age and industries these days. Almost all of the medicines and skincare products are manufactured from plants. So, this industry can prevail well in the rural areas where weather and conditions both for plantation are absolutely ideal.
Why Is Medicinal & Skincare Entrepreneurship Needed?
- It helps to attract the attention of people towards the importance of trees and forests.
- Medicines prove to be good export sources on a global level making a huge sum of money.
- Hundreds of new diseases are being discovered each day. To meet up that need, herbal or plant-derived medicines can be considered effective.
- Organic skin care products have their own efficacy and are much in demand today.
Common Examples Of Medicinal & Skincare EntrepreneurshipÂ
- The Body Shop’s global success is in front of all aspiring entrepreneurs. Today, it is a leading brand which deals with organic and natural skincare products that are proven very effective by lab tests.
- Botanicals is a brand that shares a history as well. Even today from a mild headache to a sore throat, one relies on their herbal and impactful products straightly prepared out of the forest essentials.
Textile And Clothing Entrepreneurship
This is another important type. This correlates to agricultural entrepreneurship too, since the cotton industry depends entirely on the perfect cultivation of cotton. However, the small-scale thread-making industries based at the home level and the regional cloth-making businesses on the rural scale can help the entrepreneur make a lot of money in the end.
Why Textile And Clothing Entrepreneurship Is Needed?
- Most of the textile needs can be easily managed if small-scale entrepreneurial ventures originate at the rural level.
- Women who serve as the backbone of the thread weaving industry can find suitable careers for themselves this way, making a considerable amount of livelihood.
- The rural textiles can get international clients because of the perfection in terms of the thread which is being woven artistically. This also helps the entrepreneur to make huge capital.
Common Examples Of Textile And Clothing Entrepreneurship
- ETRO which now takes pride in bringing the conventions forward in the modern world can be taken as the perfect example of a setup that originated from a rural background employing the traditional artisans and this trend continues till today.
- Not many people know that behind Valentino’s maddening success in the business world today is their initial effort of collaborating with the rural artisans for the raw material supply as well as for the weaving and embroidery services.
Conclusion
All the distinct types of rural entrepreneurship speak one unifying language that rural areas are no less than the urban ones in terms of manpower and resources. Much of the urban ventures in the world today are highly dependent on rural areas and this trend continues to date.
The only need is that entrepreneurs should be educated to make the rural resources useful in the rural geography by initiating entrepreneurial ventures over there. This will not only become a reason for the entrepreneur’s success but will also provide jobs to hundreds of people who continuously migrate to cities in hope of better opportunities.
The author is an M.Phil scholar conducting her thesis in Literature. As a sucker for literature, she swoons over Greek and South Asian fiction while reviewing books in her spare time. Her love for writing has made her expand her subject matter and now she pens her opinions frequently on business, finance, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, history, and literature. For a special connection with entrepreneurship, she opens up the details occasionally about it.