Someone new to the world of entrepreneurship will notice right away that entrepreneurs have an interesting way of speaking. From “unicorn” to “bootstrapping” to “foodpreneur,” entrepreneurs use a lot of strange language to describe what they do. By combining words, or by assigning new meaning to old ones, they have created a whole new vocabulary to better communicate their needs and ideas in an ever-evolving ecosystem. The EntrepreLingo Series is an effort to fill our readers in on some of the weirder—or less straightforward—terms you’re sure to hear in an entrepreneurial environment. So far, we’ve covered: A, B, C, D and E, F through H, I through L, M and N, P and Q and R. This week’s installment is brought to you by the letter S.
S Corporation (or S Corp, Subchapter S)
An S Corporation meets specific requirements that allow it to operate as a corporation while being taxed as a partnership. In this respect, losses, deductions, income, etc. may be passed directly to shareholders, who then report them on their personal tax returns. S Corporations must have fewer than 100 shareholders, must be domestic and must only have one class of stock.
SBA (Small Business Administration)
The Small Business Administration is a government organization that supports small businesses by providing them with educational resources, funding opportunities and—on occasion—networking events.
Scalability
The ability of a small business to operate on a larger scale without being hindered by factors such as system structure or available resources. Scalability includes the business’s ability to cope with increased production or workload and maintaining profit margins during periods of growth.
Sector
Sectors are subsets of the part of the economy comprised of businesses. The primary sector consists of raw materials, the secondary consists of manufacturing, and the tertiary sector is comprised of sales and services.
Seed Capital
Seed Capital is the money used to launch a startup.
Serial Entrepreneur
A serial entrepreneur is one who begins new ventures continuously, either after the previous ventures have been sold or after they have been given over to a successor.
Shell Corporation
Shell corporation—in the context of entrepreneurship—describes a company that is not in operation and has no assets, but serves as a vehicle to launch a business or make a business public.
Social Enterprise
Social enterprises are for-profit or nonprofit ventures that benefit a charitable, human or environmental cause.
Sprint
This term—most used in tech communities—describes the process of entire teams working together to complete a task in a short period of time.
Startup
A startup is a business in the first stages of development.
Sunsetting
Sunsetting is the process of phasing out a product, service or business.
Sweat Equity
Sweat Equity is the amount of labor put into the business to make it successful.
Synergy
Synergy is the bringing together of separate organizations or processes to create a something greater than their individual parts. This term is often used when considering the benefits of merging one business with another.