创业（英语：Entrepreneurship）是开创新事业。近几年最常见形式是开创新商业（俗称创业公司）。尽管如此，这术语已被扩展到在社会和政治上的企业家活动。当企业家精神用来描述在公司或大型公司组织内部的活动，它被称新创事业（英语：Intrapreneurship）。

根据全球企业家监测的企业家学者和创建者Paul Reynolds所述：“到目前，在美国所有工作的人在他们退休时，其中半数人可能有过一到多年自我雇佣的时段；四分之一人很可能从事于自我雇佣超过六年之久。在美国工人的职业规划中，开创一份新事业是很司空见惯的。”

Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching, and running a new business, i.e. a startup company offering a product, process or service. It has been defined as the "...capacity and willingness to develop, organize, and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit." The entrepreneur is "a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk." "[R]ather than working as an employee, [an entrepreneur] runs a small business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes." Entrepreneurs perceive new business opportunities and they often exhibit positive biases in their pe****tion (i.e., a bias towards finding new possibilities and unmet market needs) and a pro-risk-taking attitude that makes them more likely to exploit the opportunity."Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-taking."