Businessperson, executive, entrepreneur????

These two words are used in very different contexts in Portuguese (and in English, too).

An “empresário” is usually someone who starts his/her own company or venture as an individual/natural person, not as a company. He/she is not necessarily part of a company and can be the owner of a coffee-shop or restaurant, for example, which has nothing to do with the corporate world. Empresário is also someone that opens a company under their name, called an “Empresa Individual”.

An “executivo” is employed by a corporation or company and is necessarily connected to the corporate world.

So how do we say these words in English?

Businessperson for the first case sounds aged. Entrepreneur is the best option, and then there is always the dreaded “self-employed”. In fact, I must admit that the Brazilian version sounds much better.

In the second case, we just use executive.