The contractor is primarily an individual who anticipates a need, assembles and organizes the tools and skills necessary to meet this need. In doing so, he risks that need does not materialize or that means he has put in place to meet be inadequate (see list of French companies and their leaders).

Historically, the contractor is an agent, broker work: she can get firm orders for goods or services, research workers who will produce each part of this command and it ensures the smooth delivery. This in a context where the division of work is too slight, where the workers work at home, and have their tools and even their machine (loom for example).

Before the industrial revolution, an entrepreneur is primarily a "man band" capable of reducing the need for capital and human resources to carry out a lawful and profitable. To do this, his legal knowledge is becoming increasingly necessary as the organization and market access require. In addition, the contractor may, when its profile is rather that of a creator, then let the manager of an undertaking to pay a manager.