Earning an MBA can prepare you to enter the business world and find meaningful employment, but what does it mean if you want to start your own business?
Do you need to earn an MBA to become an entrepreneur?
The decision to pursue an MBA is a personal matter, but earning a Master’s of Business Administration degree can provide you with the business skills and tools necessary to succeed.
This Forbes article lists some high profile businesses that were started by founders with an MBA. These include OKCupid, Yelp, Zynga, Warby Parker, Grub Hub and more.
It argues that the process of earning an MBA can surround you with like-minded business students as well as professors, who are successful in their fields. You can bounce ideas off them and hone your skills.
This article from the Harvard Business Review agrees, but takes a different approach to the question. It touts the benefits of understanding strategy, finance and marketing and how that can be useful to an entrepreneur starting a business.
However, it states that a number of soft skills and natural assets are also required to become successful. These include self-confidence, energy, passion and the ability to communicate effectively.
The author concludes that earning an MBA can give you the tools to help improve the chances you will succeed, but there are no guarantees.
This Globe and Mail article written by a successful entrepreneur states that to become an entrepreneur, you need to have an MBA.
Aaron Schwartz lists a number of reasons why he believes why an MBA is important. This includes the ability to experiment in a forgiving setting, building a relevant local network and collecting classwork that will come in handy down the road in such courses as marketing, finance, accounting and sales.
This Entrepreneur article says that part of the value of earning an MBA is learning how to think like a business person.
Germain Boer says it compresses years of learning on the job learning into a couple of years and that it can help you avoid mistakes early on.
MBA Access names the top five entrepreneurs with MBAs. It lists: Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX; Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg L.P.; Phil Knight, Nike; Frank Batten, the Weather Channel; and Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems.
University Canada West is located in the heart of Vancouver, BC. The university offers both an online and on-campus MBA program. The boutique, business-oriented university provides students with the experience to succeed in their careers and scholarships to recognize students’ academic excellence.
