As a regular purveyor of MBA news, I have read innumerable articles about who goes to b-school and why. A trend I have noticed and one that the data supports is that more and more people are pursuing an MBA degree as a direct reflection of interest and/or experience in entrepreneurship. Now, before we let this article jump the rails and crash into the old debate over whether entrepreneurship can be taught, let’s just move forward under the premise that business skills can certainly be learned and honed. After all, if we did not agree with such an assertion then we certainly would not be interested in graduate management degrees.
While not all of us understand the plight of the entrepreneur, we can all appreciate the demands of starting, managing, and growing a small business. Even if we have not done something like this ourselves, we know some who have, and, thus, know the time and work demanded by such an endeavor. Now, imagine deciding to go to graduate school in the midst of it all. As unlikely as such a scenario might seem, this is exactly what some small business owners are considering right now.
I came across an interesting article titled Does an MBA Make Sense for a Small Business Owner? The source is MIBiz.com, a Michigan-focused online commerce magazine, and the article is really just a disguised advertisement for several regional b-schools. However, the author brings up some very interesting points and relevant considerations for any entrepreneur weighing the possible outcomes of an MBA degree.
As a follow-up, I recommend a PoetsandQuants.com article called Should You go Full-Time or Part-time?, which includes discussion on Executive MBA programs. While it is hard to imagine the owner/operator of a currently working company attending school full-time, in the interest of comprehensiveness, all questions should be asked and all options weighed.
No matter where the starting point, the decision to go to b-school is a serious one and the potential benefits for individuals who decide to do it are vast and varied. As advisors, you must be as agile as you are empathetic and we hope some of the ideas discussed and linked here will buttress your skills. We would love to hear your small biz owner stories!
