The Masters of Business Administration has long been one of the most popular university degrees that there is – and with good reason. Studying for an MBA will teach you a whole litany of skills that you would otherwise not encounter and would struggle to develop. An MBA provides you with focused training designed to sharpen your business administration skills in a unique way.
Here are 10 reasons that every entrepreneur should consider studying an MBA.
Acquire New Skills and Gain Perspective
In the process of studying for your MBA, you will gain a variety of new skills and knowledge. Many of the things that you learn will be unique to the MBA experience. For example, you will gain unique insights into exactly how businesses are run and what skills are required to succeed at the highest levels. If you wish to study for your MBA, it is essential that you already have some management experience under your belt, but the MBA will help you to build on that experience and refine the skills you have picked up.
While you study for your MBA, you will come to understand the difference between a manager who has risen through the ranks and learned the ropes as they’ve gone, and one who has had formal training specifically in how to administrate a business. While experience is valuable, and you will need to have some under your belt before you can enroll in an MBA course, there are also a lot of aspects that need to be learned, and an MBA course is the best venue for doing this learning.
Improve Your Career Prospects
Once you have earned an MBA degree, all sorts of doors will be open to you. Whether you are looking to advance within an organization to which you already belong, or you have ambitions elsewhere, earning an MBA is a solid first step to take. After working for a number of years in a particular industry or role, the thought of taking a break for a new career path can seem incredibly daunting. Studying for an MBA will enable you to think about a new career while also carrying over some of the skills you have picked up in your current role.
A common reason for studying for an MBA is because the student has designs on one day starting their own business. Over the course of completing your MBA, you will learn everything that you need to make this ambition a reality. If you are looking for a way of reinvigorating your career, then starting your own business is an excellent way of doing so. Studying for an MBA will enable you to do so with complete confidence.
Increase Your Earnings Potential
With an MBA degree under your belt, you will become inherently more valuable than the other candidates that you compete against for job openings. Earning any degree will increase your value to employers, but the MBA degree is unique in the size of the boost that it will afford you. Once you have an MBA degree to your name, you will be able to command a bigger salary in your negotiations with employers.
Many of the top earners across Australia are MBA holders, a trend that is repeated across developed markets globally. The MBA won’t just raise your earnings potential in Australia either – should you choose to work abroad at some point, you will find that the MBA carries similar weight wherever you go.
Access to New Opportunities
As mentioned, earning an MBA will open doors that otherwise would have remained firmly shut. Some businesses will only hire MBA holders for their top-level management positions, meaning that without one you will only have limited options within the business. If you want to be certain of a shot at just about any position that you choose, the MBA is one of the best degrees that you can choose to get you there.
An MBA is recognized internationally as well, so your opportunities won’t be limited to Australian businesses. If you’ve been mulling a move overseas to continue or to jumpstart your career, studying for an MBA before you take the plunge will ensure that you are in the best position possible to make a success of things once you arrive at your chosen destination.
Challenge Yourself
Studying for an MBA isn’t easy. In fact, it represents the endpoint of a long and difficult journey that you must first overcome. For one thing, you will need to gain some experience working in management role before you can enroll in the MBA course. This will prepare you for some aspects of studying the degree, but there will still be plenty of challenges that you will need to overcome.
Studying for any degree is going to be difficult, and an MBA is no different. You will have to contend with all of the usual challenges of studying a university degree, in addition to the unique challenges that are thrown up by an MBA.
Join a Prestigious Club
Many of the top entrepreneurs in the world are holders of an MBA. The world of business is divided over whether an MBA is essential or not for those that have ambitions of leading business at the highest level. However, everyone is in agreement that the MBA makes applying for management positions considerably easier.
The MBA is still widely viewed as the gold-standard in business administration; those who hold an MBA are considered sure things and safe choices for promoting to leadership positions within their organization. If you want to be one of the first in consideration for promotions and have the CV that goes to the very top of the pile, being able to put an MBA next to your name will draw attention and make a real difference.
Grow a Professional Network
In business, your network of contacts is one of the most important resources that you have. Your network consists of all the individuals and businesses that you have encountered up until now. You never know when someone you meet might be able to help you, or when you might be able to do them a favor that you can redeem later.
As you study for your MBA, you will encounter other students, teachers, and entrepreneurs who can be of great use to you in the future. Not only will you meet people who occupy a wide variety of different roles, but you will also meet people who come from a variety of different backgrounds. This will give you a wider view of what it means to be an entrepreneur and bring you into contact with people you would otherwise never meet.
Start Your Own Business
If you are hoping to one day start your own business, having an MBA under your belt will make things much easier. While studying for your MBA, you will learn everything you need to handle the administrative duties associated with running a small business, you can then build on these to help you tackle larger businesses and enterprises.
Starting your own business is never an easy proposition, and holding an MBA isn’t going to completely take the challenge out of it. However, with an MBA under your belt, you will undeniably be in a much better position to succeed and much less likely to fall into the most common pitfalls that bring otherwise viable businesses to their knees.
Refocus Your Career
Working at the highest echelons of any corporation is going to be very different from working on the front lines, or even in middle management. If you love the industry or field that you work in but are looking to make a change, earning an MBA will enable you to work at these higher levels and experience another side to the same career that you have worked in for years.
It’s Easier Than Ever to Study
If you decide that studying an MBA is the right path for you, you have more options than ever before for actually pursuing it. For example, there are a whole host of online universities that now offer the option to study an MBA online. Victoria University, for example, offers an online MBA course. In fact, Victoria University’s MBA is a little unusual in that it is a 100% online MBA. Many MBAs will include some degree of practical or placement work, but there are also entirely online options like this one.
Online degrees used to be considered low-quality and untrustworthy. However, the perception of them today could not be more different. Now that online degrees are available through so many leading universities, it has never been easier for those who want to study them to do so. Studying remotely gives you a number of benefits. For one thing, you will be able to save money on the cost of your tuition, and you will also have the option of studying part-time if this suits you better.
Earning your MBA will enable you to access new opportunities and take on roles that would otherwise always lay out of reach. Whether you want to breathe new life into an existing career or prepare yourself for new challenges, studying an MBA is a great step to take.