If you are your own boss, you become the gatekeeper of what qualifications you need to do your job and help your employees do theirs. Still, when you look at some fields such as software engineering, it is possible to work in that field without a degree, yet many people do decide it is worth the investment of time and money.

Even if you can be successfully self-employed and get paid without having formal business training, you might seriously consider the option to get a relevant qualification, which you could study conveniently via an online MBA program. That way, you can balance the need to keep your business running with the need to learn how to do so more effectively. Even still, such a course of study is a commitment and it’s worth looking at the key selling points to help decide if it’s worth it to you.

Networking Opportunities

Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely journey in a way that people who work for someone else can’t appreciate. Establishing camaraderie with people who may be on a similar path, bonding with them over shared tasks such as assignments and studying for exams, can help bridge the gap of the support network you took for granted as an employee and left behind when you decided to run your own business. It may seem a bit like a placebo effect – a course of study in which the content of some of the classes might be less critical to your future success than the people you meet in class. However, networking is a well-known motivator for many managers who choose to invest in an MBA.

Diversifying Risk

If you’re just starting out as a business owner it might still be a side hustle and you may still need at least a part-time job to keep the lights on.  Apart from the fact that managerial jobs tend to be more well-paid than many other possible lines of work, the experience of managing a team or department in someone else’s company will be very applicable to managing your own company.

In addition, there is the well-known harsh truth that a significant portion of small businesses will not survive their first year. With that said, since it is quite common, there is no shame in having taken a risk that ultimately didn’t pan out the way you’d hoped. In fact, many employers will see such adventurous calculated risk-taking as a feather in your cap. Now combine that with a formal business qualification, and you may land a great senior role working for somebody else while using everything you’ve learned to help plan how to implement your next entrepreneurial idea.

Coping With Success

But let’s say your business is booming to the point where you need to buy a bigger office; double or triple the size of your staff; formalism your branding strategy and company values; effectively plan how to stay ahead of the competition now that you are recognized as a serious contender; and clearly define your organizational structure. If only there were some sort of course in business training that helped you understand what’s been empirically shown to work in managing a business effectively as it scales up.

You will find that many of the approaches that worked with a handful of people who know each other well are just not practical as your organization grows. This is where the actual content you stayed up at night to study and write essays about will come into its own. You can think of your MBA knowledge as a competitive advantage against those who figured their business was succeeding in the short term, only to be stumped by unexpected challenges as their business grows and the stakes get higher.

Standing Out From The Pack

What we said in the opening about you being the ultimate judge of what qualifies you to run your own business is both right and wrong. Indeed, the whole concept of being your own boss is a relative term, as you will still find yourself needing to present who you are and what you have to offer in the best possible light to stakeholders, investors, big customers, and banks you need loans from. So in fact, although you run your own company, that doesn’t make the concept of a resume obsolete, and an MBA from a reputable university can still be a very good thing to have on that resume, even for a business owner.

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• What To Know Before Starting Your Own Business
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