MBA – to get, or not to get?
I recently bought the book The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship
A year ago, I was very close to starting classes to get my MBA
I have a family that I love to spend time with, and, besides, I’ve always been a small-business minded worker, not the big corporation employee. (Of course I hope that one day my business turns into a big corporation, but we have a while to go…). So, that aided in my decision to forgo getting an MBA.
In talking with other entrepreneurs about getting an MBA, there a two different lines of thought.
Many people consider an MBA a vital education in the world of business and business ownership. There is certainly a great deal of knowledge that comes with an MBA, as well as real-world projects, studies, and statistics. If you want to move up in the corporate world, am MBA does look very nice on a resume.
But does it help if you want to start your own business? I have repeatedly heard that what you learn getting an MBA is great for corporate business, but does not really help in the “real world” of small business startup an running a small business.
Another point against getting an MBA is the fact that when you need a CFO, CEO, or upper management, you can HIRE someone with an MBA.
Another factor is the cost. The small college I was looking at, that had night classes and a small group, costs $40,000 for the program. Larger, more well-known programs, such as the one at Emory in Atlanta, costs well above that. That is money that not only do I not have, but could be put to use in a better way.
The investment of time is yet another factor. There would be 2 – 3 night a week of classes, as well as Saturday classes, getting together with classmates for projects, and hours and hours of studying. As I mentioned earlier, I have an active life outside of work. It would be a sacrifice I had to consider.
So, getting an MBA is a choice for you. If you are right out of college, you have plenty of time to make back the money it takes to get an MBA. Looks great on an inexperienced resume, and you are still on a roll of being educated.
Part of the lure that getting an MBA for me, was that I really enjoy learning, and I love learning about business.
But, in the end, I realized that getting an MBA is, in fact, a business decision, as well as a financial investment decision, that I could not justify.
So, for the time being, I will settle for learning all I can about what they teach in an MBA curriculum.
Again, check out the books:
