What is the Best Degree for Launching a Business?

Starting a business and guiding it toward success and growth can be pretty challenging even for those who have worked in entrepreneurship or pursued graduate-level education in business, finance, and accounting. Generally, however, there are a few college degrees that will make it easier to manage employees, bookkeeping, and strategies for long-term growth that will benefit the business in dynamic ways over the long-term.

Bachelors of Business Administration

Perhaps the most obvious degree for those looking to launch their own business is the basic business degree itself. In addition to a strong foundation in a broad number of business-related disciplines, including accounting, finance, economics, management, and law, students will have the ability to select a concentration that benefits their future enterprise. Most students looking to be their own boss choose a concentration in entrepreneurship, which uses a series of electives to teach students about early business management, the tax burden of sole proprietorship, and much more.

Degrees in Accounting, Finance, or Economics

All three of these degrees are numbers-focused, giving students insight into the best ways to manage their business’ money, handle an employee payroll, and make strategic investments that will pay off in the future for both the business and their personal wealth. These degrees translate effortlessly into the knowledge needed to keep a fledgling business financially secure and robust enough to compete with more established companies in the same industry.

A Bachelor of Arts in Communication

Ask any employee who hates their job exactly what their biggest complaint is, and they’re bound to say one of two things: Management or communication. While management is a skill best learned in a business major, the nuanced ways of communicating with employees can be handled with a B.A. in communication from a major university. The degree is most often associated with careers in public relations, newspapers, or broadcast journalism, but actually goes well beyond those pursuits.

Some of the toughest and most rewarding classes in this major are some of the best for business owners. Strategic communication, for example, teaches business owners how to best merge their company goals and employee needs. Courses in conflict resolution teach the skills needed to overcome major headaches that might arise between two strong-willed employees as the business grows.

The MBA: A No-Brainer for Launching a Business

While several undergraduate programs will teach the skills needed to create a business and guide it toward success during its earliest days in a given industry, there is perhaps no degree more powerful for ensuring continued success than the Master’s in Business Administration. This degree comes in a number of different forms, including those that concentrate on management, executive leadership, international business, or entrepreneurship. Business owners can pick the discipline that best suits their needs, learning the skills required to grow their business.

MBA courses are far more in-depth than their undergraduate equivalent, and the amount of research that goes into this degree will give business owners unparalleled insight into growth, opportunity, and management improvements, that will help them cultivate happy employees, satisfied customers, and more chances at marketplace advancement.

Plenty of Ways to Prepare for Business Ownership

Whether it’s a focus on management, crunching the numbers, or communicating with employees and customers, today’s undergraduate and graduate degrees offer aspiring business owners plenty of options. Be sure to pick the degree and the concentration that best matches with the business’ needs, its market, and its potential for future bumps in the road, and rest of the pieces will likely fall into place over time.

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