Entrepreneurship is different from a normal business. When we term someone an entrepreneur today, we are defining somebody different from a typical business person. Entrepreneurs usually start their business with a fresh and innovative idea, which if successful, can be multi-bagger. However, it has an equal chance of failing, as the concept is new as opposed to a matured idea in regular business. It may not go as the owner of that idea had envisaged.
Does getting an MBA make someone a better entrepreneur?
The moot point is that the commercialization of a brilliant innovative idea of an entrepreneur cannot happen in a vacuum, but depends on several additional factors.
Do I need an MBA to run a business?
The entrepreneurship MBA programs go a long way in helping the candidate launch his idea into commercial production. In many cases, it provides the first round of funding from its coffer which may have some illustrious alumnus.
An entrepreneur has to build up an idea from scratch to a commercially viable product.
In most MBA entrepreneurship courses the core first-year subjects are those that enable candidates to oversee their business from any angle in the future.
Students learn the rules of accounting, double entry book-keeping, financial knowledge ratios, reading Annual reports, etc.
The inter-relationship between three segments of financial reports is demonstrated.
This helps the candidate with the ability to study not only his company reports and find out the grey areas but also equips him with the knowledge to study the financial statement of similar companies so that he can plan own business better.
Such entrepreneur MBA courses incorporate business law modules where legalities, intellectual property rights, proprietorship, partnership whether limited or otherwise are discussed. This makes a business innovator wanting to commercialize his plan, check out the legalities first.
Imagine somebody having a fabulous business plan, which unfortunately has already been thought about and patented or copyrighted by someone else. Unless the innovator is sure that the proposal he has, is clear from all legal hurdles, he cannot ask for funding in his business.
Bankruptcy is also an integral part of this course and helps you to have the preliminary idea of tiding over a difficult situation in case your venture fails, and you do not have enough to repay lenders.
Another crucial thing generally taught in the first year of entrepreneurship MBA is the breakeven analysis. This helps the owner to gauge the resources needed correctly. He can calculate the critical mass and plan the crucial price at which the business will attain the break-even point. Unless break-even is reached quickly, the startup will continue to burn cash of investors, which will ultimately die after a series of funding.
Apart from case studies, such courses incorporate an overview of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. To become successful, this is a must-have tool by which one gets to know and imbibe the temperaments, solutions, and attributes of successful startup owners in the face of adversaries.
In most of the cases, it’s natural that the innovator cannot fund more than the seed funding. For his venture based on an innovative idea, banks are generally reluctant to provide a full loan because of the uncertainty in getting returns. It’s here that the VCs (venture capitalists), HNIs (High Net worth Individuals) and PEs step in. They invest in ideas which they estimate to be multi-baggers in the future and provide manifold returns when commercialized.
However, for that angel funding the prospective candidate has to convince the VCs. A whole chapter in entrepreneurship MBA course is devoted to approaching a capitalist or equity investor who will be convinced to pour money to realize that idea into reality. For this, the entrepreneur needs to create an eye-popping business plan.
MBA programs in entrepreneurship stress on how to create the right business plan. It teaches how to measure the viability of the project, assessing its markets and its risks. Unless these factors are accounted for in a crystal clear and transparent way in the business plan, no investor will give a second look into the proposed startup, however attractive it might seem to be.
Entrepreneurship MBA from the Canadian perspective
Canada is a hotbed of entrepreneur MBA courses. Many universities of Canada do not stop at providing the course only. They also have a dedicated fund for bringing a startup to life. Of course, the idea should enthuse them.
Conclusion
Should entrepreneurs get an MBA? The probable startup owner may have an absolutely brilliant idea. However, if the entrepreneur wants to be a full-time owner of the company, he has to be initially master of all aspects of his startup. He has to have the working knowledge of finance; he has to be a part of the business plan because it is his plan that’s being executed; he has to build the organization from scratch until it can support outside professional management, etc. This is where the MBA degree pays off for entrepreneurs. Without joining the MBA program, he might have to sell his brilliant disruptive idea to somebody else having the above necessary resources and see his plan turn into gold by somebody else.
