If you already work as a web designer or web developer, you have the technical skills to succeed in your field. But even the most talented designers and developers have a hard time switching to entrepreneurship. This new phase of your life or career requires different skills, as you cannot succeed as an entrepreneur without an understanding of how business and management work. An MBA (Master of Business Administration) gives you the business acumen that is required to start and run a successful web agency business. But is it a necessity?
An MBA Teaches You the Right Entrepreneurial Attitude
It is possible to start and run a successful web agency without a business degree or even an MBA; some have done it. However, it was through sheer will, determination and grit and they also had to learn hard lessons along the way. This should not be the path that you follow, especially if you are thinking of starting this business while you are holding down a successful web design or developer career.
Entrepreneurship requires that you have a high appetite for risk and the right attitude to succeed. Both attributes could be part of your personality, and education helps hone and grow these personal attributes. It exposes you to how modern businesses work and influences your need to take risks to succeed.
If you already have the drive and passion required to start a web agency, an MBA will confer you the strategic and technical skills you will need to make it successful. An MBA will also arm you with the experience required to be a better business leader.
Exposing You to How Entrepreneurship Works
An MBA teaches you what you need to know about business without having to take the risk before you start learning. Business schools now offer numerous entrepreneurship courses to help upcoming entrepreneurs. These are usually hands-on experiential courses that expose you to numerous entrepreneurial activities. These can include finance, making financial decisions, developing business ideas, marketing, financial strategies and so much more. The different pathways you can choose when you enrol for an online MBA at Aston University, for example, expose you to a narrow or broad understanding of what is required to be a successful entrepreneur when you start your web agency.
Gain the Skills Required to Own a Business
An MBA also gives you the skills you need to own the business and not just run it. You will be exposed to the full breadth of the degree and be taken deeper to better understand how various aspects of owning a business work.
A deeper understanding of the different topics will help you know what to do in different scenarios in your new business. For example, you will learn how to develop and sustain a new business, create business plans, and manage employees by being a good business leader.
Helping You Form Business Connections
An online MBA equips you with the skills and knowledge you need to run a business successfully. However, knowledge and skills are not the only things you get out of completing the programme. MBA students get the opportunity to meet and network with other aspiring entrepreneurs. These may be people who share the same interests with you or those from diverse backgrounds who have different interests and experiences.
Being exposed to so many people makes it much easier to find people you might want to add to your team once you start your web design agency. This level of networking, relationship-building and interaction can prove to be beneficial in the future.
Having these connections also means you have support when you need it in the future. This support can come from peers who can give you advice on how to grow and steer your business, or mentors who can help you take your web agency to the next level. Additionally, you get access to a network of alumni who you can rely on in the future.
Get Space for Business Staging
In a world where it is becoming increasingly challenging to start a business, graduates might need some space to hone their skills before they decide to venture outside on their own. Fortunately, many universities and business schools now take learning out of the classroom. They do this by connecting graduates to start-ups that require candidates with the skills gained during the MBA programme.
Incubator programmes and business accelerators give graduates the perfect opportunity to work with mentors to come up with business ideas, learn to grow these ideas into viable businesses and then turn these ideas into reality. Since you are already interested in starting a web design agency, you can work with a mentor who can show you how to get things going.
Some business universities also run competitions to see which students can come up with the best business ideas. You can shape and streamline your idea to focus on a niche or an underserved area to give yourself a chance at winning the available prizes.
Opportunity to Refine Business Ideas
Even with a business idea in mind, you need to learn how to merge the skills and knowledge you acquire with the idea to make it workable. Enrolling in an MBA programme helps you learn how to apply the skills you earn to improve upon your business idea so that it has a better chance of being successful once you graduate.
Additionally, students who complete the MBA programme start their businesses in a stronger position than those who do not. This is because they have developed essential business leadership, research and managerial skills that are required to run a company in reality rather than hypothetically.
Lastly, MBA students who enrol with an idea in mind get a lot more time to think about their idea. They get about two years to put in place everything from business development to financing. Even if you already started a business, it’s still not too late to pursue this degree, as there are MBA distance learning programs you can take.
An MBA helps you learn to think like an entrepreneur, arms you with the skills and knowledge you need to own and run a business, and gives you access to a support group that could be instrumental in the success of your business. All of these are powerful benefits that you can take advantage of before and after starting your new web agency.