One of the most liberating aspects of owning your own company is that you don’t have to have any particular credentials or degrees. However, having a degree could really assist you while running your own company for many different reasons, so even if you aren’t required to have one, it might be beneficial to get one anyway.
Having a degree can tremendously benefit your company, no matter what the industry or what kind of business you run. There will always be exceptions, and there are plenty of examples of renowned business people who don’t have degrees but have done very well, but for the most part, having that degree will only help to improve your company. Here are some of the reasons why.
Your Back-Up Plan
When you launch a company, you don’t want it to fail, and you probably won’t even consider the possibility. Hopefully, you will be successful, but many new, small companies do fail, and if that happens to you, you must have a strategy for what to do next. Perhaps this isn’t what happens, but instead, you start your own company and don’t like it as much as you thought you would; maybe you’d rather have a boss and work for someone else.
If you have a degree and have taken the time to study for something useful like a masters in data science online, then you’ll have plenty of choice. You will be able to find work if your company fails or you choose to close it down. If this were to happen and you didn’t have the qualifications to get another job or understand what went wrong, your future could be limited.
As well as this, having a degree and knowing that you can fall back on another profession if necessary will make business choices simpler – you will be able to take calculated risks without worrying so much about the result. You can’t be irresponsible, but being able to take these chances because of the safety net you’ve established will allow your company to flourish in many cases.
Additional Knowledge
Earning a degree is one component of your education, but there is much more that you will pick up as you go along, and it is these abilities, rather than the degree itself, that will be most helpful in your company. For example, you will need to be organized in order to work, study, and spend time with your friends and family – if you spend too much time doing one or the other, you will discover that you are losing out on learning or socializing, which is neither desirable.
Another skill you will acquire while pursuing your degree is research. When you’re starting a company, you’ll need to study the best industry to work in and how to get started. You’ll need to do some research on your target demographic and how to advertise to them. In business, much study is needed to get ahead of the competition and to keep moving forward in your own right.
Time management is another essential skill that you will acquire while obtaining your degree. You can easily create issues for yourself, your clients, and your suppliers if you aren’t able to manage your time well in business.
There are, in fact, a plethora of talents that you can pick up at college or via online schooling. Having these talents and the expertise to put them to use will offer you an advantage in business and allow you to stay ahead of the competition.
Connections and Networking
When you start a company, it will be difficult to expand quickly unless you have a large network of helpful contacts to talk with and work with. These relationships may be what pushes your company to success, and therefore could be precisely what you need right from the start.
When you’re at college, it’s easier to make these connections. You will meet people who are similar to you and share your interests. They will be interested in learning about your company, and you may be able to get fresh ideas and perhaps financial assistance from them. The connections you make at college will come from a wide variety of backgrounds. They may already be employed, or they may know of others who can assist you. You could even set up a partnership with someone you went to college with or with a friend or family member of theirs they can put you in touch with. Sometimes it’s more about who you know than what you know, and when you’re starting a company, this is more true than ever.
The Money Problem
It makes no difference what kind of company you want to establish; every new venture needs capital to get off the ground. True, you may start a company with very little money, but the more money you have behind you, the simpler it will be, and you will be able to expand faster since you will have money for promotion and will not have to grow organically (which is fine but takes a lot longer).
A degree could help you get the funding you need to get your company off to a good start. To begin with, you can get a decent job straight out of college. Even if you are determined to start your own company and have plans in place to do so, working for a while first will allow you to save some money. Alternatively, you could start your company on the side and not have to worry about an income for it, allowing you to put all of your ‘free’ money towards marketing and supplies.
A college degree will also be useful if you decide to create a business plan and submit it to a lender in order to borrow money for your company. A degree demonstrates respectability and trustworthiness. It will show that you took the time to learn and produce something valuable – in other words, if you worked hard back then, you are just as likely to work hard today (and that means your lender will get their money back more quickly). It also proves that you have given your business careful consideration. You might have begun when you graduated from high school, for example, but you waited to complete your degree and didn’t rush into things. This is another bonus.
