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Choose a Business Degree for a New Future |  |
MBA Grads: Small Businesses Make Big Careers
April 10, 2007
by Richard Barrington
Business Programs Columnist
Perhaps you are already pursuing a business administration degree, or even just considering business administration as a possible course of study. Either way, your ultimate goal is the job market. While your first thoughts might turn to the Fortune 500, you should also consider that small businesses are fertile ground for jobs and might be a perfect fit for your business administration degree.
Engine of Growth
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses collectively are a huge engine of economic growth. As such, a small business might represent your best chance to put your business administration degree to work.
The Small Business Administration defines a "small business" generally as anything with 500 or fewer employees. While that would represent a small fraction of a multi-national corporation's workforce, the Small Business Administration's statistics demonstrate that the sheer number of small businesses readily makes up for their modest size individually.
Business Administration is Booming
According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses make up half the U.S. private sector workforce. More importantly to recent or future graduates, small business have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs over the past decade. Finally, small businesses tend to be more entrepreneurial, as represented by the fact that they generate 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large firms.
Flexibility of Business Administration Skills
There are a couple of reasons why small firms are a good fit with business administration skills:
- One of the fundamental challenges facing a small business is formalizing the organizational structure, something that calls for business administration talent and training.
- Small businesses represent a wide cross-section of industries. Because of this, you will have more flexibility finding a job if you have skills which apply across different industries rather than being pigeon-holed into one industry. Business administration applies across the spectrum.
The vitality of small businesses is good news for anyone approaching the job market, and it is also a reason to consider a business administration degree.
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About the Author:
Richard Barrington is an author and freelance writer. He has written a manuscript on business communication entitled "That's Not What You Said!" and a novel entitled "Spinning (out of control)." Previously, he spent over 20 years as head of client services and corporate communications for Manning & Napier Advisors, Inc., an independent investment advisory firm. Richard graduated magna cum laude from St. John Fisher College with a BA in Communications in 1983. In 1990, he earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the Association of Investment Management and Research (now the "CFA Institute").
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