Which Major would be better to open your own business?
Economics?
Finance?
Information Systems?
?
Not Econ. You want to take general business classes – accounting, marketing, finance, business law, operations, business ethics, info systems, maybe something related to supply chain, etc. Your concentration or major might depend on what type of business you are thinking about. I have a small business and found Econ classes mostly useless in what I needed to know day to day.
Entrepreneurship but not all colleges offer it as a major. It will cover all disciplines as well as address startup issues.
My husband and I are engineers and opened our own business. 
We just talked to lots of people for a couple of years before we started. The business end was fairly simple compared to the engineering we do on a daily basis.
I’d say major in whatever you want/whatever interests you but you can take any relevant coursework (entrepreneurial coursework) on the side. I know several business owners and none of them were business majors.
It really depends on
- What kind of business it is.
- Whether you have a good sense of business as it is.
What kind of business?
I don’t understand how you can successfully open your own business just because you want to open your own business. I think that you need to have some idea what the business is going to do. Then you need to gain the knowledge that you need to do that, whatever “that” is. This will tell you what to study.
I know someone who has their own business because they are a lawyer in a small town. I recently talked to a civil engineer who has his own business (designing septic systems for houses – you can guess why I was talking to him). I also recently talked to a plumber who has his own business. The educational requirements for each of these are radically different.
Business usually start with a skill the owner has or a need identified. Sometimes the idea is brand new, but you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to, say, open a donut shop.
If you have time, go visit the Small Business Development Center in your area. It is usually affiliated with a state university. They are partially funded by the SBA and provide free business consulting and use of their resources, a business library, and low cost classes, including classes on how to do a business plan.
Ours had binders on all these different business and industries that would be a head start to understanding how things operate. For example, the books broke out the neighborhood income levels needed to support a car wash compared to area for DIY car bays or at home car washing.
@DadTwoGirls I suppose if you’re a partner in the business who is more of the administrative/bookkeeping side and the other person is the ideas person, then you can start it without knowing anything. Bit of a risk though lol.
^It’s really not that complicated these days. QuickBooks Pro walks you through all the steps. Then we have an accountant we can call anytime if we have questions come up. QuickBooks Pro even takes care of payroll and figures out how much to withhold for taxes. Neither my husband nor I have ever had any bookkeeping classes or accounting experience. We’ve managed to stay afloat for almost 18 years!
Everytime you post I am reminded of how cute your dog is.
And that’s true, I did a QBO class a couple years ago and it was pretty simple stuff as long as your business isn’t too complicated.
A business owner needs a basic understanding of accounting and job costing. I met so many clients who were unable to accurately cost out their product or service and charged less than their expenses. They created their own business pyramid scheme, where they were counting on the next job to cover the costs for the prior job. Sloppy bookkeeping kept them from seeing the problem, especially if the business was growing quickly. High volume and too low/negative margins = business failure.
Well, I guess I have an advantage being an engineer - I’m good with numbers! My accountant says he appreciates how thorough and careful I am.
The very hardest part of business for us is slow-paying clients. For long jobs, I can say, “I’m not sending you any more drawings until you pay that late invoice.” Sometimes, though, that doesn’t help much. And then with clients who use us for only one short project, it can be very challenging to get paid. Yes, we do ask for retainers from people we haven’t worked for, but there’s still the rest of the bill that has to be paid.
And then we had one winner who paid us, then months later sent us an angry letter. He said his house renovation ended up costing a lot more than he had budgeted, and we should have known that. Uh, no, we’re not architects and we don’t estimate costs! He is an attorney, ack. We wrote him a logical, calm response and he sent us a second letter. Our attorney thought about it and suggested we ignore him. So we did and we haven’t heard anything more in six months. We don’t get paid enough for this nonsense!
It is amazing how bright, specialized people can have huge knowledge gaps. To date, the most brilliant mind I have encountered was a financial mess. He was smart enough to know when to get help, especially with aspects of the business he didn’t personally want to do.
@claudio1 - What kind of business do you want to open?
Well some more information from OP would be helpful. They’ve made 3 different threads and responded on none of them lol. OP is going to Villanova this fall though. With that being said, economics is within the b-school, and therefore they would take the same business core (I think) @intparent
But at the end of the day it really depends on the type of business lol. The vague question reminds me of Parks and Rec where they start entertainment 720 but it hemorrhages money until it goes out of business.
I own four small businesses with about a hundred employees. If you ever want to own a business or be an executive, you will be better at the job with an Accounting degree. You will be a better budgeter, manager, and more profitable if you can master your financials. Leave the bookkeeping to someone else, but having command of your numbers will make you successful. If I’m looking at a dozen resumes, an accounting degree stands out above a general business degree because I can see the candidate has displayed some vital business discipline. Of course, I have to interview him/her to make sure she can speak with humans and interact successfully. My ideal hire out of college is someone with an accounting degree who was in a fraternity or sorority. That gives me good initial insight into their skill set.
I own four small businesses with about a hundred employees. If you ever want to own a business or be an executive, you will be better at the job with an Accounting degree. You will be a better budgeter, manager, and more profitable if you can master your financials. Leave the bookkeeping to someone else, but having command of your numbers will make you successful. If I’m looking at a dozen resumes, an accounting degree stands out above a general business degree because I can see the candidate has displayed some vital business discipline. Of course, I have to interview him/her to make sure she can speak with humans and interact successfully. My ideal hire out of college is someone with an accounting degree who was in a fraternity or sorority. That gives me good initial insight into their skill set.