<p>If someone who got out of college and didn't get a "normal job" but started his one man business (by selling a product he invented/designed) and the business was a success. Later he wants to get into MBA but doesn't have "work experience", can the successful business count as work experience? Or is it a drawback?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, it should.</p>
<p>What if one opens some restaurant or night club after college ?Is this considered ''work experience ‘’ ?</p>
<p>how are ya’ll missing this? work = work experience</p>
<p>what ever you do excel at it that’s what the adcom are looking for</p>
<p>i will be the contrarian here. what the adcomms view as a “successful” business is very different than the average layperson. </p>
<p>if the business has 7 figure revenue and/or you raised substantial investment capital from a legit angel investor, VC firm, or incubator, it is probably on par with prestigious work experience. in fact, this is probably the BEST thing you can do.</p>
<p>if you are running a private tutoring service where you generate 40k revenue per year, I don’t think they will be particularly impressed. </p>
<p>a restaurant or nightclub is probably between these two extremes. I don’t personally think it would cut it for the truly elite MBA programs, to be honest. there are enough people doing the “good kind” of entrepreneurship to fill those slots, and there is a preference for safe candidates who will get well-paying jobs upon graduation. </p>
<p>a startup experience can truly make or break your application, but i think more often break. while business requires risk-taking, the mba programs do not reward it if/when your company fails, which is a huge probability.</p>
<p>Well, I said by selling a product invented/designed by oneself, through online ecommerce and to distributors. So we can take the restaurant/nightclub part out.</p>
<p>What if instead of a 7 figure revenue, it’s in the mid 6 figures? But most of that is profit. How about that?</p>
<p>well no one on this board can really tell you for sure. but if your business is that successful, why not seek outside investment to grow it even further? you’d make more profit AND cement the legitimacy for b-schools. </p>
<p>if this is not a current situation, i am highly skeptical of boot-legging a business from nothing to mid six figures w/o any outside investment. </p>
<p>anyway, i am sure mid six figures would be sufficient, although why go to b-school if that is the case? </p>
<p>and if this plan is something you will do only to get into b-school, it isn’t worth it period :)</p>
<p>If one has a successful business at the age of 23-4, he really doesnt need a highly prestigious b-school.He may go to an above average (top 10-15 ) school which will provide him with knowledge that will help him develop his business.We go to the so callesd ‘elite’ B-schools to get a more lucrative job.It<code>s more than clear that one who has a successful business won</code>t seek a job; he will only needs theoretical and practical knowledge that will help him expand.In that case, top B-school is not a ‘‘must have’’,e therefore work experiense is not that important since many MBA programs accept students with little or no WE.</p>