Whether they have years of experience or they are just beginning their journey in the marketplace, all entrepreneurs face some unique challenges during their career. While the advantages of being a trailblazer in business can be exciting with endeavors that may include discovering a new technology or marketing an innovative service, the dangers that are often inherent to a startup or small business should be considered as well, in order for the business professional to take a realistic view of the future. While it is important for the entrepreneur to remain focused on the vision of a successful business she is trying to create, here are a few real issues that entrepreneurs have to deal with along the way.
1. The Challenge of Starting Over
Many entrepreneurs get their start after years of working for an organization. Striking out on their own can mean leaving an established career with steady benefits and a more-predictable future. With age often comes a desire to settle and take less risks. While some entrepreneurs work to develop within the margins of their lives while staying employed with a steady job, the most noteworthy endeavors are often the ones that take a full-time commitment at some point and require leaving an established career in order to begin a new one.
2. The Challenge of Finding Funding
Ideas are expensive. Financing a startup or small business first means getting your innovation, product, or service in front of investors who can then make a decision on the product's marketability and feasibility for success. Entrepreneurs need networks to be as large as possible. Professionals with years of experience have a better opportunity at enjoying this while young professionals might have to start from scratch.
3. The Challenge of Decision-Making
This may be one of the greatest challenges an entrepreneur will face. As they often have yet to build any kind of a staff, they must make all decisions pertaining to vision, production, financing, marketing, and other facets of the business. This amount of pressure can easily have a negative impact on the moral of the entrepreneur and loneliness and discouragement can often set it.
The good news is there are some incredible resources out there for the modern entrepreneur, one of which in an online MBA in Entrepreneurship. These programs have been designed to address the specific challenges an entrepreneur will face and offer some incredible advantages that can help a business professional build a successful small business or start up.
With entrepreneur-specific courses like Strategic Innovation – Being a Strategic Innovator in a VUCA World, Fostering Creative Thinking, and Entrepreneurship: From Startup to Growth, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne delivers an online MBA with a concentration in Innovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship. All coursework for this affordable, nationally-recognized program can be completed 100% online. The degree also includes an integrated capstone final project designed to give entrepreneurs a controlled experience of building a successful business.
Another high-quality degree that offers the convenience and flexibility of distance education is the online MBA with an Entrepreneurship specialization delivered by the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This 45-credit hour degree offers students an excellent education from a respected business school. The Entrepreneurship-intensive courses included in this program are Advanced Negotiations for Managers, Customer Relationship Management, Data Management for Business Leaders, Digital Business Models: Creating Transformative Online Business Ideas, Entrepreneurship, Negotiations Theory & Practice, Personal Finance for Business and Professional Leaders, and Project Management.
Both of these programs have been designed to help the new or more established entrepreneur navigate their way through the challenges of building a successful business as an entrepreneur. Starting over in business is not easy, but investing in an online Entrepreneurship MBA program which can provide solid business theory, access to a large business network, and help shape a business professional's decision-making process can reap many incredible benefits in the future.
