What can you do with an associates degree?

**gbarriosjr** · 08-18-2008 08:02 PM

I am hoping to open my own automotive shop one day.

I'm 15 and currently attending a technical high school. I am in the auto mechanics shop, I'm in my 2nd year(2 more to go). When i graduate I plan attending a school called WyoTech, which is an automotive college. At this school they teach you a core automotive class then you choose a secondary class to further education in. This is my question there are 2 courses I would like to go into one being advanded automotive and the other being a buisness course. But when you graduate from the buisness course you graduate with an assosiates degree in buisness. Is an assosiates degree in buisness necesary to start a buisness of your own?

**andrewrichardgale** · 08-18-2008 08:16 PM

i would like to know this to. bump

**StealYourDreams** · 08-18-2008 08:45 PM

Nothing is required. Being armed with knowledge that the other guy doesnt have may give you a jump start though.

Wyotech, ITT, etc. are technical, or trade schools and prepare you for a specific area of expertise.

There's nothing stopping you from furthering your business education if that's the route you decide to take. This doesn't have to come from a university, but applying yourself in college, and not just procrastinating life on your parents dime, can take you far.

**Fanatik** · 08-18-2008 08:57 PM

well said. you don't need any degree to start a business... what type of automotive shop are you wanting to open? if you're going to WyoTech, I assume you want to be a mechanic? Those schools prepare you for a job; not neccessarily to begin your own business -- that is something you'll need to pursue on your own.

**pboychuk** · 08-18-2008 09:26 PM

I think going to a tech school to start an auto shop is a great idea. Owning an auto shop is a business in which you should have some knowledge of the trade and not just hire out all the work.

**Fanatik** · 08-18-2008 09:47 PM

agreed

my post may sound like i meant knowing about automotive mechanics wouldn't be beneficial, but it certainly is. your customers will expect you to be more knowledgable than them (and trust me - they do their homework!).

**byzantium** · 08-18-2008 10:35 PM

I've heard bad things about WyoTech, they tend to rip off their students apparently. If you have a Universal Technical Institute in your area you may check them out. Some community colleges have auto tech programs, I know that one in my area has a partnership with Ford. In California this is much cheaper than UTI, and you get the same basic training.

It seems to me that an auto repair business would be more successful in a semi-rural area where there is less competition. In my city we got a huge influx of immigrants from places like the Middle East where they'd work on the jeeps of the warlords and sheiks, and the first thing they did was buy an abandoned gas station (oodles of those around in immigrant neighborhoods, left over from the 70s gas crisis) and open a shop. The end result is that each shop owner is working with a very narrow market (such as a few Pakistani tribes or Ukrainian immigrants) and as a result the room for expansion is limited too.

You might try moving to a rural area and working on tractors. Farmers have their equipment break down, but finding a mechanic is hard because kids don't want to live in the boonies. Farm animal vets are in short supply due to this same idea-vet students want to tend to family pets in cities. If you can find a prosperous farming area that just had its tractor mechanic die of old age, and convince five of your friends from school to work for you, you could be a big fish in a small pond.

**goelephant** · 08-18-2008 11:13 PM

A degree isn't required to do anything (though I would prefer my doctors to have one). I myself don't have one and I'm doing just fine.

**AllBallz.Net** · 08-19-2008 08:38 PM

Necessary? No.
Helpful? Very much so.

**nocci01** · 08-19-2008 08:56 PM

No degree is required to own a business...or to become successful. That's pure ambition, determination, commitment and execution. Owning a business is a choice and succeeding in business is also a choice. I know many successful business owners that don't have a degree...although there's nothing wrong with having one...not required to have one to become successful!