Education

[Sarre]

Hi there, i'm new to the forums because i was in search of advice from actual entrepreneurs on what would be the best suited area of college education i should study that will be the most beneficial.

I am just about to start studying at University in Western Australia where i live.
I have a few options on what i would like to study that could give me a good base education for getting into running my own businesses.

Entrepreneurship & Accounting (Double major)
Accounting & Business Law (Double major)
Applied Finance & Commercial Law (Double major)
Finance & Business information systems (Double major)

I'm not sure if studying entrepreneurship as a degree would be a good choice, as i think learning two solid areas like accounting and business law may be more beneficial?

Applied Finance and Commercial law i think both those studies are a little... "gimped" but i'm not too sure.

Finance & Business Information Systems would be more for me getting a high paying secure job then later using money to invest most likely in real estate development.

Any suggestions?

[akula]

Well..ok
I've got both business and law degrees, plus a background in startups..

Don't do the law major. It's a useless major. It doesn't qualify you do to any legal work, and all the law you need for professions like accounting and finance will already be taught to you in their respective majors. If you wanna do law, study at postgrad.

Do "Finance & Business information systems", that's a perfect major for work in financial services...undergrad degrees are all about risk management and receiving the kind of education that's valued in the job market. Quasi-law majors are not valued. Acc/Finance double majors, on another hand, are valued.

P.S. needless to say that the entrepreneurship major is an irrelevant choice at the moment. time wise, you're not a stage in your career to study entrepreneurship, and if you are gonna study the thing, you're best to do it at postgrad level at a specialised school like swinburne

[Sarre]

But if i did Finance and Business Information Systems, that would set me up nicely for a job within a company but i'm not sure if thats what i want to do.

I'd prefer to study an area that will give me a good understanding on how to build my own company from ground up or "start ups", i assume you get that knowledge from experience. I've got no idea what-so-ever where to start when it comes to starting or running a business.
So i'm trying to find the best possible majors that will give me the best understanding about starting and running a business.

Unless working within a company using a degree like Finance and Business information systems gave me experience that could be useful for starting and running my own business?

[akula]

well..sure, I understand..
let me kind of break it down..

1. if you wanna learn startup skills or what ever, don't do it at uni..the much better and cheaper alternative is to go through centerlink's NEIS program...they'll pay you to take small business training. if you want more training, do it at MBA level.

2. undergraduate degrees are a risk management product. they're there so you have a career to fall back on...and that's what you need to have right now - a safety net. that's a key startup skill in it self - risk management (having a plan B)

3. one thing you'll find in your studies of how entrepreneurship works is that "starting your own business" is a throughly stupid (i.e. "irrational") decision (from the financial, as well as other perspectives). the only circumstances where it makes sense for people to leverage into worthless equity (aka "start a business") is if the entrepreneur is exploiting insider information. insider information is something that's accumulated when entrepreneurs work for other companies. the other common (albeit, incorrect) word for it is "insight". it's improbable to have a sucessful startup if you're foreign to the industry.

4. successful startups are incubated within other sucessful startups...companies like paypal, ebay, sun, msoft, google, cohlear, realestate.com.au act as ecosystems where entrepreneurs meet, build trust, experience, capital and networks which are then used to start new generations of companies..for example, take a second to query the history of how the cofounders of the companies I mentioned met and started their businesses.

...so, if you wanna start a sucessful company, history tells us that it's only gonna happen if you plug into a sucessful startup ecosystem like austral shipping ltd, or other great companies..take this as a matter of fact: in australia, if you're an entrepreneur with a capital intensive technology company - you better have the right names on your CV or no one's gonna talk to you...you'll be treated as an ecosystem outsider.

overall: look, I know you wanna do the whole "let me just run out and do startups" thing..but that's only because (most likely) you're young, impatient and reckless. it's a great time to be alive though! my suggestion is that you do your entrepreneurship education through experiential learning programs like YAA or NEIS rather than university.

[Cole Taylor]

I didnt see anything regarding management or maketing, do they still teach such things?

I think the best bet is to know enough about each functional area to know where to go to get the answers if you plan on running a business. Certain areas like accounting are great...if you want to be an accountant; same thing with finance. Forget law (sorry JD pursuing crew) if you want to be a lawyer, prepare for four more years post grad.

[BusinessAdviser]

I'd have to agree with the above.

A pre-law minor, as it is often referred to, is worthless. Additionally, an entrepreneur major does not provide much value to you either.

For a double major, I would say look to maybe Finance and Marketing. These are two key areas for any business. Also, Finance will provide you a very good backup should a startup not work out immediately.

[Sarre]

Funny you say that Akula, my partner just quit her job working for a consultants company who does the business training for people on NEIS.
She recommended that i do it, i want to but i don't think it's allowed if i'm studying full time, i guess i'd have to wait till i finished studying?
Does NEIS teach you useful skills needed for startups do they?

Oh so thats what you meant by risk management, good point having a career as plan B.

There is a good reason to want to run out and do the whole "start up" thing though Akula, it's because there are so many people out there that became so rich from starting a business and the only way to go if you want to get rich is to hire employees rather than be hired by employers.

I may have a product idea, i have even made a draft prototype for it but having no idea how to start up a company and make a business out of this product totally beats me.
I get ideas like these all the time as well and thats why i wish to learn how to start up so that when the next opportunity arrises then i will be prepared.
As i have read in one of Donald Trump's quotes in his books "Chance favours the prepared".

I think i've been convinced out of doing a major in law, because i know i don't want to be a lawyer. I guess it was really just something that would be more interesting and fun than something useful.

Finance & Marketing sounds like it could be a possible choice actually Jmeng.

I don't think i'd want to do accounting, the only reason i'd do that is because Robert Kiyosaki said that Accounting & business law would be a very valuable degree to have when it comes to starting businesses. I guess not? according to you guys.

[akula]

sarre...i'll tell you the same thing that my advisers told me when i was your age; "expel these startup ideas out of your mind". i don't expect you to follow this advise in the same way that i didn't follow it. all this pop culture stuff you're reading is financial pornography. it has no correlation to reality, it's designed to play on your vices/weaknesses, and the people you are quoting make money from selling you this indispensable drivel.

do finance/acc/it, get a steady job, a steady girl friend, save a bit of money, go to raves, take a few trips overseas, go on an exchange, see bratislava, try to figure out who you are, pick up weird hobbies in community colleges, live your youth to the max and be happy. fuck all this startup crap. it's a perpetual cycle of emotional dissatisfaction. leave it for another time in your life. if you miss the opportunity to be an interesting, real, well adjusted person at this age (rather than some overworked, quote spitting, wealth creation groupie entrepreneur), you're not gonna get a second shot and your youth will be wasted