Do You Need Education to Start a Business? 3 Lessons They Don’t Teach You in Business School

Nearly 4.4 million businesses are started each year, according to the Commerce Institute. If you are considering starting your own business, you may ask yourself at one point or another whether you need formal education, such as an MBA, to run your business. 

Unfortunately, getting an MBA doesn’t guarantee your success. There are many things they don’t teach you in a business school that you need to know as an entrepreneur. Do you need education to start a business? Some education, yes. But not an MBA. 

We interviewed Phill Pelto, Co-Founder of My FireStorm, on our YouTube channel, and he shared his insights into why building relationships is important for business and how you can start networking with clients and prospects. 

3 lessons they don’t teach you in business school

Lesson #1: Understand Your Objective 

The first thing you need to do is decide what your business objective is. What are you trying to accomplish? If you begin with the end in mind, then you will have a better chance of meeting the goal. 

Lesson #2: Build Relationships 

Relationships are a pivotal part of any business, regardless of what niche or industry your business is in. Relationship building involves networking and can help develop your business. 

Do you need the education to start a business? Not as much as you need strategic relationships with the right people. Networking with clients will help you grow rapport and trust as well as bring you more clients. 

In school, they will teach you to meet as many people as you can and tell them how you can help them and call this networking with clients. There’s nothing wrong with self-promotion or being your own cheerleader, but in reality, getting people to like you is far more important. 

You may wonder, if you are an introvert, can you still succeed in business? The reality is all you need to do is listen to people. Most love to talk about what is happening in their life. This will give you some insight into what they do and if they have needs that your business can help them with. People know other people, and when you focus on genuinely getting to know them, they are more likely to recommend you to someone they know. 

Related Read: The Key Differences Between Education-Based Selling and Traditional Sales Tactics

Lesson #3: Take Imperfect Action

One of the most underrated pieces of advice is to take imperfect action. Rarely someone who starts a business has everything figured out, even if they graduated from an expensive school with an MBA. Most people and startups are messy and imperfect. It’s important to keep going even if you feel like your business isn’t perfect because only through repetition and practice can you get better at what you do. 

Your business must get past the planning stage to be successful. You will learn best through some trial and error, so taking action, even imperfect action is the best thing you can do for your growing business. 

The Bottom Line

When it comes to a small business, you need to remember to form a clear objective, then start listening to people to build relationships and networks. It’s also crucial to take action even when it isn’t perfect. Doing these three things and repeating them will help your business flourish.