Did you ever build and work a lemonade stand when you were young? If you did, and although you probably didn't think about it at the time, but you were a self-employed entrepreneur who handled almost every aspect of business administration yourself. In terms of financing, you asked your parents for enough money for lemons. For production, you squeezed the lemon juice and mixed it with water and sugar. For marketing, you set up your table and made a sign, maybe posted signs around the neighborhood and told your family and friends to come by. In operations and sales, you sat behind the table for hours and helped refresh your customers. Even for human resources, you perhaps get some friends to help you out and then compensated them with a cut of the share, or by giving them unlimited access to your freshly squeezed lemonade.
Operating a lemonade stand is easy, despite having to multi-task almost every single aspect of running a business on your own. This is not to say that it is impossible to be self-employed as you get older and move into more competitive markets, but it takes more than relying on your parents and the community to get your business rolling. You may not want to spend years getting a university degree and memorizing business theories before you set out to work. And you may not be interested in choosing a specific field of business if you want to run the whole show. Getting a business administration diploma is a speedy way to getting the know-how and training to having your own business.
Studying business administration is like a fast-track through every aspect of running a business from financing to production to marketing and beyond. While this education is also perfectly suited for someone wanting to enter a large company, for those interested in working for themselves, here are a few examples of self-employed work, with examples of the many aspects of business administration training required:
- Language instructor or translator - learn how to set competitive rates, advertise your services, and do proper customer feedback.
- Management consultant - use your business administrative skills to help companies be more efficient and profitable, while managing your own business as a consultant.
- Talent agent - for models, actors or musicians, bridge the financial and contractual gap between the artistic and creative types and the business side of the industries they are trying to break into.
- Physiotherapist - acquire the space and equipment needed, get clients through advertising and industry referrals.
- Custom furniture maker - balance the cost of materials with the time and energy required to produce furniture and the individual costing for each customer.
- Videographer and video editor - figure out overhead costs of equipment computer software against individual client costs when quoting a job.
This is just the beginning of the list of self-employed work, but in reality almost anyone in any industry can work for themselves. The point is to demonstrate how some of these professions use different aspects of general business administration. What is important about the right training overall is knowing how to balance your own time, financial means and physical capabilities with your ambitions.
