hi ash,
When starting a small company, you are the company.
This means that your family jewels are on the chopping block if things go wrong.

Initially you do not want to hire a Marketing/Sales or Financial person.
You should wear their hats as well as being the Managing/Technical Director.

Choose a company name, write up The Articles, defining the purpose of the company.
The help and advice of an Accountant to draw this up is a good idea, also he will Register your company.
If your company succeeds you will need an Accountant to prepare and submit the Annual returns.

Get some Business cards and a small quantity of stationary printed.

Do your own market surveys, ie: see what is already in market place that your product will out perform and out sell.

Set up visits to what you would consider as prospective clients, see what they need to improve their business.
Do not disclose too much detail of your planned product range.

Once you have sufficient information, prepare a draft business plan, your Accountant can help with this, that you can present to prospective company Bank manager.
I would advise you not to use the same Bank for your personal account.

When setting up a company Bank account, which in no doubt require an overdraft facility or loan, be prepared to give securities, usually property.

The above is just a very small list of what is needed to get started.

Ask if you have any queries.

E

 

You've answered your own question -- if you have seen people who are successful in business even without an MBA, then isn't the answer to the question, "Is MBA really necessary to start your own business," obvious?

If you want to start your own business in 5 to 10 years, then make a point of spending the next 5 to 10 years learning how to start and run a business. You can get a lot of that from just paying attention to how the people that run the company you work for run it -- observe both the good things and the bad things that they do and learn from them. Pay particular attention to the little details. How do they treat employees? How to they treat customers? What are the budget items that they care about? What do they do for marketing? Learn as much as you can about "best practices" from people that are doing it well. Read as many books as you can about starting and running a small business. If you find that you don't like doing that, then perhaps the whole thing isn't something that you are cut out for.

One the biggest suggestions I would offer is to avoid a very common fatal mistake among people that start up a business -- they assume that the entire world is going to want to buy their product just because it's a product that they think the entire work should want to buy. Try to identify an existing niche in the market that is currently under served -- don't think that you are going to be able to create a new niche that doesn't currently exist today. Yes, it happens, but very rarely and the list of companies that failed and ruined the people that tried to go that route is far, far longer.

Also, don't go into debt to start your business. Most new businesses fail and, in part, that's because most business starters insist on borrowing money to start the business and thus don't have any breathing room from day one. You have five to ten years to save up the money needed to start your business. If you can't start it with that kind of lead time to save the start up funds, then it's a sign you aren't that serious about it in the first place. Also, by using money that you have worked for and saved you will take an entirely different view when it comes time to spending it on the start up and you will generally make much better decisions than you would if you were using someone else's money.

Thanks for the detailed description. Do you recommend any books ?

 

Do you recommend any books ?

The books I'd recommend are the ones you'd read while getting your MBA.

 

I did it.... I don't have an MBA... ( A least I don't think I have....) 12 years and still going....

As Eric said... First two years are ulcer times.... If you don't get one, you'll be fine...

 

hi ash,
When starting a small company, you are the company.
This means that your family jewels are on the chopping block if things go wrong.

Initially you do not want to hire a Marketing/Sales or Financial person.
You should wear their hats as well as being the Managing/Technical Director.

Choose a company name, write up The Articles, defining the purpose of the company.
The help and advice of an Accountant to draw this up is a good idea, also he will Register your company.
If your company succeeds you will need an Accountant to prepare and submit the Annual returns.

Get some Business cards and a small quantity of stationary printed.

Do your own market surveys, ie: see what is already in market place that your product will out perform and out sell.

Set up visits to what you would consider as prospective clients, see what they need to improve their business.
Do not disclose too much detail of your planned product range.

Once you have sufficient information, prepare a draft business plan, your Accountant can help with this, that you can present to prospective company Bank manager.
I would advise you not to use the same Bank for your personal account.

When setting up a company Bank account, which in no doubt require an overdraft facility or loan, be prepared to give securities, usually property.

The above is just a very small list of what is needed to get started.

Ask if you have any queries.

E

Thanks for the detailed description. I am going to save this for my future reference.

 

hi ash,
I ran my own small successful international company for many years, until I retired at 72 years.
There are so many pitfalls and problems that an newcomer can stumble into.

One of my prime directives is to never start a business in partnerships, especially with friends.
Keep overall personal control of the business and staff, you are the one taking all the risks.

If you have any questions about running a small company please ask.

E

 

hi ash,
I ran my own small successful international company for many years, until I retired at 72 years.
There are so many pitfalls and problems that an newcomer can stumble into.

One of my prime directives is to never start a business in partnerships, especially with friends.
Keep overall personal control of the business and staff, you are the one taking all the risks.

If you have any questions about running a small company please ask.

E

I will definetly ask, May I know briefly, what kind of business you have run ?

with how many people did you start with and how many people were their after you retired?

At what age have you started your business? I am currently 26 so its important for me to know how did you enter the market ? Have you entered with your own ideas implementing on product or have you hired engineer to do the product you have imagined?

Are you a hardware/ software / embedded systems engineer?

and any webportal of your company please?

 

hi,
May I know briefly, what kind of business you have run ?
Look at the Information in my Profile

with how many people did you start with and how many people were their after you retired?
I started with two people, six people when I retired, sometimes eight at busy periods

At what age have you started your business? I am currently 26 so its important for me to know how did you enter the market ?
I started the company aged 50, I had been a Director of electronics engineering companies previously

Have you entered with your own ideas implementing on product or have you hired engineer to do the product you have imagined?
All our products and software were our own designs. We used outside contractors for producing the metal work, enclosures to our designs.
Design, Programming, Assembly and testing were done in house.

Are you a hardware/ software / embedded systems engineer?
Responsible for the hardware and software design

and any webportal of your company please?
We advertised on the web and posted operating and technical manuals for our products.

We sold directly to clients in the UK and abroad, also thru overseas agents, Holland, Singapore, Israel, South Africa.

E

 

Many years ago during my youth, I was working for a large multinational company – and for a short while I was dating a young lady who was taking an MBA as an evening class (she happened to work for a local council).

From our discussions, it became clear to me that the source of most of the management bullsh!t fed to the staff where I worked had its origin in an MBA course.

 

.. the source of most of the management bullsh!t fed to the staff where I worked had its origin in an MBA course.

And most of the staff bullshit fed to management had its origin in myth, superstition, gossip and malice.

Most engineering you see practiced had its origin in the classrooms where those engineers learned their skills. Why would you expect business management to be different?

 

 

 

It's fine for one discipline to chide the other, and Dilbert is great at being somewhat even-handed in his treatment of both engineering and management. He goes where the joke is.

When it becomes a problem is when it goes too far and one side seriously dismisses as useless the knowledge and skills that the other has. Your post felt a little like that. It may have been more of a joke and caught me at a bad moment.

The original question is whether an MBA is needed to start a business. Of course it's not. Is an engineering degree needed? No again, but if you expect to compete as an engineering firm, it's probably a good idea. Ditto for the MBA - there are business situations that would be a lot less trouble if you have the specialized knowledge to deal with them.

 

I don't think it's a necessity. I know many entrepreneurs who started their own business without any formal higher education. But I totally support any kind of business education 'coz a proper education can equip a person with better business skills and knowledge.

 

I've heard a few people say that business courses run for engineers at universities compact an entire MBA into 1 semester that could be a possible option. But as the majority seem to be saying i would not have thought it essential.

Knowing local business practice, filling in company tax forms, accounts etc. is always good to know, but then you are best off with a competent book keeper to keep everything in order anyhow. My advise would be go with your strength if you find the subject interesting then look into it further, but otherwise concentrate on what interests you most, and try to find good people to assist you in the areas you don't have the knowledge, and learn from them as you go. You might also get lucky and find someone heading towards retirement who is interested in mentoring you while you get started.

 

I started my MBA at a prestigious Boston school. But a change in family status detoured me and I never completed the degree.

But I can summarize what I learned during my brief sojourn, that went beyond all of my classes. You have no idea what you don’t know.

A one hour seminar won’t teach you what you don’t know. It WILL give you a false sense of competence.

That was forty years ago. Since then, I’ve managed several successful enterprises and still have hope to start my own company during my lifetime. However, note that I’ve had forty years of learning. And one of those lessons while starting up is to let loose of the product, while planning and learning how to create an environment in which it can be made into a profit successfully.

In my case, I can create and sell. But I need a financial partner to check on my grand schemes. You might be able to manage your company financially and create a family of products. But maybe selling them is not your strong point.

To simplify this point, you need a dreamer, a builder, a narrator and a realist. Are you all three? It’s a hard combo to find. Gates was the dreamer; Ballmer was the narrator. Jobs was the dreamer and narrator; Wozniak was the builder.

It eventually takes a team. If your starting out, start with the minimum amount of people to fill these archetypes.

 

Depends on the quality of your MBA. Most programs, especially in developing countries (I have 3 very intense experiences that lead me to believe so) are merely a rubber stamp and you graduate with a very basic idea that doesn't really put you above the rest.

Other programs I've seen take you into spinning an actual business. A year running, even a bound-to-fail, educational, business is worth about 5 years of theory.

Finance, company law, accounting and marketing have an introductory level, where you understand the principals but this is a mere fraction of the actual knowledge that is required to do these things professionally. For example, you can learn accounting practice methods but, once you start doing real world accounting, things get complicated: special reporting standards for your country, tax, payroll, book-keeping for other (non-tax) complience requirements...
Most MBA won't give you that but only a starting point and a "thumb in the wind" idea how to get these done without going to jail.

In other words, if you were hoping that spending a few years for an MBA will cover you for these - you are wrong. It's both too much time for things you won't need and too little time for doing each ONE professionally.

Also, an MBA will do nothing to your enterpreneurial spirit. You either have it or not.
It will do very little to your business sense. You could use that time to observe who makes money and who goes back living with their parents.
But that you can do without the 4-5 years.