One of the most popular reasons to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree is to start a business. In a 2021 survey of over 500 business school students, more than 85 percent of respondents said they were considering entrepreneurship as a current or future career path.1 We spoke with Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota alumni member Colin Helfenstein about his experience as a business owner who went back to school for his MBA.
For Colin, earning an MBA was about planning for future success. He explains how the flexibility of the online MBA program from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota allowed him to manage and grow his company. Having graduating with his MBA in the spring of 2024, Colin also has valuable advice to share with those interested in pursuing the program.
Colin’s Professional Journey
Soon after earning his undergraduate degree, Colin started a commercial cleaning company with a friend. As the business grew, he realized that an MBA program could give him advanced expertise to run his company now while also preparing for a successful future. “The business is doing well. Once I realized that the company was a viable thing for me to do, I said, okay, let me get my MBA. If the company were to fail or we were to sell the company, I could go on and do something at the equivalent level,” he said.
“In addition to having successful self-employment experience, I can back it up with formal education.”
Choosing the Right Online MBA Program
Colin considered several factors when choosing the right MBA program for his goals. He looked for a university known for high academic quality, with no GMAT requirement, that was accessible to working students who preferred self-led learning. “Saint Mary’s is an accredited and established university – that’s a big thing for me. It’s a very practical program if you already have experience or are already involved in business and want to enhance your skill set. It’s an excellent program for people who are already in the workforce. And I would say it doesn’t even matter the industry,” he said.
Colin also found the skills he gained in the MBA program transferable to multiple areas of his life. “[I learned to do] SWOT analysis, risk management and things that are useful for more than just the business world. There’s a lot of transferability. You might learn something in risk assessment for business and be able to [apply it to] your personal finances. I would recommend Saint Mary’s,” he said.
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Career-Driven MBA Coursework
Throughout his program, Colin found that coursework helped him build a managerial skill set that was financially valuable as a business owner. “I oversee expenses, revenues and internal decision-making. It’s my business partner and myself, so I’m [responsible for] half of the decision-making. Managerial accounting was probably one of the more useful classes because it broke down how to make income statements from scratch, how to do balance sheets and what goes into making these different reports.
“And taking this MBA program has saved our company so much money because we haven’t had to hire someone for general accounting, for example,” he said.
Colin found the curriculum of Saint Mary’s online MBA program’s general business courses to be directly applicable to the daily functions of his business. “Taking these MBA classes and being able to close the tab on my homework and then pull up my company information and plug in directly what I just learned from my classes . . . has completely transformed how we do our internal accounting and even how we make decisions. The leadership and general business courses were useful for taking a step back and looking at our organization from a bird’s eye view. It’s also helped us to understand not just how much revenue we’re making but what that revenue means we can do in a month or six months or a year from now,” he said.
The ability to continue working while earning his degree has been especially beneficial for Colin because he can apply his studies in real-time. “It has made us a much stronger competitor, considering we started from nothing and then three years later we’re [almost to] double-digit employees. It’s been very, very helpful to take the classes and be running a company at the same time,” he said.
The Saint Mary’s Online Experience
The flexible, online MBA program format was essential for Colin’s success. “If it was a more restrictive schedule, I probably wouldn’t be in the program, or at least it would be taking me a lot longer to finish. In addition to being self-employed, I have a family, I’m involved in the community. I have a very busy schedule, and I’m able to jump on and do [coursework] if I have time at 10 a.m., 10 p.m. or sometimes 1 a.m., whenever I have time to get to it. I know that my schoolwork is right where I left it, and I don’t have to deal with missing class or having to be in my seat at a certain time – and of course, I’m not commuting [to campus],” he said.
“I have a very busy schedule, and I’m able to jump on and do [coursework] if I have time at 10 a.m., 10 p.m. or sometimes 1 a.m., whenever I have time to get to it.”
In addition, the option to take breaks from his program if needed gave Colin peace of mind as a busy working adult. “If I said hey, I need to take time off and come back in eight weeks, even just knowing that that is an option has been helpful. If I need to delay temporarily and come back to it later, knowing that I can do that has [taken] some of the stress off because I know if something comes up, it’s not going to completely set me back,” he said.
Though the program is grounded in flexibility, there are group projects and other opportunities for collaboration with fellow students built into the curriculum. Colin found this combination of learning experiences beneficial. “All the classes that I’ve taken have been open-ended enough where you can make it [your own]. We also do discussion posts to respond to our classmates. It was very interesting to see the different professional experiences [other students had]. Maybe they had a career or they’re changing careers . . . it was very interesting to see those differences play out,” he said.
Earn an MBA Your Way
If, like Colin, you’re ready to pursue an accessible, accredited Online MBA program, Saint Mary’s offers a degree that prepares students for success in leadership roles across a wide range of industries. Our program also features 13 optional graduate certificates that allow you to specialize your studies and align your coursework with your career goals. You can waive two MBA courses if you add a certificate to your program. Choose from:
- Artificial intelligence
- Healthcare analytics
- Individual and team leadership
- Nonprofit management
- Project management
- And more
Whether you want to start your own business or advance in your current role, you can complete your degree in two years or less while learning in a flexible format designed for working professionals. Learn more about what a Saint Mary’s Online MBA can mean for your career.
Source
- Illuminate Ventures. Today’s MBA Student is Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur. January 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2024 from https://illuminate.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Illuminate-Ventures-Whitepaper_Todays-MBA-is-Tomorrows-Entrepreneur.pdf.
