Welcome to the Friday edition of Spotlight on Business. I'm Kim Taylor. Today on Spotlight on Business we take a look at what's required to start a business in terms of two factors - education and experience. How do you know if starting a business is for you? Well, like anything, you figure it out one small step at a time. As they say, you don't eat a steak in one big bite, you cut it up into manageable pieces and eat it one bite at a time. And so it goes with determining the best course of action for any given opportunity or challenge. One small "bite" at a time. First, let's examine the role of and requirements for education. Do you need extensive, formal education in order to start a business? The short answer is no. The list of successful business people and statesman who dropped out of school, or never went at all, is quite long and includes the likes of Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, John D Rockefeller, and more. From more recent times, many of our best known company and industry leaders had little interest in formal education, or perhaps, formal education had little interest in them! While a formal education provides many benefits, it is not a hard and fast requirement for starting a business. That said, it does provide some distinct advantages. I see it as having two primary benefits. First is the knowledge and exposure it gives you. Going to school opens your mind to the possibilities, the pitfalls, and the untapped potential within any given industry or area of specialization. It allows you to leverage what's been done in the past and integrate the wisdom of those who have gone before you into your plans so that you can "leap frog" the early learning and maximize your opportunity now. Secondly, and equally important in my mind, is it gives you a solid pedigree. The truth of the matter is, you learn 75% of what you really need to know by actually doing it. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get others to give you the opportunity to prove yourself without having a formal "pedigree." In general, people like the safer bet and having your education gives people a higher level of comfort that you have the wherewithal to undertake the heavy lifting required for new opportunities and challenges. At a minimum, it gives them the ability to "put a check in the box." I always say, I received my first MBA in graduate school, my second as a consultant with IBM, and my third when I started my first company. Every step I took, in education and experience, paved the way for the next step. Both in my confidence and skills, and in the minds of others who then aided in opening doors for me to pass through. What if you don't have any or much formal education? Can you still do this? Absolutely! That's where experience comes in. As I said earlier, you learn 75% of what you need to know through experience. So, while education isn't necessarily a pre-requisite for starting a business, I would argue that experience is. Through your work and your volunteer experience you can amass the knowledge needed to understand planning needs, requirements for success, potential points of failure, and how to improve upon what exists today. Without this exposure though, how can you have sufficient perspective to successfully design, launch and operate a business? Learning curves can be very steep and in business, you don't always have the luxury of time to climb the first few hills. Prior experience mitigates that and gives you the "head start" needed to weather the tough spots as you go. How do you view the "requirements" for education and for experience? Do you feel one is more important than the other? Let me know what you're thinking @SpotlightTalk # requirements. For Spotlight on Business, I'm Kim Taylor. Download your free Next News "Heroes & Villains" Poster here: http://nextnewsnetwork.com/the-2013-heroes-villains-posters Donate USD: http://nnn.is/donate-dollars Donate BTC: http://nnn.is/donate-bitcoin LIVE: http://NextNewsNetwork.com Facebook: http://Facebook.com/NextNewsNet Twitter: http://Twitter.com/NextNewsNet Sub: http://NNN.is/the_new_media Meet the Next News Team: http://youtu.be/2QnNKwQ2WkY Hashtag: #N3 About: Next News Network's WHDT World News program airs daily at 6pm and 11pm Eastern on Comcast, DirecTV and Over-the-Air and Online at http://NNN.is/on-WHDT WHDT World News is available to 6 million viewers from South Beach to Sebastian, Florida and to 2 million viewers in Boston, Massachusetts via WHDN. WHDT broadcasts on RF channel 44 (virtual channel 9) from Palm City and is carried on cable TV channels 44 (SD) and 1044 (HD) by AT&T;, on cable channels 17 (SD) and 438 (HD) in West Palm Beach by Comcast, on satellite channel 44 (SD) in West Palm Beach by DIRECTV, and on WHDN-Boston which broadcasts on RF channel 38 (virtual channel 6) from the Government Center district in downtown Boston. More about WHDT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHDT

• published: 12 Apr 2014
• views: 482