Choosing a Career in Business

Whatever career you may choose as a young person, or through a career change later in life, there is a good chance that career is "in business" in one way or another. If you choose to be a journalist, for example, if you are employed it will be by a business; a doctor in a private hospital is in a business. However, there is a big difference between being "in a business" than "in business" as a career. This article is for those considering a business career as such, as will the other related articles which will follow.

There are probably not many students who actually set out with the idea of a career in business; that is by comparison with those who consider a career in some specialism such as computing, advertising, finance and so on. Business is, indeed, a very broad term. Just about everything you see about you is a part of a business and a business sector. Even natural things, such as an ancient rainforest, can become part of a business if a travel company is arranging guided tours there.

There are some young people, though, who do really see themselves, in the future, participating in business as a career. The popularity of business management courses is a clear indication of that. Even so, at that stage in their life, a business career may have little real shape or structure in the student's thoughts.

It is likely that anybody considering a business career at a young age is thinking in terms of business management, so that will be the starting point for this series of articles.

Elements of Business Management

Every part of a business, whether a company or sole proprietorship, needs to be managed. It is poor management that leads to business failure, even at a corporate level. For those considering starting up their own business, it is a given fact that most business start ups fail. It is those who understand business, and the way its different elements relate to each other, who are most likely to run a successful business, whether it be their own or as an employee.

I am sure there are many older people like me who arrived in business by a circuitous route. There are some useful lessons I can draw from that. As a mature student I had the opportunity to be sponsored for a management accounting course, a chanced I seized. While I was very much at home with figures, I had never wanted to be an accountant, but once I saw the syllabus I realised there was much more to it than that. This was one of the top business courses in the UK.

The qualification, awarded by the Chartered Institute of Managament Accountants(CIMA) in London, required several years of intense study. At the time, there were 18 examinations in 5 stages, and each had to be passed to move on to the next phase. That syllabus, though, gives some strong clues as to what you need to learn to be in top business management, and be successful. The syllabus included:

Marketing and marketing management

Corporate planning and control

Financial accounting

Financial management

Business and company law

Cost accounting

Decision making.

It is worth having a look at CIMA's latest full course syllabus. It will give you a broad idea of the modern business knowledge and skills you might need one day.

It was not until I had got through my studies and qualified that I really saw how all those subjects knitted together. They were to become invaluable and gave me the confidence to start my own business in advertising in the 1990's, and allow my qualification to lapse. By then, it had served a massive purpose in my own life.

With hindsight, bolstered by recent experience, I would say the two key areas a business manager or owner should know, and continually keep up to date on, are marketing and finance. We will look at each of those separately.