When I first talked about going for my MBA two years ago many people asked me why I wanted to get one. Atlantic Dominion Solutions was growing like crazy, I was finishing up my B.A. at Rollins, and I had a daughter on the way. So why give up 19 months of Saturdays for a degree which is usually applicable only for those looking for upper management positions in corporations? Aside from the fact that more education is never a bad thing, the main reason why I wanted the MBA was because I had been running ADS on experience, pure instinct, advice from people and books, and luck. I wanted to know how the big guys did it. Now I won’t say that the MBA teaches the “right” way to run a business, but rather how it’s traditionally been done.

The program that I did was the Saturday MBA at the Crummer Graduate School of Business. To get into the program, you had to have 5+ years of professional experience. It was 19 months of Saturdays, plus a week long international trip.

So, now that that journey is at an end, what is the value of an MBA for this entrepreneur? Many people have asked me. While it will take more than one blog post let me summarize here a number of high-value things I’ve learned, in no particular order.

• Be a better presenter (through practice and seeing very horrible presentations)
• Perform SWOT and PEST analysis
• Measure the success of a company, generally and financially
• Write a business plan
• Manage for profit
• When to go to outside sources of investment, VC, angel, or bank
• Prepare and read financial statements
• Think more strategically
• Understand how the external environment can impact the internal environment
• Analyze the performance of a company
• Get to the point.
• How to truly listen to people, and understand what they are trying to get across
• Analyze competitors
• Analyze a supply chain (a career unto itself and highly complicated)

Here’s some things I’ve come to realize from the experience, again in no particular order. For some these things will be “duh,” but they apply.

• You cannot run a company by numbers alone.
• You cannot run a small company like a large, public company. For instance, you don’t want a lot of debt on your books.
• Ethics. If you don’t have any, do the rest of us a favor and don’t get into business, and if you already are, please leave.
• Find a niche and dominate.
• I suck at math, which is why my wife does our finances. Stick to what you do best, and either hire or outsource the rest.
• Leadership is about listening, not telling. Micromanagement is for assholes. Don’t be one. No one likes an asshole.
• It’s all about marketing. If you are the head of your company, your job is marketing. If you’re a developer, designer, sales, finance, operations person, or in any department, your job is marketing.
• As the leader, your job is to create a clear, concise vision of where the company is going, and then ensuring that the right people are on board to make that vision happen.
• Always be measuring against your goals. No goals? Figure some out quick.

Question for our readers: If you’ve done an MBA, and are an entrepreneur, what did you find most applicable for your business?