Instead of spending hours in class, online MBA students are expected to dedicate their time to studying independently.

Online curriculum generally consists of lectures, readings, assignments, and participation in online discussions. Some programs also offer multimedia components such as video lectures, podcasting, and videoconferencing. online MBA students from some programs are expected to physically attend a certain number of courses or workshops in order to acquire residency hours. Required tests can usually be taken with proctors in your own community. online MBA students don’t spend less time studying than their traditional student counterparts. But, they are given the power to fit their school hours into their own schedules.

Are online MBA degrees respectable?

This question deserves a qualified “yes.” There are two main factors in determining a business school’s respectability: accreditation and reputation. online MBA programs that are accredited by the proper agencies should be respected by your future employers and colleagues. However, there are many unaccredited or “diploma mill” programs that give out worthless degrees. Avoid them at all costs.

A school with a good reputation can also add respectability to an online MBA degree. Much like law schools, business schools receive rankings from organizations such as Business Week (off-site link) that can affect future employment. online students may not be offered the same high-paying, big corporation jobs that graduates from top-ranked schools such as Wharton are. However, there are plenty of companies willing to hire MBA grads with degrees from other institutions.

Why do people earn online MBAs?

Online MBA students come from all walks of life. Many distance learning students are mid-career when they decide to get another degree. Older professionals with jobs and family responsibilities often find the flexibility of online programs to be a good fit. Some online students are looking for a career change but still want to maintain their current job until they get their MBA. Others are already working in business and earn their degree in order to be eligible for job promotions.

How long does it take to earn an MBA online?

The time it takes to finish an online MBA degree varies according to the school and the specialization. Some intensive MBA programs can be finished in as few as nine months. Other programs can take up to four years. Adding specializations to a degree can take even longer. Some schools allow students greater flexibility to work at their own pace while others require that students adhere to more demanding deadlines.

How much will it cost to earn an online MBA degree?

One online MBA degree can had for $10,000, another for $100,000. The cost of tuition varies substantially from college to college. Pricey doesn’t necessarily mean better (although some of the more expensive schools have some of the best reputations). Your employer may be willing to pay for part or all of your educational expenses, particularly if he or she thinks you’ll be sticking with the company. You may also be awarded grants, receive institutional or private scholarships, or qualify for financial aid.

Is earning an online MBA worth it?

Many online MBA graduates have used their new degrees to excel at the workplace, gain promotions, and achieve career success. Others have found that their time could have been better spent elsewhere. Those who find their degrees to be “worth it” share several traits in common: they knew they wanted to work in the business field beforehand, they chose a school with proper accreditation and a positive reputation, and their specialization was appropriate for the type of work they wanted to do.

Enrolling in an online MBA program is not a decision to take lightly. Accredited programs require hard work, time, and effort. But, for the right person, an online MBA can be a great way to get a jumpstart in the world of business

4 Tips For The Successful Businessman

I have a passion for the bald eagle or Haliaeetus Leucocephalus
according to his scientific name. I have this passion as long as
I can remember. But it is not a logical passion. I am Dutch and
a passion for a bird of prey that is common in The Netherlands
would be more obvious. But life is full of inexplicable surprises
and left me with this passion for the bald eagle, the national
symbol of the United States of America. I have seen the
eagles only once in my life in their natural habitat and that
was during a holiday in British Columbia in Canada.

When I read about bald eagles and about the way they live, I
always start thinking about what a businessman can learn from
them in order to become successful and that is what this article
is about.

1. Vision

Bald eagles are birds that can often be found on very high
altitudes. There they soar and with their very sharp eyesight
they have a clear view on the world below them and especially
on the prey they want to catch; fish, that is what they like
most.They can see the milky white spot in the water from a
distance of many miles. In high places they build their nests.
On a rock, on the top of a tree but always on a spot where they
have a good view on the world that surrounds them. And from
their castle they see what is happening around them and that
gives security.

The businessman should also have a clear view on what is
happening in the market. From very far he should recognize his
potential customers and "attack" them at the right moment. At
the same time he should be aware of the dangers that surround
him, anticipate, absorb the environment and be prepared to act
immediately.

2. Knowledge

Bald eagles are confined to their territories. With the seasons
some migrate but you find bald eagles only in a specific habitat
namely forests, mountains and near sea and rivers. You won't
find them in the desert. In their habitat they know what to do,
where they can find prey and which dangers surround them. By
instinct and by learning they have knowledge about the way they
have to conduct their lives and about how they have to behave
in this habitat. They will never go beyond the limitations of this
frame work. If they do, they die.

This holds a lesson for the businessman. He should know
everything about his business and when I say everything, I mean
everything. He should know all about the products he sells from
beginning to end, every detail should be an open book to him.
He can never be surprised with questions on which he has no
answers. He should know about marketing techniques, the
position and plans of competitors etc., etc. And if he doesn't
possess this knowledge by nature, he has to learn it.

3. Enough is enough

When Bald Eagles catch prey, they will catch only one fish at a
time. It is not possible for them to catch more. But they know
precisely how to catch this one fish. Their flying skills, their
strong talons and their eyesight are extremely well developed
and fit for the job. Almost every attempt to catch a prey is
successful.

This phenomenom also holds a wise lesson for the businessman.
He has to restrict himself to a number of products he can handle
and products that matches his skills and abilities. To stay in
the animal world: if you are a cow don't try to jump fences like
a horse. People will only laugh at you. It is better to sell one
product very well than ten without a satisfying result.

4. Courage

Bald eagles mate for life and they are absolutely loyal to each
other. From high altitudes the two birds tumble down in a
dangerous free fall. Mocking the laws of gravity they unite.
Only just above the tree tops they separate and fly wing by wing
to the nest. This spectacular show requires great courage. A
businessman also needs courage to be successful. He has to make
decisions about difficult and uncertain subjects. And he also
needs to know when to stop his free fall. Having courage to make
difficult decisions is not synonymous for being reckless. A
decision that leads to disaster is not a decision, but a wild
guess.

You see....the businessman can learn a great deal from this
majestic bird that embodies not only beauty, strength and
freedom but that possesses also the essential conditions and
abilities to survive.

The beginning businessman as well, who is maybe starting his
business in great uncertainty about the future, can learn from
the bald eagle:

Flying high starts with spreading your wings!
by Joop Liefaard

CAPITALISM & COMMERCE THE BUSINESSMANAS A MORAL RISK-TAKER

by Edward W.Younkins

A sense of suspicion and grudging tolerance looms over business. America is culturally prejudiced against commerce. Anticapitalist ideas have had a dramatic impact in this country. Business and businessmen have been maligned as dishonest, unfair, greedy, insensitive, underhanded, evil, and morally deficient. Negative images have been promulgated for centuries by intellectuals, the Church, socialists, popular culture, storytellers, aristocrats, Supreme Court justices, historians and others. The focus of business on profit and its preoccupation with prosperity and earthly happiness have been declaimed as immoral.

Better than its image

          Certainly, there are bad businessmen just as there are bad men in other walks of life. Businessmen don't always act virtuously. Capitalism is simply a socio-economic mechanism that permits individuals to act morally or immorally. Capitalism is, without doubt, much better than its image. Its economic freedom is consistent with underlying moral principles of life itself. Capitalism relies on a system of rewards and punishments that minimize coercion, prejudice, and irrationality in human relations. Business in a free society rewards businessmen who are honest, trustworthy, understanding, self-reliant, rational and hard working. While practices such as lying, deception, fraud, and theft might lead to short-term gains, such practices would certainly lead to ruin in the long run.

          By nature, society refers to voluntary interactions among consenting human beings. The market is a process of social cooperation, employing a division of labor, where people specialize in a variety of tasks in expectation of demand for the goods and services they produce. The business realm is thus a cooperative system of value-seeking individuals who produce and trade for mutual advantage.

          Businessmen must be committed to reality. After scientists and engineers uncover new knowledge, it is the task of the businessman to determine how to use that knowledge. Rational thinking is the cause of wealth production. The businessman searches for opportunities and combines land, labor, and capital to create wealth. The market creates benefits in the form of new and better products and lower prices. A businessman only benefits by offering goods and services that others are willing to buy. If he does not cater to the desires of others, he will not prosper. He enables others to attain what they want and to pursue their visions of happiness. The businessman is an appropriate symbol of a free society. Capitalism inspires business behavior that is prudent, diligent, prescient, innovative, imaginative, and virtuous. The successful businessman must be a risk-taking man of ideas and moral action.

The role of Business

          Free enterprise is the natural, voluntary collaboration of individuals exchanging the products of their minds, creativity, abilities, and energy. Free enterprise thus involves all of us. It is what unobstructed individuals do to maintain their lives. As long as activity is peaceful it should be permitted. It follows that, from this perspective, every person is as much a businessman as individuals usually identified as such. Every individual who engages in gainful employment in exchange for pay participates in business. He trades his time, energy, and efforts in order to receive remuneration which he can use to attain his needs and desires.

          Business is the way people in a free society organize their economic activities by producing and marketing goods and services in response to the voluntary actions of people in the marketplace who either purchase or abstain from purchasing. Commerce makes it possible for people to pursue their desires and achieve prosperity through trade with others. Business is the method by which a man can voluntarily offer to exchange what he possesses for what he desires. It is the most effective means by which a person can pursue his vision of happiness in accordance with the natural law principle of natural rights. It follows that a legitimate businessman does not profit through force, fraud, deception, or other immoral means.

          Each person values things subjectively in accordance with his unique attributes and individual judgments. Businesses develop to meet the diverse and numerous wants of distinct persons. In a free society, a business endures only as long as it pleases enough individual customers. A businessman thus earns his wealth and serves himself only when he first addresses the well being of others. The free market coordinates the skills and activities of disparate individuals with varying goals and diverse values. The successful businessman serves others as those others want to be served and not as he thinks they should want to be served.

« A businessman only benefits by offering goods and services that others are willing to buy. If he does not cater to the desires of others, he will not prosper. »

          Business involves everyone who engages in trading what he creates and owns (i.e., his ideas, goods, and services) to others who consider what they have to be less desirable than the exchange items offered in return. People only part with what they value less for what they value more. It is a myth that in an exchange, what one gains the other party must lose. In a voluntary exchange, both participants must expect to gain or no exchange will take place.

The road to success

          To be successful, a businessman must objectively perceive reality and rationally process and evaluate information. He must detect information gaps between consumer wants and needs and the potential of a new but as yet undeveloped product or service to meet those wants and needs. The businessman must anticipate new markets and consumers' future wants and needs, learn from competitors' successes and failures, accumulate capital for his projects, acquire the needed resources, coordinate numerous activities and employee skills, and take risks by trading present and known values for resources that only promise a potential future value for him. Profit is payment for the businessman's thought, vision, initiative, determination, and efficiency.

          Businessmen aim to produce a profit by selling at the highest price the market will permit while buying at the lowest prices the market will yield. They profit by doing the best they can in creating goods and services that consumers desire. The role of business is to produce the best possible goods, services, and ideas at the lowest possible cost so as to maximize the firm's profits. The businessman earns profits by using as little as possible to provide customers with as much as possible. Profit is made by creating wealth and trading with others.

          Human flourishing involves the creation, acquisition, and use of wealth in fulfilling activities. It is the practical insights and reason of individual human beings as producers and consumers that are needed, not only in the production and attainment of wealth, but also in the pursuit of each person's unique vision of his happiness.

          Business, as a calling, is related to the flourishing of the individual. Innumerable individuals have satisfied their needs, actualized their potentialities, and attained their goals in the realm of business. It follows that the businessman's activities are morally proper and worthy goals.

Dear Prudence

          The intellectual and moral virtue of prudence is concerned with the intelligent living of one's life. If a person is to be prudent about his life, he must attend to his total well-being. Prudence thus involves the intelligent pursuit of profit, prosperity, and commercial success. Business can be viewed as the social product of human concern with prudence – advancing one's own essential well-being and of his loved ones. To be prudent is to apply intelligence to changing circumstances by acting in the right manner, at the right time, and for the right reasons.

          Commerce is a proper, morally justified area of human action in which businessmen are concerned with obtaining economic well-being. Businessmen transform potential wealth into physical products and services by combining human innovations and discoveries with human labor and natural resources. Through the use of intelligence, businessmen make possible physical goods, services, and enjoyment of life. In a way, businessmen are specialists in the virtue of prudence. They provide people with power over their lives by supplying goods and services that can reduce their labor and increase the time available to pursue other chosen activities. Businessmen help their fellow men pursue their unique visions of happiness.

          The core of business is wealth creation. Its essential nature involves the production of value for trade. Professional businessmen are specialists in voluntary exchange. In a firm, managers are employed to add to the net worth of the company. They are not typically hired to carry on programs of social reform. The businessman provides business competence for a price. People normally invest to increase their wealth and the businessman furnishes the skills to meet this goal.

Enters the State

          Business qua business serves those who wish to trade and does not make use of coercion. It is the entry of the state into the business realm that leads to coercive monopolies and unfair advantages. Unlike business, the state relies on coercive power rather than on voluntary agreement. When a failed or faltering business is rescued by a government handout, it is no longer a business. Likewise, when a businessman obtains his results outside the market framework by receiving special privileges (e.g., subsidies or monopolistic advantages) granted by the government, he forfeits his status as a businessman.

          A firm's economic power is derived from its ability to produce material values and offer them for sale. Unlike political power, which depends on physical force, economic power relies on voluntary choices. A company is powerless when it fails to provide things that people want to purchase. The only leverage the businessman has is the quality of his products and his ability to persuade.

          Sometimes businesses lobby government for special privileges such as bailouts, price-supports, subsidized loans, trade protection, resource privileges, grants of monopoly, etc. A moral business would succeed or fail on its own without any government assistance. If a moral businessman makes a mistake, he is prepared to suffer the consequences. If he fails, he takes the loss. A moral businessman only profits if he satisfies the needs of people by offering better products or services or at a lower price than do others. When practiced properly, business is a noble and virtuous pursuit.

          The free market supplies the individual with a host of competing decentralized alternatives. Competition, a moral expression of freedom, permits people to make choices and act upon them and leads to new and better products and services, higher wages, more jobs, and a higher standard of living. Competition is a natural phenomenon through which firms strive to efficiently use resources and vie to satisfy human wants. Competitors succeed when they offer goods and services that consumers value and are willing to buy. Fortunately, when competitors fail under a free market, this does not mean that we also have a failed economy. Unsuccessful businesses simply have to make way for the successful ones and for new competitors willing to enter the market. The free market rewards businessmen unequally but equitably according to consumers' evaluations of their products and services.

A Successful Businessman Never Stops Learning
By Tel Asiado

The difference between a successful business person and an average one comes down to one essential factor: education. The former never stops learning. Knowledge can be acquired through seminars, formalized training or courses, and reading books valuable to the business. Successful business people know that they must educate themselves in all aspects of business, not just their specialized professions, to get ahead. They know they have to build a broad base of skills and knowledge to get ahead in this cut-throat competitive world.

Likewise, if we want to be a successful entrepreneur we must be willing to be taught and be coached through our endeavour. Gold medal Olympians or professional athletes are coached. They need to develop their skills. Why? Because they need it, they have to.

All entrepreneurs believe that ‘business as usual equals dead in three years.’ New products, new technologies, new processes and new methods of working are the results of successful innovation. They require a steady flow of good ideas, knowledge and resources.

The road is littered with the remains of dead businesses and private companies. Some of the "beacons" of the Fortune 500 companies of 35 years ago are most likely not in business anymore. That is a staggering statistic. 80% of small businesses fail in the first two years. 80% of the remaining 20% who survived fail in the next 3 years.

Many small businesses are shaking apart and are under extreme stress. Okay, this is due to many factors, including global unrest and natural calamities, but thinking brass tacks, it's chiefly due to lack of understanding how to improve business. Therefore, the ability to innovate and grow is hindered.

Assuming that some tycoons have the Midas touch, certainly, ideas received from books, seminars, courses, and other relevant sources are continuously applied by these business gurus. It’s amazing how some people go to seminars and read books but sit back and do nothing about what they learn. Indeed, endeavors and business pursuits can be leveraged further in terms of continuing acquisition of knowledge and learning capacity.

How to become a successful businessman

Last week, a good friend -- Ajay Sanghani, the CEO of ITvidya.com -- invited me to an idea camp for entrepreneurs at IILM, a business school in Gurgaon. Venture capitalists Alok Mittal and Sanjay Bhargava chaired the camp, which was organised by Sanghani's company.

At the camp, I asked several entrepreneurs to share their initial struggles and success stories. They spoke with passion, and I learnt a few lessons:

Believe in yourself

Being an entrepreneur is a lot more risky than the conventional job routine. There is no regular salary; you have to find customers on your own. Marketing your product/service and financing the project are also of concern. I noticed that most entrepreneurs use a combination of due diligence and gut instincts while evaluating their product/service. They are good at spotting a need in the market and then backing themselves up to believe that their idea can fill that void.

Lesson one -- Believe in your idea. Never underestimate what you can do. You may surprise yourself.

Hire the right people

Most entrepreneurs highlighted this as the toughest aspect of building a business. Sanjay Bhargava, who co-founded Paypal, recommended entrepreneurs to bring in people who are really good at what they do and also to focus on ensuring the team members get along with each other.

Some entrepreneurs confessed they made the initial mistake of hiring friends and people they liked, but soon realised that friends were not always the best employees.

Lesson two -- Build your team with people possessing complementary skills, not 'yes men' who are always showering praise. You need employees, partners and mentors you trust, who will give you honest feedback and take your company to the next level.

Be money wise

While some entrepreneurs went in for conventional sources of funding from a venture capitalist or banks, etc, quite a few started out with their savings or by borrowing money from friends and family. Most entrepreneurs said they focused on increasing efficiency and optimising costs and overheads. one entrepreneur shared that he consciously stayed away from non-essentials like an extravagant office, equipments, etc. The focus was on superior execution and high quality service.

Lesson three -- It's tempting to dream of a corner office, a pool table and expensive chairs, but give it some time. Start small and start efficient. Being better is more important than being bigger.

Concentrate on the message

"As a small business, most of our marketing is word-of-mouth. Our clients appreciate the kind of work we do and our reputation for delivering results," said Vidhanshu Bansal, founder of an information-technology company called Pixel Webtech.

Most entrepreneurs said that in the early days, their tendency was to focus on sales activities and as they grew, they started looking at various marketing initiatives, as that is the cement that gels customers, vendors and employees together. Their strategy kept changing, depending on what worked -- direct mailers, e-mail marketing, presentations at seminars, etc.

Lesson four -- Marketing a start-up business is a 24/7 activity and you need to pay attention to the message you're sending out to existing and prospective clients. Your message has to be tailored to meet the customer's expectations.

Keep the team motivated

Do not indulge in fault-finding or blame games. That was a clear message from most entrepreneurs. Pigeonholing a particular member of the team may spread negative vibes within the team and cost you time and quality. Celebrating every small success and appreciating team members will build a sense of camaraderie.

Lesson five -- Be a coach, rather than the star player. Appreciate and acknowledge the positive behaviours of team members so that the behaviours turn into consistent practices.

Make mistakes

"If you ain't a little bit scared, you ain't driving fast enough," said Deepak Wadhwa, another entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs agreed. Give your people the license to fail. It's ok to make a mistake as long as they are succeeding 9 out of 10 times, and making sure that they don't repeat those mistakes in the future.

Lesson six -- The worst mistake is the one that gets repeated. Create a culture of learning and experimentation right at the start of the business. This will become a powerful value with the growth of the business.

Be passionate

Most entrepreneurs accepted that the rewards of being an entrepreneur can be terrific but they were also of the opinion that there is no 'secret sauce.' There are a lot of magazines, self-help books and biographies of successful entrepreneurs that one can read, but at the end of the day, it's about execution. What you really need is to be passionate about your work.

Lesson seven -- If you are doing something and the day flies by, if you are surrounded with people you like to work with, then you have most of the ingredients for entrepreneurial

Online MBA Degree Basics

What You Need to Know Before Enrolling in an online MBA Program

How to become a successful businessman

by Jamie Cohen

Thursday, February 20, 2003

Online MBA Degree Basics

What You Need to Know Before Enrolling in an o­nline MBA Program

How to become a successful businessman

by Jamie Cohen

Thursday, February 20, 2003

What You Need to Know Before Enrolling in an online MBA Program