business degrees ?

Is a business hons degree a good idea for someone who wants to run their own business or would a one year masters be better ?

Which degree would be best e.g business studies, management, marketing , accounting , finance

Whilst I hold a bias against business degrees in general, I will try to be as informative and objective in this post.

A business degree would give you the business knowledge to set up a business. However, I consider it unnecessary because there are cheaper and shorter alternatives in terms of qualifications, such as doing A Level Business Studies and CIMA's BA Certificate.

You can also go for online or offline business courses that cover the necessary material, or get coaching/mentorship from businesspeople. Quality of these will vary depending on who you ask.

The business knowledge that you will get is almost entirely theoretical in business degrees, and it won't teach you to carry out the tactics or what sort of forms that you would need to carry out. For example, it won't teach you how to file for VAT, how to pick professionals, how to sell, what you need to legally register a business, and what formation of businesses there are. It definitely won't teach you the basics of advertising campaigns, something quite crucial for growth. On the other hand, tactics can change along with trends, so business degrees ignore anything that isn't based on principles.

Should you decide to do a business degree, you would need to follow it up with further courses on how to do certain things in business. It's likely that you would also need professional advice, so I would recommend you to sign up for business support services such as that from Federation of Small Businesses.

A one year's master's is more like the equivalent of half of a bachelor's, but it's much more intensive because you would need to not only cover the second and third year material in one year, but also do a dissertation on top.

In my opinion, a half decent and worthwhile business degree should cove the following technical subjects:

Useful but not always relevant (depending on your country) modules would be business tax and business law. These subjects should also be covered in the BA certificate from CIMA.

The best degree to run a business would generally one that is a jack of all trades or cover as many useful business subjects as possible. Management and business studies tend to do this.
Whilst I like to say marketing and accounting are probably the more useful degrees, they are too specialised in their specific areas to cover everything that you would need.

As a business degree alone won't help with certain things in business, I recommend picking up lessons on the following to help you with your business journey after your degree (should you decide to do the degree):

Hey, I am thinking of doing a degree in Marketing. My A-Levels are art, graphics and psychology and predicted A*,A,A. You seem to know a lot about business so i am wondering if my 2 art subjects will affect my application. I have emailed universities and asked them the same question and they have all said that it is not a problem but i am an over thinker and scared that i will get no offers.
Many thanks

Hey, thanks for the fast reply!
Two of my courses include business and marketing. The universities are Northumbria and sheffield hallum and they both require 120 ucas points with no specific subject but i can’t help but worry about the two art subjects due to me going onto an academic course.
Could you also suggest what i should do if i don’t get any offers?
many thanks

Thank you so much for all the information you are sending me. i really appreciate it! I got amazing GCSE with 7,8,9 and the annoying part is i know that i can do more academic subjects and get good grades from them, just at the time of picking my a-levels i wanted to go down the art route. i am applying to Lancaster and it is my dream university along with Newcastle. i looked at durham and they require academic subjects sadly Part of me knows that i will be fine and everything will work out but i’m just scared that i won’t get any offers and will end up with useless a-levels that i don’t need/want.

As far as I know, Northumbria's and Sheffield Hallam's business schools aren't particularly picky about A Level subjects.

If for any random reason (in some weird scenario) they decide to say your application is not competitive enough, then you can either do 2 more A Levels, an Access course, BTEC, or apply for a degree with a foundation year. Northumbria and Sheffield funnily enough have foundation year integrated degrees, so you would be able to get in irrespective (they would recommend the course should you fail to meet their entry requirements).

If you want to do 2 extra A Levels (by some fluke), the academic subjects you can pick tend to be the "traditional" school subjects you would normally expect e.g. maths, history, a language, economics, business studies, physics, biology, chemistry, computer science, further maths, etc. These are usually the harder subjects.

Should you decide to do an Access course, you should be able to pick any Access course and still get into any business related degree, since the business schools would likely accept any subjects. However, I would check the specific entry requirements for the specific degree that you want to apply for first (they should have a section for Access courses).

Should you do a BTEC Level 3 extended diploma, you would need to do it at an adult college. This should be in any subject, since business schoolas accpet any subejcts. Again, I would still check the specific entry requirements for the specific degree that you want to apply for first.

What's making me curious is that if you're capable of getting A*AA, you should be more than capable in applying for universities such as Durham, Southampton, Leeds, UEA, Lancaster, and Manchester.

In terms of cost, a foundation year is the most expensive but you get student funding for it. Access is probably the cheapest (about £1000). The drawback of a foundation year is that they are not likely going to let you change universities easily. With Access, not every university will accept them, and those that do won't do so for every course (shouldn't be an issue with business degrees though). BTECs cost about £3500, and you likely need to top it up with an A Level if the university is picky (need to ask the university). A Levels can vary in cost depending on how you study it (self study @ £50 for textbook vs online course with costs ranging from £400 to £900), but you would need to do the exams as a private candidate and cost a minimum of £250 each (shoud you do a science practical it's usually another £1000 on top for each science subject).

Really, I think you're more than fine with any business school that offers marketing or business at undergrad level.

I lack confidence in my personal statement. it is good for me but i think Durham will just straight up reject me. If i was to take a gap year and do an a-level in a year will they consider that extra a-level ? because there only offer was AAA. so say i did business a-level, would they take into account that extra a-level?

some med students said that unis disregard anything done after the 2 year time frame set for A levels such as repeats or any extra A level done in a gap year, is this true ?

Why do you keep saying to do two a-levels? Can i not do 1 A-level in a year?

Thankyou for all your advice. I appreciate it a lot however i don’t think i want to go to durham and don’t think i will be able to complete two academic alevels in a year. I’m just going to hope for the best and pray for an offer😅.

Hey, I am thinking of doing a degree in Marketing. My A-Levels are art, graphics and psychology and predicted A*,A,A. You seem to know a lot about business so i am wondering if my 2 art subjects will affect my application. I have emailed universities and asked them the same question and they have all said that it is not a problem but i am an over thinker and scared that i will get no offers.
Many thanks