What Can I Do with a Bachelor’s in Business?

Many peo­ple will want to know why they should pur­sue a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness degree before they start the process. Many mis­con­cep­tions about busi­ness degrees exist, but most of those cen­ter around ques­tions like:

• What is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion and management?
• Is a busi­ness degree hard to achieve?
• Is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion a good major?
• Is a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree good?
• Is a busi­ness man­age­ment degree good?

A busi­ness degree is one of the most ver­sa­tile and use­ful degrees avail­able. Is a busi­ness degree hard to achieve? It is no more or less hard­er to achieve than any oth­er type of degree. Any stu­dents who want a busi­ness edu­ca­tion, and applies them­selves, will cer­tain­ly man­age to gain their bach­e­lor’s in business.

What Should I Know about a Bachelor’s In Business?

One that can con­fuse poten­tial stu­dents is the num­ber of dif­fer­ent busi­ness degree types avail­able. Since busi­ness can apply to lit­er­al­ly any­thing, there are numer­ous cours­es avail­able that can fea­ture busi­ness as a minor or a major.

Relat­ed:

• Best Bachelor’s in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion degrees
• Best Bachelor’s in Finance Degree Programs
• Best Bachelor’s Degree in Finance Online Programs
• Cheap­est Online Busi­ness Bachelor’s Degrees

Even with a busi­ness major, there are sev­er­al dis­ci­plines, spe­cial­iza­tions, and paths of study that can lead to dif­fer­ent types of busi­ness degrees. For exam­ple, some mar­ket­ing degrees can count as a busi­ness degree, as can an account­ing degree. The thing that dif­fer­en­ti­ates a busi­ness degree is that it will usu­al­ly come as a BBA, or bach­e­lor of busi­ness administration.

The busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion def­i­n­i­tion includes any prepara­to­ry course that helps an indi­vid­ual learn to super­vise, over­see, or admin­is­ter busi­ness oper­a­tions. With­in that busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion def­i­n­i­tion comes a ton of skills that appli­cants can apply to any industry.

What is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment? Since busi­ness encom­pass­es var­i­ous prac­tices and prin­ci­ples, stu­dents will learn finance, com­merce, mar­ket­ing, project man­age­ment, account­ing, eco­nom­ics, and oth­er things nec­es­sary to busi­ness administration.

Learn­ing aspects of all these things is one of the rea­sons why peo­ple ask is a busi­ness degree hard. How­ev­er, these things all go togeth­er and a busi­ness degree major shouldn’t have trou­ble fit­ting them togeth­er as they move along with the curriculum.

The major ben­e­fits of study­ing busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion comes from the sheer amount of knowl­edge the degree pro­gram can give a stu­dent. That knowl­edge trans­lates direct­ly into real-world use and appli­ca­tion, which can help in any occupation.

Is a busi­ness man­age­ment degree good? Is busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion a good major? Yes, and yes. Giv­en the sheer amount of things cov­ered, busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion is one of the best majors to consider.

How to Tell If a Business School is Good or Has Proper Accreditation?

When decid­ing on which busi­ness school is the best one for a person’s needs, it’s impor­tant to first look at the school or pro­gram’s busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion sta­tus. When it comes to insti­tutes of high­er learn­ing, the prop­er busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion makes a huge difference.

Accred­i­ta­tion from prop­er accred­it­ing bod­ies is like a stamp of approval on the school or pro­gram. This is impor­tant as that stamp of approval means the school meets or exceeds edu­ca­tion­al and oth­er stan­dards set by gov­ern­ment groups and lead­ers in the industry.

A lack of accred­i­ta­tion or accred­i­ta­tion from an unrec­og­nized accred­it­ing group is a sign that the school or pro­gram may lack the qual­i­ty stan­dards set by the more well-known groups. In addi­tion, many employ­ers and indus­try pro­fes­sion­al take a degree from an accred­it­ed school or pro­gram very seriously.

Busi­ness schools and pro­grams should at least have both region­al accred­i­ta­tion and pro­gram­mat­ic accred­i­ta­tion. Oth­er forms of accred­i­ta­tion, such as nation­al accred­i­ta­tion, are wel­come as well, as long as they exist in con­cert with the oth­er forms of accred­i­ta­tion. For exam­ple, appli­cants shouldn’t feel forced to choose between AACSB vs region­al accred­i­ta­tion if a school or pro­gram has both.

Regional Accreditation

Region­al accred­i­ta­tion means one of the agen­cies over­see­ing a region of the coun­try has the recog­ni­tion of the US Dept. of Edu­ca­tion. Region­al accred­i­ta­tion can help stu­dents that need to trans­fer cred­its to anoth­er school with region­al accreditation.

How­ev­er, these accred­i­ta­tions are for schools as a whole. An oth­er­wise excel­lent school with full region­al accred­i­ta­tion can still have a poor busi­ness pro­gram. For this rea­son, it’s impor­tant to also look for pro­gram­mat­ic or spe­cial­ized accreditation.

Pro­gram­mat­ic or spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion goes to depart­ments, pro­grams, or oth­er indi­vid­ual forms of edu­ca­tion that serve a spe­cif­ic pur­pose. For busi­ness pro­grams, there are three main busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion groups appli­cants should look for.

The Asso­ci­a­tion to Advance Col­le­giate Schools of Busi­ness – AACSB

The AACSB is the old­est and most rec­og­nized of the busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion groups. This group sets stan­dards for research-based insti­tu­tions and the fac­ul­ty. That means AACSB accred­it­ed schools will like­ly have fac­ul­ty who do research, pub­lish papers, and delves deeply into the fun­da­men­tals and the­o­ries of busi­ness practices.

AACSB accred­i­ta­tion stan­dards are high. Indus­try pro­fes­sion­als under­stand a busi­ness degree from a pro­gram with AACSB accred­i­ta­tion holds a lot of weight. Some of the best schools in the nation have the dis­tinc­tion of hav­ing AACSB accreditation.

For those seek­ing a school of note, one with AACSB accred­i­ta­tion stan­dards will typ­i­cal­ly prove that par­tic­u­lar school’s busi­ness degree pro­gram is wor­thy of con­sid­er­a­tion. Nev­er­the­less, AACSB accred­it­ed schools aren’t the only ones that offer high-qual­i­ty education.

The Accred­i­ta­tion Coun­cil for Busi­ness Schools and Pro­grams – ACBSP

Busi­ness schools and pro­grams with ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion tend to have edu­ca­tors who want stu­dents to suc­ceed in the giv­en pro­gram. That is to say, the stan­dards set by the ACBSP focus on effec­tive teach­ing more than it does on research and research publishing.

But, is ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion respect­ed? A pro­gram or school with ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion will offer a high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion from teach­ers and pro­fes­sors. Those edu­ca­tors will want their stu­dents to focus on achiev­ing a suc­cess­ful out­come through study and mas­tery of the course­work. Indus­try pro­fes­sion­als do rec­og­nize and respect ACBSP accreditation.

Many peo­ple won­der is ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion good or bad because it’s not men­tioned as often as AACSB accred­i­ta­tion. How­ev­er, what is AACSB accred­i­ta­tion mean to employ­ers and oth­ers who want to hire some­one with a sol­id work­ing knowl­edge of a busi­ness dis­ci­pline rather than a schol­ar­ly, the­o­ret­i­cal, or research-based understanding?

Inter­na­tion­al Assem­bly for Col­le­giate Busi­ness Edu­ca­tion — IACBE

IACBE is the youngest of the main busi­ness accred­i­ta­tion groups. This group came into being as a response to the needs of exec­u­tive-lev­el pro­fes­sion­als who want­ed peo­ple to come into the indus­try after receiv­ing an out­come-based education.

Such an edu­ca­tion from IACBE accred­it­ed schools revolves around mis­sions and goals. Stu­dents of busi­ness pro­grams with IACBE accred­i­ta­tion can expect an edu­ca­tion that helps them solve prob­lems effec­tive­ly. The IACBE accred­i­ta­tion group favors pro­grams with instruc­tors who can teach stu­dents pre­cise­ly what they need to know to cre­ate goal-ori­ent­ed graduates.

What Are the Different Types of Business Management and Administration Degrees?

A bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness man­age­ment can come in a num­ber of forms. With busi­ness as an under­grad­u­ate major, a BS in busi­ness man­age­ment can have a des­ig­na­tion of:

• BBA – Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Administration
• BSBA – Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Administration
• BABA – Bach­e­lor of Arts in Busi­ness Administration

Each of these types of bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness man­age­ment come with busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cours­es that cater to dif­fer­ent aspects of busi­ness over­all. For exam­ple, BBA sub­jects tend to include a broad­er overview of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion. Stu­dents will delve into a lit­tle of every­thing when it comes to over­see­ing a busi­ness. The BBA sub­jects have a lot of over­lap with oth­er types of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion courses.

The BSBA, Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion sub­jects tend to adhere more close­ly to core cours­es con­sist­ing of math, sta­tis­tics, ana­lyt­ics, and sim­i­lar stud­ies. By con­trast, the BABA con­tains more lib­er­al stud­ies in addi­tion to the busi­ness class­es. From this view­point, appli­cants can think of the BBA sub­jects as a mid­dle ground between the BSBA and BABA.

That is because the BBA scope focus­es on pro­duc­ing well-round­ed busi­ness majors, but that does not mean the oth­er degree types will pro­duce infe­ri­or stu­dents. The BBA scope isn’t all-encom­pass­ing. Busi­ness is a big sub­ject, and busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion sub­jects span a vast num­ber of fields.

All a poten­tial stu­dent would have to do is take a look at any busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion sub­jects list. A busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion sub­jects list will show a host of sim­i­lar class­es whether the appli­cant is con­sid­er­ing a BA vs BBA, BBA vs BSBA, or BA vs BS busi­ness of any type. There are some gen­er­al rules appli­cants can use to choose between these types of degrees.

BBA pro­vides an over­all edu­ca­tion in busi­ness, and ben­e­fits peo­ple who want to pur­sue more gen­er­al busi­ness pur­suits. For exam­ple, the BBA is good for those who want to gain entry into busi­ness-relat­ed occu­pa­tions that don’t have a strong focus on hard sci­ences or advance math. These occu­pa­tions can include oper­a­tions man­agers, event man­agers, book­keep­ers, coor­di­na­tors, and oth­er admin­is­tra­tors. This is one of the main BBA vs BSBA differences.

A BSBA will ben­e­fit those who want to enter the field with a strong sci­en­tif­ic or math­e­mat­i­cal under­stand­ing of busi­ness man­age­ment. The ide­al jobs for BSBA degree hold­ers include things like ana­lysts, accoun­tants, man­agers, econ­o­mists, and consultants.

The BABA cur­ricu­lum favors those who want a strong busi­ness foun­da­tion, but aren’t sure exact­ly how they want to apply that busi­ness knowl­edge. Since the degree also offers many lib­er­al arts class­es, hold­ers of a BA may use the degree to enter into posi­tions that need busi­ness tal­ent but also an under­stand­ing of peo­ple or cul­ture. These degree hold­ers work well in pub­lic rela­tions, mar­ket­ing, com­pli­ance, and oth­er busi­ness careers that require per­son­al rela­tion­ship build­ing. These are the types of things that sep­a­rate the BA vs BBA degrees.

All three of these degree types can help some­one move for­ward into the busi­ness field or help them with their own busi­ness aspi­ra­tions. A BS in busi­ness man­age­ment or a BA from busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion class­es can all help some­one with their goals. The busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree require­ments can also play a role in which type of degree pro­gram to choose.

Can You Earn A Business Management and Administration Degree Online?

Every­thing con­cern­ing busi­ness degrees also applies to earn­ing a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness online. Peo­ple can cer­tain­ly seek an online bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness, but they have to show just as much care as they would for a res­i­den­tial bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness. To start with, a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness online will require just as much work, ded­i­ca­tion, and consideration.

Appli­cants should not seek the cheap­est online busi­ness degree. It’s easy to assume an online bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness will cost less, and in some cas­es, that’s true. How­ev­er, an online busi­ness degree cost can match or exceed some offline schools and programs.

Still, an appli­cant shouldn’t only base their deci­sion of choos­ing online busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion class­es strict­ly on online busi­ness degree cost. The cheap­est online busi­ness degree isn’t always the best, but nei­ther is the most expen­sive busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion online degree.

This also holds true for those who want a busi­ness degree online fast. Accel­er­at­ed degree pro­grams do exist, but all the same cri­te­ria for choos­ing the right school or pro­gram still matter.

Before choos­ing a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion online degree pro­gram, appli­cants should make sure it’s an accred­it­ed online busi­ness man­age­ment degree pro­gram. Just like any­thing else, accred­i­ta­tion mat­ters, even for online busi­ness degrees.

An accred­it­ed online busi­ness man­age­ment degree will have the same lev­el of qual­i­ty and high stan­dards as any school with prop­er accred­i­ta­tion. Appli­cants should choose accred­i­ta­tion fol­lowed by rep­u­ta­tion. Once they nar­row their choic­es, they can start to look at the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree requirements.

Appli­cants should also keep in mind they can choose from any of a num­ber of spe­cial­iza­tions. Some of the degree spe­cial­iza­tions that come up often are human resource, oper­a­tions man­age­ment, project man­age­ment, mar­ket­ing, and var­i­ous oth­er spe­cial­ties, includ­ing things like inter­na­tion­al busi­ness degree specializations.

Do I Need Certifications or Licenses for Business Administration?

Grad­u­ates enter­ing the busi­ness field will need busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or licens­ing for just about any spe­cial­iza­tion they choose. Even when cer­ti­fi­ca­tion isn’t nec­es­sary, it can only help a grad­u­ate stand out even more to obtain cer­ti­fi­ca­tions rel­e­vant to their cho­sen field.

Appli­cants will find there are hun­dreds of busi­ness and busi­ness-relat­ed cer­tifi­cates and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams out there. That means they must choose their busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions wisely.

When choos­ing busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, appli­cants should stick close to their indus­try or desired indus­try. For exam­ple, if a busi­ness major choos­es to enter the IT field, they should pur­sue rel­e­vant cer­ti­fi­ca­tions from that indus­try, such as IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and cer­ti­fi­ca­tions from lead­ing tech­nol­o­gy providers. Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can often rep­re­sent a par­tic­u­lar specialization.

Those who choose a busi­ness degree pro­gram with a hard spe­cial­ty can often pur­sue a need­ed cer­tifi­cate before they grad­u­ate or short­ly there­after. It is pos­si­ble to find busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for col­lege stu­dents or busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions with­out a degree.

Cer­tifi­cates that are more gen­er­al also exist. Even with­out a spe­cial­ty, an appli­cant can gain a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate to prove their grasp and knowl­edge of the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion fun­da­men­tals they acquired.

Still, even busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can come in many vari­eties. A good way for appli­cants to fig­ure out which busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are the busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions worth get­ting is by doing some sim­ple online searches.

The busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate of yes­ter­day isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly the one the indus­try will look for tomor­row, so appli­cants must stay abreast of what’s going on in the indus­try. Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions often not­ed as the busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions worth get­ting can include:

• Busi­ness devel­op­ment certification
• Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the most pop­u­lar busi­ness soft­ware vendors
• Human resources certifications
• Inter­na­tion­al busi­ness certifications
• Net­work certifications
• Project man­age­ment certifications

A busi­ness devel­op­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion shows under­stand­ing of how the under­pin­nings of busi­ness work, and how to make a busi­ness grow. Inter­na­tion­al busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can come in handy for those who will or want to do busi­ness on the inter­na­tion­al busi­ness or mar­ket­ing field.

In addi­tion, while there are numer­ous busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es at schools and uni­ver­si­ties, there are even more busi­ness cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online. Find­ing the best online busi­ness cer­tifi­cate pro­grams will still require some dili­gence from the appli­cant. Nev­er­the­less, the best online busi­ness cer­tifi­cate pro­grams are out there and wait­ing for those who want to earn a busi­ness cer­tifi­cate online with­out the has­sle asso­ci­at­ed with offline programs.

What Types of Careers Are There in Business Management and Administration?

Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree jobs aren’t lim­it­ed to busi­ness man­age­ment and admin­is­tra­tion work. Careers in busi­ness can exist in any field, sec­tor, or mar­ket. An entre­pre­neur with a busi­ness degree can do just about any­thing he or she wants, as long as they can apply busi­ness prin­ci­ples to the endeav­or. And, truth­ful­ly, it’s pos­si­ble to apply busi­ness prin­ci­ples to anything.

That means BBA degree jobs don’t have to rep­re­sent what many peo­ple think of as busi­ness jobs. How­ev­er, busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree jobs for those that want to hold the title of busi­ness man­ag­er or busi­ness admin­is­tra­tor are also plen­ti­ful. With a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs from entry-lev­el and up can become obtainable.

Some careers in busi­ness man­age­ment and admin­is­tra­tion can include:

• Ana­lysts (busi­ness, sys­tems, finan­cial, mar­ket, sales, actu­ar­i­al, etc.)
• Any type of man­age­ment position
• Busi­ness development
• Human resources man­agers and officers
• Logis­tics specialists
• Project devel­op­ers and managers
• Sales exec­u­tive

Appli­cants should check a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs list to see just how much is out there for them. Bach­e­lors in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs are abun­dant. A search like, “busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs near me,” will come up with numer­ous results.

Appli­cants can also divide things up by spec­i­fy­ing a degree type, search that starts with “busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs near me,” but includes mod­i­fiers like bach­e­lor of sci­ence in busi­ness jobs, bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness jobs, BBA degree jobs, or busi­ness man­age­ment degree entry-lev­el jobs. Although a busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion jobs list, once found, can save appli­cants the trou­ble of doing too much online searching.

Appli­cants should also pay atten­tion to the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion job descrip­tion. Often, an employ­er will spec­i­fy one type of degree pref­er­ence for bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness jobs, but is real­ly will­ing to work with any type of busi­ness degree. Check­ing the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion job descrip­tion will also clue appli­cants in on whether they should a par­tic­u­lar type of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or not that can help their chances.

What is the Typical Business Administration Salary?

What are the aver­age busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary expec­ta­tions? Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree salary can vary depend­ing on loca­tion, posi­tion, expe­ri­ence, and oth­er fac­tors. Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary, even for entry-lev­el posi­tions, can start quite high for the right appli­cant in the right niche.

For some­one with a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion, salary aver­ages are around $61k. Some busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary for many grad­u­ates can come in at a much high­er num­ber, espe­cial­ly for those who earn man­age­ment posi­tions in finan­cial sec­tors, human resources, IT, and engineering.

In most cas­es, a BA in busi­ness salary is no dif­fer­ent from any oth­er busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree salary. Appli­cants shouldn’t wor­ry that their degree type will hold them back from a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion salary wor­thy of their hard work. As with most things, a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness salary will grow as some­one builds expe­ri­ence and stays the course over time.

Are There Any Professional Business Management and Administration Organizations?

An indus­try as large and far-reach­ing as busi­ness has devel­oped numer­ous pro­fes­sion­al lead­er­ship orga­ni­za­tions and oth­er pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions in busi­ness. Because the busi­ness field is such a large one, there are count­less orga­ni­za­tions that appli­cants can and should consider.

Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions in busi­ness offer oppor­tu­ni­ties not found any­where else. These groups are ide­al for con­tin­ued edu­ca­tion, net­work­ing, career advance­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, and stay­ing abreast of new knowl­edge in a cho­sen field. Every busi­ness spe­cial­iza­tion has pro­fes­sion­al lead­er­ship organizations.

Equal­ly, pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions in busi­ness exist for nich­es and demo­graph­ics. For exam­ple, there are small busi­ness groups and orga­ni­za­tions. Appli­cants also find pro­fes­sion­al busi­ness orga­ni­za­tions for peo­ple of col­or, women, those of a par­tic­u­lar nation­al­i­ty, or reli­gion. Some of the larg­er more pop­u­lar pro­fes­sion­al busi­ness orga­ni­za­tions include:

• Amer­i­can Finance Asso­ci­a­tion (AFA)
• Amer­i­can Man­age­ment Asso­ci­a­tion (AMA)
• Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion for Busi­ness Eco­nom­ics (NABE)

Appli­cants can also find local and region­al busi­ness groups they can join. Also, many schools have groups, clubs, and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions for busi­ness stu­dents, such as the Future Busi­ness Lead­ers of Amer­i­ca. Beyond even those are all the pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions ded­i­cat­ed to par­tic­u­lar types of businesses.

With so many to choose from, appli­cants would do well to nar­row things down by focus­ing on those pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions they can ben­e­fit most from. They can start by defin­ing their indus­try, then drill down from there.

While some more gener­ic all-encom­pass­ing busi­ness groups are fine, it’s typ­i­cal­ly bet­ter to find the groups that cater to an applicant’s spe­cif­ic goals. No mat­ter what, a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion of good stand­ing is beneficial.