Which business classes will help me with owning a practice?
 

So, just finished my 3rd year of university and I'm applying this summer. Next year will be my final year assuming I get in. I have to take 6 more psychology classes and then 3 option classes.

I was thinking of taking some business courses as options. Which 4 business classes would you recommend for owning a practice in the future?

Cheers:xf:

Entrepreneurship, Commercial Real Estate Law, Business Law, Service Management, Yield Management were some of the actual useful classes I have taken.

Classes like marketing, financial accounting, organizational leadership, intro to management were all pointless busy work.

Whether or not your school has the classes I mentioned will widely vary.

a lot of biz course I've experienced are heavily theory/text-book oriented and not really applicable for running your practice.
I would recommend taking fundamental courses and if you get a chance attend a lot of seminars. Seminars are far more beneficial.

These are courses I would take.
microeconomics - teaches you basic supply/demand and its variations
accounting - although you would most likely use a software, gotta have basic knowledge of book keeping.
salesmanship - dentistry is selling services and you as a dentist.
read blogs and books (non-textbooks)

Thanks for the tips!

These are some of the courses available to me


*Accounting
ACCT 301 - Accounting Principles
ACCT 317 - Introductory Financial Accounting
ACCT 323 - Introductory Managerial Accounting

Entreprenership
Introduction to Business Venturing

Human Resources
HROD 317 - Employment Relationships in Canada
HROD 321 - Foundations in the Human Resources and Organizational Dynamics

management
MGIS 317 - Management Information Systems
MGIS 331 - Database Systems
MGIS 333 - Systems Analysis And Design
MGST 391 - Research and Analysis for Decision Making
MGST 495 - Working with People

Risk management

RMIN 317 - Introduction to Risk Management and Insurance

Marketing
MKTG 317 - Foundations of Marketing
MKTG 341 - Introduction To Marketing

operations management
OPMA 301 - Introduction to Production and Operations Management
OPMA 317 - Fundamentals of Operations Management

Interesting! I had almost the opposite experience. My entrepreneurship, and Poli-sci (simiarl to business law I'm assuming) were pointless at my school, while my marketing, financial accounting, and employee management classes would be very helpful for someone running a small business. I wonder how much these vary from school to school. :confused:

I am not a business major, but rather communication. Some really cool classes, that i have taken, that i think will one day help me run a practice are:

Public Speaking
Interpersonal Communication
Persuasion and Influence
Argumentation
Conflict and Negotiation

Again, if any of these topics interest you, check under the COM department.

Communication classes are EXCELLENT for dentistry and life in general. I highly, highly, highly advise an intro to public speaking course. Not only will it be a GPA booster, but it will give you great tools for success.

It's best to pick the right professor. You don't want the professor that doesn't care, but you don't want a professor who hands out As through curves and extra credit. You want a professor who genuinely loves the subject, always PhD, does research, is friendly and has good reviews, AND a professor that gives out As.

Don't think that just because it's not organic chemistry or calculus that it'll be "easy."

I assume it varies widely. A professor with an applicable background makes or breaks an entrepreneurship class. I am not sure a poli-sci class would be that similar to business law, but I guess there could be some overlap? I have never taken poli-sci, but business law was really an introduction to contracts and business transactions that was great fundamental knowledge for business acquisition.

As far as you mentioning employee management classes being helpful, one of the classes I mentioned was employee management, specific to the service industries...'service management'. Honestly, after taking about every business class 2 different schools offered (transferred during my first degree) and then working for several years, only the very specific classes seemed to be worth anything.

A higher level marketing course I could see being helpful, but what I took just was not specific to any industry so I walked away with theories that I most likely would never put into practice.

As for accounting, you are not the first person to say how helpful that was, but I just have the viewpoint that the class was too detail oriented to retain for years down the road and to understand the basic terminology I would need to converse with an accountant would have taken a day of reading google or better yet, dentaltown.

All of this to say, yeah, you are probably right, it does vary a lot from school to school. The OP would be best off finding out who the good business professors are and taking classes from them. Business classes are very different from science, in that the background of a business professor can either add tremendously to a class, or take away from the value of it. The second school I went to demanded professors (from all subjects, not just business) worked for at least 10 years in the field they were teaching and this was fantastic for the student.

I would agree that these topics would be far superior to an intro to business sequence for future prep. If you could mix in some part time employment at a small business, that would be great.

Hey OP, I just took accounting and microeconomics last semester and I thought they really helped me understand the nature of owning a business, especially micro. Micro is all about looking at the economics of a individual business versus looking at the economy as a whole. Accounting is just practical information, less theoretical. I think accounting would be useful even if you do not start a business.

I can totally see what you are saying. I am not in business as a dentist yet, so I won't really know which of my classes were actually helpful or not lol. :D

Also, for the bolded part, I think you hit the nail on the head!

After 26 years in practice and owning my practice for the last 21 years, this post hits the nail on the head. "Real" econ courses are a waste of time. After you graduate, take Howard Farran's Dental MBA or Roger Levin's Courses.

i agree
IMO, only 10% of the upper business course material is useful. Are you willing to take courses for that 10 % knowledge for 8 weeks(whatever semester/quarter your school is)?? it's a waste of time. Like I said earlier, stick to blogs and seminars.

if you really wanna take business courses, take basic ones which will give you overall knowledge.

you put two marketing courses that fit in your schedule, but don't take them. marketing is ever changing subjects.
How many textbooks and MKT courses talk about social media marketing and how to optimize Google Search, etc????

I bet none.

PS I've attended Dr.Farran MBA course. it was good. I love Dr. Farran and have so much respect for him. but he was rambling 30% of his lecture.