to get an mba or not?

[espbeliever]

i want to be a FP operating my own practice.

will an MBA really help me that much?

i have already run a successful computer business on my own. i read about all of the laws, marketing, profits, costs, etc. it all came mostly natural to me and i did fine. do you really think i should get the mba? kcumb offers one with rockhurst university. it looks like a nice program but kind of expensive.

any thoughts? thanks!

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[Andrew_Doan]

If you ran a business and understand the basics, then I don't think you need to have an MBA. I'm interviewing an engineering major who never got an MBA but has ran several successful companies. In one company, he raised $20 million in funding and then sold his telecommunications company for $50 million. He is now President and CEO of another company. I'm trying to recruit him for www.medrounds.org, and he doesn't have a MBA.

 

[beastmaster]

You can study relevant MBA course material on your own. I've never taken a course in Economics but I understand it better than many economics majors and MBA students. Eventually I'll start studying business management, but it's not on my immediate agenda.

 

[Law2Doc]

i want to be a FP operating my own practice.

will an MBA really help me that much?

i have already run a successful computer business on my own. i read about all of the laws, marketing, profits, costs, etc. it all came mostly natural to me and i did fine. do you really think i should get the mba? kcumb offers one with rockhurst university. it looks like a nice program but kind of expensive.

any thoughts? thanks!

While there are skills one can use which are taught in MBA courses (especially in operations management, marketing and accounting), it generally doesn't make sense to get an MBA degree just to run one's own practice. You are better served to hire an accountant and business lawyer and consult with them judiciously with respect to the setting up and operation of your business, as well as any contractual obligations, leases, taxes, employee issues and the like.

Because of the wording of your post, I will note however that the people I've dealt with as clients who got themselves in the biggest legal messes were always the ones who were convinced that they "read about all of the laws" and thought they knew everything they needed to know to "do fine". It's a better skill to realize when you need to get outside advice than to try to know the guts of multiple professions outside your own.
(And FYI, MBA programs are not good places to try and learn much about business law matters, employer obligations or tax filings, which tend to be key areas of concern for small medical practices).

 

[espbeliever]

Very true. Would it make sense for MBAs, accountants and lawyers to get MDs so that they could an manage their own health care needs more effectively?

why do they then?

 

[Law2Doc]

why do they then?

They don't. No one goes into medicine to handle their own heathcare needs. That would be silly -- which is what flindophile was suggesting.
People who have other advanced degrees and go into medicine are either making a total career change, or they intend to take some career path (other than being a practicing physician) which allows one to combine those degrees.

 

[espbeliever]

They don't. No one goes into medicine to handle their own heathcare needs. That would be silly -- which is what flindophile was suggesting.
People who have other advanced degrees and go into medicine are either making a total career change, or they intend to take some career path (other than being a practicing physician) which allows one to combine those degrees.

ok then why would a doctor want an mba or jd or ??

 

[Law2Doc]

ok then why would a doctor want an mba or jd or ??

There are a variety of careers in which a combined degree may be useful. If you want to work in the pharmaceutical, hospital administration or health insurance industries, an MD/MBA could certainly be useful. An MD/JD would probably be most useful in a governmental (public) health policy type position where a knowledge of medical issues and an ability to help draft legislation would be necessary. (Other than that, people have suggested that the MD/JD combination might be useful in academia, medmal litigation or working as an expert witness, but in all of these there is no real reason to have both degrees, in my opinion.)
There are certainly other threads already on this board which address the MD/MBA combination's uses better.