business management principles

Mastering business principles doesn't require a master's degree.  While business management doesn't require perfect knowledge of all areas of business, there are a number of management ideologies which must be honed in order to truly grasp business concepts.  Unfortunately, not all principles are easy to master, and some are just downright challenging and sometimes frustrating to understand.  Here are a few of the toughest principles to master in the field of business management.

Accounting

Accounting and bookkeeping are the cornerstones to any business.  Accurate records as well as balanced books are essential for tracking revenues and expenses while giving managers an idea of where a company's money is going.  Inaccurate records, however, can end disastrously for businesses.  Poor accounting practices can result in lost revenues, fines from the Federal and state governments, and legal issues just to name a few possible outcomes.  

Unfortunately, accounting is also one of the toughest principles to master.  A person well-versed in accounting is very detail-oriented with the ability to grasp simple concepts and understand how they can become complex.  Accounting goes by The Golden Rule, and irregularities in the books are never mere coincidence.

Finance

Much like accounting, finance requires heavy attention to detail but comes with the added responsibility of understanding market interactions and how certain market conditions affect various factors.  While many of the same principles apply to both accounting and finance, with finance (and especially the study of financial institutions) the added human factor of how market systems interact becomes another variable in the equation for mastering these concepts.  

Stock markets and the global trade of commodities as well as more abstract economic concepts all come into play when studying more complex finance principles.  In addition to understanding the basic functions of financial statements such as balance sheets, income statements, and other financial instruments, a business manager must know how to react to those data inputs to make a firm, well-informed decision about strategy.

Business Statistics

A good business statistician can give managers a serious insight and competitive edge over their competition, but a manager who has an understanding of basic business statistics puts himself in a very advantageous position.  Just ask Jeffrey Ma, former MIT blackjack team member and current ESPN statistician, who used statistics to out-think and outsmart Las Vegas in the mid-1990s.  

The same is true for a manager who understands business statistics. Looking at viable business data, breaking it down, and running complex regression analyses on those data pieces requires some serious astuteness and above-average computing skills.  While a savvy computer user can run complex models using only a spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel, in order to interpret those statistics, you need to master business stats.

Strategic Management

Strategic management is often the capstone course of any business degree from the associate's level to the MBA.  Whatever form the degree takes, strategic management takes an equally comprehensive form itself.  Business strategy requires you to bring in all areas of business: marketing, management, operations, finance, accounting, etc. in order to make decisions about the direction your company will go.  

As though mastering the principles we've mentioned above isn't challenging enough, now we have to combine them, process them, and spit them out into firm directions and decisions.  While you don't have to be a master of all of those principles in order to be a strategist, in order to be an effective strategist a well-rounded understanding of all business principles will greatly benefit you.  Additionally, by understanding strategic management in a tangible way, managers are able to better relate to their employees and find ways to incorporate them into planning and utilize their strengths to the company's advantage.

Fear Not: Help is Near with the Business Administration Bachelor’s

If you're looking into earning a business degree, some of these concepts may seem abstract and confusing upon first glance; however, as a student you will be eased into these classes and principles slowly giving you ample opportunity to master them.  The best piece of advice for mastering these principles is to master them at their most basic elements.  Build a solid foundation of concepts for each of the principles mentioned above, and you'll be able to build a very sturdy structure of understanding for each ideal.  

Reaching out to you professors throughout your education and maintaining positive working relationships with them will greatly benefit you.  Asking for assistance in areas where you struggle will pay dividends when the big payoffs of your education come.  If you're looking for more information about a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, get in touch with an advisor at ECPI University. It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!

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