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‘Want to be an entrepreneur? Here are 7 ways studying abroad can help‘

If entrepreneurship is your calling, consider an international education in business or entrepreneurship before launching your startup. Here are 7 compelling reasons why you should study abroad if you want to be an entrepreneur.

There is no better time than today to launch your startup dream. The Indian startup ecosystem is bustling with energy and promise. However, before you jump onboard the startup enterprise, do you want to polish your skills, build a strong network and equip yourself with the framework to deal with the challenges of running a business? If entrepreneurship is your way forward, you will significantly benefit from an educational programme in an international school.

Here are 7 compelling reasons why you should consider studying abroad before launching into your entrepreneurial dreams:

1. You may be technically savvy, but are you business savvy?
Knowing the technical line of the business is not enough to run a successful company. Being an astute marketing and strategic leader is also crucial for the success of your business. Without the business lexicon, you will be incapacitated to conduct routine transactions and to communicate effectively with customers, clients, and vendors. As an entrepreneur, you need a strong grasp of finances and business analytics for your industry. A good entrepreneurship programme takes you through all the challenges of the new age business climate, and prepares you for the road ahead.

2. Have you thought of how you will grow beyond your geography?
As market places have converged, geographical boundaries have diffused. Today, the entrepreneur is not limited to the local markets, but they can spread far and wide, using real-time technologies and marketing systems. A professional course on Business Management or Entrepreneurship will take care of the gaps in your education.

Also, while studying abroad, you get to interact with a diverse set of people from far flung corners of the world. You can tap into this network through relationship building during your study period. Engage with the student alumni, share your experiences and knowledge on a larger exchange platform and gain a wealth of connections to network your way into broader markets.

3. Entrepreneurship needs strong leadership and team skills. Are you prepared?
One of the biggest challenges for an entrepreneur is managing a team. While your company is small, you can run a one-individual show for a while. However, as business imperatives grow, you will need to hire more talent. Most entrepreneurs who lack a basic understanding or workplace dynamics find themselves on the back foot. With a sound entrepreneurship course abroad, you can build on leadership and team building skills.

What's more, you will also get hands-on experience of managing teams while studying abroad. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to lead or co-work in a team. Also, working with a team of international students, who add their own personality and cultural dynamics to the team, is an enriching and evergreen education. You understand the importance of communication, interpersonal relationship, and talent leveraging.

4. Can't see the woods for the trees? You need to develop a global overview
Business leaders need to move with the agility of a leopard and the predatory instincts of a shark. An entrepreneur is always exploring new avenues for business. As business dynamics change, market preferences evolve, and competitors get more aggressive, the entrepreneur also has to accommodate the change. To stay on top of the game, you have to constantly think beyond the immediate problems at hand.

If you consider a foreign education in business or entrepreneurship, you will develop a global perspective while studying abroad. Instead of thinking horizontally or laterally, you will learn to approach a problem through multiple dimensions. A well thought out decision can save you time and money, which are crucial assets for every startup. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you will gain tremendously with an international education.

5. Learn entrepreneurship specific skills on a multi-cultural platform
Do you think a startup in India shares the same set of problems as its counterpart in New York, China, or Egypt? How do government regulations affect the company's revenues? Studying in a classroom of a hundred different nationalities, interacting with students from every background, ethnicity, race, culture, and ethics gives you a broad horizon of insight.

For every budding entrepreneur, this insight from a foreign education abroad can be a very valuable resource, especially when you have to take decisions that are beyond the curriculum. A foreign educational programme takes care of this need. You are automatically guaranteed a multi-cultural learning platform as soon as you sign up for an international course.

6. Pick nuggets of wisdom from mentors and successful founders of the world
Not only will you get to learn from the best educators of the world, you can also attend workshops, seminars, and guest lectures from celebrity business leaders, founders, and CEOs of top companies when studying abroad. Interacting with the best brains of the world will broaden your thinking, and give you a holistic understanding of the entrepreneurial journey.

7. What's Plan-B, if entrepreneurship does not work?
Now, this may not be what you are thinking right now, but it's important to be practical. Studying abroad gives you a foreign education as your safety net in case things don't pan out and you wish to find other career options. You don't want to be left stranded if your startup does not take off.

Studying abroad, whether business management or entrepreneurship, equips you with many hard and soft skills which will help develop you into a strong leader. However, let me leave you with a caveat -- if your project is time-sensitive and a one or two-year gap will dilute the value of your brand positioning, there is no better time than right now! Business trends wait for nobody, and you will be hard pressed to find the right opportunity again. A business education does create better entrepreneurs, but it cannot recreate a lost opportunity.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

ReachIvy is a premium education and career advisory that helps aspiring students get accepted into top tier educational institutions globally. We have successful admits at MIT, Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, London School of Economics, University of Michigan, Oxford, University of Chicago amongst others.

Vibha Kagzi, Founder and CEO, ReachIvy, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Mellon University. She has also pursued courses at the University of California, Berkeley, the London School of Economics and the Indian School of Business.

Our global team of counsellors have also acquired their degrees from premier institutes and are passionate about sharing their experiences with students worldwide.