There are two existing options for aspiring business professionals: pursuing an online MBA program, such as Flordia State University’s Online MBA, and enrolling in an entrepreneurship boot camp, such as this one offered by MIT. While both options are intended to enable candidates to succeed across business ventures, they approach a common goal from different angles.

Differences at the macro-level

First, an online MBA is a full sweep of the business landscape. MBA programs are designed to expose candidates to the corporate supply-chain, from human resources and financing, to operations and executive management. In contrast, entrepreneurship boot camps are designed to simulate an incubator or accelerator model for a roughly-sketched business ideas that may need fine-tuning and strategic vigor. While common themes and skills overlap between the business executive and the entrepreneur, the underlying strategies to launching a business and competing in markets may differ.

Merits of the online MBA

Irrespective of your business idea or career aspirations, if you aren’t exposed to the how’s and why’s of business, you may spend more time learning from trial-and-error than succeeding in the corporate landscape. This may be the distinguishing factor. Corporations are behemoths with complex architectures and organizational structures, navigating them successfully merits the skills obtained in an online MBA.

Nobody wants to learn the hard way when costly marketing campaigns fail to convert, when investor or customer calls stop coming in, and your business has run out of cash. While systemic risks persist, these pitfalls can be mitigated by the savvy business leader – exactly the professionals MBA programs are designed to develop.

Maximizing your ROI

Ultimately, your teachings and takeaways will be a deciding factor in launching and maintaining a successful business. How you leverage your resources is one of the leading indicators for success. The online MBA may be just that. Before enacting a business model you are unprepared to handle, consider what resources or tools you are lacking and determine how best to fill the gaps. Business aren’t successful because their leaders took the right classes, they’re successful because leaders were prepared, well-positioned, and able to execute the proper strategies at the right time. Business programs teach the myriad techniques, environments, and case-studies that exist to turn candidates into leaders.

Leveraging Peer Networks

Businesses grow because leaders have learned to apply their lessons, connected with people in the industry whose insights and ideas are critical, and exposed themselves to expertise and knowledge. Both online MBA programs and entrepreneurship bootcamps facilitate network-building with online communities for like-minded individuals. How you connect through these portals is dependent on your engagement.

Costs to enrol

Financially you may wonder if you will save money enrolling in an entrepreneurship bootcamp, as typically these offerings are significantly less costly than a fully-fledged MBA program. It depends on your engagement, aspirations, and whether you are looking to launch an existing business proposal.

The cost of an MBA is dependent on the school you choose. Online MBA programs are still more affordable given the discount on distance (bridging the gap between campus and home) and opportunity costs (oftentimes online MBA programs are more flexible for working professionals who need to continue earning income).

Entrepreneurship bootcamps last only a few weeks meaning a bulk of business acumen is overlooked in favour of the startup endeavour.

At the end of the day, the cost of an online MBA is an investment in your future. What you get out of it is partly dependent on what you put in which includes resources in time and energy. Without a doubt, online MBA programs are making these executive-grade leadership curriculums more accessible than ever before. This presents new opportunities for aspiring business leaders. MBA programs are versatile, so if you plan to launch your startup one day, you’ll know how to do it.