What's it like being a business manager in any kind of business?

Business management can be very exciting, because you get to do a little bit of everything every day, but it also comes with a lot of responsibility which can be stressful at times. Business managers have to understand all parts of the business- operations, finance, marketing, who the customers are, inventory management and dealing with vendors, hiring and managing a staff etc. The fun part is you get to set the strategy and tone for your business and you can have a lot of autonomy to make decisions, but with that also comes responsibility to meet your financial goals, consistently grow and improve your business, to meet high standards of customer service, and to keep your staff happy and thriving. Being a founder or owner of a business has it's own unique set of challenges and you really often have to be the final decision maker without knowing what the potential outcome could be. Some people really thrive on this ability to take some calculated risks and try new things. Others, who prefer a little more structure and who don't always want to have to make every decision alone, can really flourish as a business manager of a product line or a division in a larger company. I personally enjoy having the autonomy to run a product line, with the support of shared services like legal, finance, HR, etc of a larger company, as well as the guidance and advice of other business managers on other product lines within my company. you learn something new every day as a business manager so if you like staying very busy and working on all kind of different things on a day to day basis, you will thrive in business management!

Being a Business Manager is a great career but of course there are some skill sets that managers need. Decision making, analytical rigor, problem solving etc. But I think the most important skill set is people management. If one is a manager it is likely they have a team of employees under them. As a manager it is crucial to develop a good rapport with your team, connect with your people and be considerate. As a manager there are tons of decisions one needs to make and without their team support a manager can never make the right decisions. So I would say yes being a manager revolves around professional decision making but mostly is about people management.

Hi Tara,

Your experience in management will be different depending on what company m, industry or department you go into. I was a manager for the Academic Counseling department for the online division of a university. In my role, I had to balance running the daily operations of the department, addressing highly escalated students and coaching my staff.

The most important skills you will need are analytical, problem solving, interpersonal and time management. If you haven't taken any communication courses, I strongly recommend takin organizational communication and advanced public speak. Being able to manage people effectively is crucial. It will also be important to build strong relationships with other departments.

Those skills mixed with the knowledge of your business degree will be crucial. To get a better picture, I would think about reaching out to some local businesses to see if you can shadow managers in their organization to get a better feel.

If you need help accomplishing something like that, feel free to reach back out to me.