General Business
Business is defined as “the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects.” Essentially any dealings that have an economic aim with the exchange of money, products, or services can be considered a type of business transaction, whether this is between people, groups, or companies.
The business world is indescribably large and complex, ranging from an icecream stand at a local high school run by three employees, to corporations like McDonald's with over 31,000 restaurants in 118 countries. Everyone who works is employed by a business of some sort. A degree in business, then, teaches students how these businesses operate, how to make them successful, how they interact with each other, how the business world functions, and how to manage finances, employees, and customers.
A general business degree gives students not only a broad understanding of many different aspects of business and the subsets therein, but also a solid foundation in the liberal arts by including subjects like English, mathematics, and psychology.
Careers: You can pursue a career in any number of business subfields including accounting, human resources, management, finance, sales, marketing, public relations, and information systems. Essentially, this degree equips graduates to adapt to a business world that is constantly changing and evolving. Courses that are offered en route to this degree usually include:
- Marketing Fundamentals
- Human Behavior and Organization
- Business Statistics
- Managerial Accounting
- Microeconomics
- Macroeconomics
- Calculus
- Writing and Critical Reasoning
- Corporate Strategy
- Financial Accounting
- Probability for Business
- Business Finance
- Operations Management
Skills: Part of your education is learning how to succeed in the field of business, and how to foster the skills you will need to achieve this success. A good businessperson is driven, motivated, and analytical. He or she understands trends within economics as well as public policy and organizational behavior; can communicate well; and is well versed in information technology. Businesspeople are leaders, so ethics, managerial skills, and professionalism are very important.
Salary: Salaries vary greatly among business professions, but business tends to pay well. For example, management consultants earn, on average, between $55,590 and $82,090 per year. An operations manager earns an annual median salary of $58,102 while a financial controller earns $74,918. A public relations specialist is paid $51,280 on average, but the top 10% in this sector earn more than $97,910 a year. People with a business degree are qualified for a great number of different jobs, and are paid better the higher their degree and the more years of experience they have.
Article Resources:
Payscale
University of California, Irvine
University of Minnesota
University of Southern California
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics