What is a good two year degree?

Answer 1

The best 2-year degree is not being offered by any college as far as I can tell. Here is what any such degree should teach, but the problem is that no one instructor (professor, assistant professor, etc.) could teach the course properly. You would need to have someone (probably more than one person) with a non-teaching background to teach the course. The course would be a mutl-disciplinary course teaching students how to be the assistant to the owner of a small business and, during the workweek, be able to save the owner about 4-10 hours of time which the owner can use to further develop the small business. I created such a program which I called "Management Assistant Training Program" and then was forced by licensing authorities to rename the program to "Business Assistant Training Program". I proposed that compensation for a trained Management Assistant or Business Assistant would be according to the number of hours that the BA or MA saved his/her employer each week, such as $100 per hour saved, or $800/week of he/she were able to save 8 hours per week for the employer, on the average. This was more than 10 years ago. Today, I would say that $120 to $150 per hour saved would be more appropriate. I would leave the amount to be negotiated between the MA and the small business owner. If the MA felt that he/she was not getting paid enough, he/she would threaten to leave. Any small business owner would say that if the MA was actually saving the owner 8 hours of time per week, there is a huge value to the owner which he/she wouldn't want to lose, and the owner and MA would and should be able to reach an agreeable level of compensation, which would continue to rise, and the MA at some point could be expected to either become a partner, or would leave to start his/her own business. I can't think of a more valuable course for small business owners or the persons who would become their partners or competitors.

The curriculum I created included such diverse subjects as driver training (for those not having a driver's license); understanding payroll and the best way to deal with payroll; computer training; internet (new, internet wasn't significant at the time I created the program), marketing, advertising, compliance with regulatory requirements; raising capital; managing capital; getting a new business off the ground; banks; credit card companies; lawsuit; sales, selling and sales force management; saving money is more important after break-even is achieved; prior to break-even speed is more important than cost; and perhaps 200 other subjects of importance to the owner and operator of a small business, who often has insufficient time to manage the business because of the imposition of a lot of regulatory BS on the small business owner, which the owner should try to lay off on someone else - who is the BA or MA.

Carl E. Person