Kristen Pickett, an online MBA student at Southern Arkansas University, said she is inspired to help entrepreneurs create the most important piece of their business – a plan.
Pickett, a native of Horatio, Ark., received her undergraduate degree in Entrepreneurial Finance in May 2016 and is now pursuing her MBA with an emphasis in Social Entrepreneurship.
“As an undergraduate, I always enjoyed writing business plans,” Pickett said. “I don’t want to start my own business but I would love to help someone else start their own.”
The MBA is offered through the Rankin College of Business at SAU and is fully accredited by AACSB International, the premier accrediting body for colleges and schools of business. It is delivered on-campus or entirely online and requires 30 hours to complete. SAU’s online MBA was recently ranked the No. 3 Best Buy among distance MBAs by GetEducated.com’s national online degree review team. This affordability ranking is based on a comprehensive review of more than 180 competing, AACSB-accredited MBAs. Online MBA Today, in its published rankings of the Top 35 Online MBA programs in supply chain management, places SAU at No. 28 in the nation.
SAU’s MBA is available with three areas of emphasis: the general MBA, supply chain management and agriculture business. A student can complete either program in a traditional night setting, through online delivery or a combination of the two.
Pickett said her MBA emphasis will help her give something back to the community through business. “This whole idea of social entrepreneurship stems from a little coffee shop in Italy, where people ‘pay it forward,’” she said. “They’ll pay extra for a cup of coffee for the next person who maybe can’t pay. The idea came to the United States, to a place called Rosa’s Fresh Pizza in Philadelphia. They have an entire wall there covered with sticky notes from people who benefited because others paid extra.”
Inspired by the restaurant’s idea of making a difference, Pickett said she wants to help entrepreneurs develop their business plans. She said she first learned of the idea via the SAU Business Student Advisory Council and decided, “That’s what I want to do.” Working as a graduate assistant for the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center/ Continuing Education, she said it is “neat to get to help people see their ideas and dreams come to life. That’s how I feel like I can give back. It’s taking that extra step.”
She said it is important for all businesses to have a plan and she hopes social entrepreneurship, or the idea of giving back, can be integrated into the plans she helps write. “I enjoy the whole process of writing business plans, seeing what all goes into it,” she said. “Financial projections are the most difficult unless there is a lot of market research already out there.”
“The whole idea behind the plan is for you to know your business inside and out,” Pickett said. “Will it actually work? A lot of times, entrepreneurs don’t understand how hard it is to start a business until they write their plan.”
She said she would encourage anyone thinking about starting a business to go through the Small Business Development Center. “If you don’t put the time in on the plan, you won’t start the business. That’s what’s great about the center, it’s where entrepreneurship students can come and write those plans.”
The new MBA program has a psychology component due to its element of human interaction. “I’m taking two classes in my first semester as an MBA student.”
She said she enjoys people, which is one reason Social Entrepreneurship has such appeal to her. “You don’t have to focus just on numbers, you also focus on the people,” she said.
Pickett said that she is the only business major in her family. “They all work in health care,” she said. “I went with business because I feel there is a lot of opportunity with that degree program. With a business degree, you can do pretty much anything, if you work hard enough. I think our business school graduates are well-rounded and prepared for the world. I love the professors and atmosphere of the Rankin College of Business; they always have an open door policy, they’ll stop on a dime to help you.”
She said the College of Business “offers so many opportunities, so many internships that help you find a job later in life.”
“The Rankin College is awesome but I can say the same about SAU,” she said. “It’s not every university where the president actually knows your name. That’s why I came to SAU. People are so much friendlier here. It’s home.”
For more information on SAU’s MBA programs, visit https://web.saumag.edu/academics/program/master-of-business-administration/ or contact Dr. Christie Hough, associate professor of management, at crhough@saumag.edu or call 870-235-4305.
