Business Administration: Small Business and Entrepreneurship Major

Got a business idea scribbled in a notebook, or a family shop you hope to take over one day? The Business Administration: Small Business and Entrepreneurship Major is a two-year Lakeland diploma delivered face to face at the Lloydminster campus, with September and January starts, and it is built to help you turn that idea into a working enterprise.

Year one covers the essentials that all Lakeland business diplomas share: two accounting courses, Business Mathematics, micro and macroeconomics, Marketing Principles, Organizational Behaviour, two communications courses and CU 248 Business Computer Applications. In year two the entrepreneurship major concentrates on what an owner operator needs most, namely salesmanship, leadership and supervision, and small business management. You also pick one 3-credit elective in year one and four 3-credit electives in year two, so you can add depth that fits the business you picture yourself running.

Classes run face to face in Lloydminster, a city that straddles the Alberta and Saskatchewan border, so the owner operators you study and meet run shops, trades and service firms that trade in two provinces at once, and the salesmanship and supervision courses are pitched at exactly that kind of hands-on, owner-run business. Graduates who want a degree can use block transfer agreements with NAIT, Okanagan College, the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan, or stay in Lloydminster for an Athabasca University Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Management offered through Lakeland.

Lakeland says graduates of this major are equipped to start a business, take over a franchise or grow an existing one. Typical roles include small business owner, franchise operator, assistant store manager, sales representative, team supervisor and business development officer. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Major suits self-starters who enjoy selling, leading a small team and making decisions when their own money and reputation are on the line.