You don’t need an MBA to come up with a groundbreaking business plan, says Lynda Weinman, co-founder of lynda.com.

Lynda Weinman: For a lot of startups, I really see that the focus is more on, how am I going to get this big piece of this sort of big market share? instead of, am I really creating something that’s going to be of value to people? is there a true need for it? can I actually deliver on that need, and am I willing to start slow and grow slow and make something sustainable versus make something that’s going to get flipped quickly? 

I can tell you that my husband and I, we did everything from sweeping the floor to cleaning the toilets to putting the software on the computers to buying the computers to writing the curriculum to teaching.

I think the typical MBA kind of approach is: find a market, evaluate how big the market is, write a business plan, figure out how you can tap into getting some of that market share . . . and I have never approached our business like that.  I watch a lot of businesses where they get an idea, but they are reliant on all kinds of other people doing every piece of it and they don’t really necessarily have a big role in the mechanics of it, and I think there is a lot of value in knowing all the different aspects of your business and knowing that you can kind of do it yourself.

Directed / Produced by
Jonathan Fowler & Elizabeth Rodd