Where you choose to learn is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in your career. The choice between attending graduate school and working in the real world is in fact the choice between two different models of education — and two very different outcomes. Each will enhance and challenge you as a professional, but you will emerge a fundamentally different person depending on where you spend your time.

Meanwhile, the world is changing. The cost of a graduate education is at an all-time high, but employers are entertaining candidates from a range of backgrounds and fields, with an increasing interest in productivity and results. The Internet has opened up new channels for employment, networking and professional development, as well as entire industries, tools and communities. Resources that were previously locked up in the hallways of the university are increasingly accessible in the real world.

So as you navigate the decision, you must ask yourself whether grad school — particularly an MBA — will help you accomplish the things you want to achieve and become the person you want to be. Answering that question honestly is a critical step for every business professional.

I’m an entrepreneur, and my view (particularly in this unique era) is that working in the real world is a far more valuable, enriching experience than grad school. I therefore chose to opt out of an MBA and pursue my education through real-world startup experience.  Here’s why:

1. Doing Over Learning

The old adage that you learn best by doing has never been truer. Two years hard at work in your field, as opposed to two years in a university learning about your field, will always be a more valuable experience. All theoretical training must eventually find its application in the real world, so why not play there from the start? Even with a graduate education, most candidates will find that employers care far more about real-world experience than business school training. Ask yourself: How best can I spend the next two years? I’m confident that for most people, a truly productive two years will center on the real world.

2. The Value of Paper

It’s a glamorous, interesting degree, but the MBA is no longer a requisite passport to the kingdom of business. Nor is it always reflective of the real world: Discussions in the classroom only simulate the dynamics of the working world. Real-world experience, in contrast, always speaks for itself. It also says a great deal about you — your priorities, your passions, and your abilities. What’s more, the market is teeming with MBAs, and companies in this increasingly specialized world want more than a degree. They want a person, and one who can achieve real results.

3. Life On Hold

In addition to the sky-high costs of grad school, there is also the significant opportunity cost that all candidates take on when they head back to school. Two years in a classroom also means two years not spent making money, developing relationships, enhancing skills and learning about your field. Many candidates find that personal lives are put on hold as wedding and family plans are delayed until after graduation, even though the burden of these costs (tangible and intangible) can last years. Part-time and fully-employed graduate programs are designed to manage that downside, but many students end up straddling both school and the real world without getting the full experience from either.

4. A Demanding Vacation

Grad school is often celebrated as a vacation from the real world — that is, to some degree, the allure of the MBA for many professionals — but a rigorous program done properly is one of the most strenuous experiences imaginable. Assignments build up, extra preparation and teamwork become paramount, social and extracurricular activities beckon, and sleep becomes a distant memory. Many candidates end up wondering whether they wouldn’t rather be paid in the working world — where they would also be getting hands-on experience — to forego so much of their personal lives.

5. The Right Education

Take a moment and define your goals. Make them clear, honest and attainable. Invest the energy, emotionally and intellectually, to truly understand where you would like to go — and, most importantly, why. Then ask yourself how grad school will bring you closer to that goal. Oftentimes, grad school becomes a replacement for the hard work and choices you must make in the real world. Or it is a common path that was thrust on you by a company or encouraged by your industry. In many cases, the MBA isn’t as pivotal as it seems to getting where you want to go in life. Operating in the real world, where you ultimately want to advance, is the greatest education imaginable.

Bottom line? Education is a deeply personal choice. And it’s important. It helps define who we are, what we know and how we work. Where you decide to learn should reflect your goals in each of those areas.

But when it comes to advancing your career, your education and your life, the instincts and insights you acquire in the real world will always serve you better than the ideas and concepts you explore in a classroom. I encourage you to continue playing in the real world, as I did. I’m confident you’ll be a stronger, smarter person for it.

Jay Wu leads Innovation at A Forever Recovery. In his startup experience, he has built a digital marketing agency, a content network, and an e-commerce store. Jay speaks in the Bay area about social media marketing, SEO, and current trends in the internet-startup industry.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Cash flow is king, this founder learned the hard way.

At 23 years old, I started Infographic World, a data visualization company working with brands to tell their story in a more visual and effective manner. It doesn’t matter that I’ve practically studied business since childhood or that I have an MBA—there is simply no greater teacher than failure. I’ve had to acknowledge this truth more times than I can count.

My first lesson came about 10 months into starting the company. At the time, I had virtually no systems in place to track money: how much was coming in, how much a job would cost, how much I would eventually need to pay vendors, etc.

More importantly, I never stopped to think about the payment terms I was offering my clients. In my head, I had been conducting a fair amount of business, so the money would come in whenever it came in, and I would be fine as long as there was a nice, comfortable amount of money sitting in the business bank account. To make matters worse, I always wanted to pay my vendors, so whenever I received an invoice, I would cut a check immediately, every time.

On a particularly fateful Friday, I was printing out the invoices that were in my inbox. For some reason, a lot of my jobs had come to a conclusion around the same time, which meant that there were now a lot of contractors that needed to get paid. I laid out all of the invoices on my desk, added them all up and wrote down the total number. Just before I began writing out the checks, I randomly figured that I should check my bank account balance and see what I’d be left with after paying these vendors on time, like I always did.

The next moment was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had in my life—my bank balance wasn’t enough to cover the amount I had promised my vendors. It wasn’t even close, actually.

I closed the office door and sat there at my desk with a pain in my stomach that completely overwhelmed me. For the first time in my life, I felt like a complete and utter failure. How could I have been so stupid to allow a situation to arise where I had to pay out more money than I actually had in my bank account? I didn’t want to upset my vendors; they were the lifeblood of my company in terms of producing something for my clients. In my head, my business wasn’t going to survive the next 30 days.

I decided to visit my parents’ house that weekend and speak with my father, who has always been a mentor of mine and someone in whom I confided in times of trouble. I explained my situation and we sat there for hours, discussing what caused the problem and different ways to remedy it in the future.

With a hard look, I realized that my first problem was obvious: I wasn’t enforcing any sort of payment terms with my clients, and I was paying my vendors too quickly. Essentially I was paying for jobs long before I was actually being paid for them—a model that will eventually catch up with you, as I’ve learned. I proceeded to set up new terms both for the clients and the vendors: I began to require a certain percentage of money up front from the client, and also came to an agreement with vendors to pay them in a manner that’s more realistic for me as a business owner.

In order to enforce these new policies and prevent myself from making such a great mistake again, I found that I also needed a better way to track what money was going in and out of my company. My father insisted that I set up a “reserves” bank account for my business: whenever money was received for a job, I would set aside what I knew to be the future costs of this job into this separate bank account. This way, regardless of when the job got done, the money that would be needed to eventually pay the vendor would always be there.

This truly was my great mistake, but what matters is surviving it — and learning from the experience.

Justin Beegel is the founder of Infographic World, Inc. He left the big corporate world at 23 to help companies transform the way they communicate their messages—essentially taking things people don’t want to read (long and boring PDFs, text-heavy articles and dense subject matter) and turning them into captivating visualizations that people actually want to read.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

Question: What’s your best leadership advice for going from employee to boss — of yourself, and maybe others too? (name one tip)

Get Ready for the Investment

“You’re used to managing a crushing workload, difficult clients and phone on perma-ring, but when you’re the boss, you get to handle ego and emotions too. An important lesson is that managing personalities, expectations, egos and abilities is just as important as everything else on your plate. A happy, healthy, productive team is a product of time and energy spent caring for your team on a personal level.”

– Yael Cohen | Founder, President, CEO, Fuck Cancer

Pick Up the Boss Work

“One of the most common thing that employees do when they become the boss is they still do employee tasks.That kind of work is supposed to be done by employees and you are supposed to do boss work! When we run a business, it is our job to build systems and manage people to run these systems. If you find yourself doing the work, keep asking yourself, how can I replace myself for this task?”

– Louis Lautman | Founder, Supreme Outsourcing

Remember the Other Side

“One thing I find important as a boss is to remember what it was like on the other side, as an employee. For example, I used to hate when a boss would micromanage me. I sometimes catch myself doing that with my employees, and then stop and remember how much it bothered me, and try to stop the habit myself. You want the people working for you happy and productive, so remember what made you happy.”

– Justin Beegel | Founder, Infographic World, Inc.

Seek Perspective

“Always know where your organization is in its life cycle and where you are as its leader. Your role and the company’s needs will change at the pace of growth and you need to be steering the ship through its various phases. Regular reflection, time off and insights from outside will help you to zoom out.”

– Christopher Kelly | Co-Founder, Principal, Convene

Learn to Delegate

“The hardest part of moving up the ladder is knowing what to hand off to someone else (or even to automate). Most of us assume that as the boss, we have to do everything. The reality is that we’re responsible for everything — but who actually does the work isn’t important.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

Keep Up the Confidence

“Believe in yourself and your decisions and get comfortable with managing employees. Stay firm in your resolve, but not rigid and inflexible. Don’t be afraid to ask more experienced mentors for advice and to utilize the services of consulting firms. If you keep focused, stay calm, and are willing to work hard, you will find it extremely rewarding and fun!”

– Zach Cutler | Founder and CEO, Cutler Group

Maintain Transparency

“I strive to be really transparent and open with my employees. I’ve experimented with varying levels of openness, but ultimately, being more transparent and honest with everyone is the best option. If they understand me, and my drive to push them to be the absolute best they can be, we can have success both individually and as a company.”

– Justin Beck | Co-Founder and CEO, PerBlue

Create the Systems

“Focus on creating systems and getting organized. If you do not have systems in place with clear directions and checkpoints, then you’re going to struggle to manage and lead your team. Once you have systematized your business and organized your own projects and tasks, then you can lead by example.”

– Pete Kennedy | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Main Street ROI

Start Planning Ahead

“Planning is the key to having perspective on what’s most important now and working ahead to proactively address potential challenges. If you are the boss and you don’t plan, you not only create stress for yourself, but also for your employees. Make this a daily habit so that you know how to lead best.”

– Elizabeth Saunders | Founder & CEO, Real Life E®

Discipline Makes a Difference

“When you’re an employee, you can usually rely on upper management to guide you and prod you when work needs to get done. When you’re the boss, the responsibility lies completely on you, so you need to practice discipline and focus. If you don’t, who will?”

– Steven Le Vine | CEO/President, grapevine pr

Build Your Brand

“Make sure you focus on building your professional brand. The more credibility and authority you have, the more opportunities will come your way and you will be able to lead more effectively.”

– John Hall | CEO, Influence & Co.

Image: kwwl.com

Entrepreneurs spend time quizzing themselves on business particulars for their meetings with important new contacts, but often forget the human side of the interaction. However, knowing your business “ins and outs” is not enough – they must also be effectively conveyed.

Whether communicating to an important distributor or venture capitalist, entrepreneurs must be strategic about how they influence others to join their side. Meetings are not just information exchanges — they are also “relationship-building” sessions. Establishing these relationships enables your efforts to take root and make a difference for your business.

To that end, based on research and best practices, we have developed the “five C’s” of an effective meeting:

1. Compelling: Tell a story to help illustrate your point. Everyone responds to a story and research has shown that stories increase message retention.
2. Clarity: Be focused and clear. Often, entrepreneurs, especially those who are experts, want to share everything they know in the first meeting. This is not about impressing your audience with the breadth of your knowledge. Be restrained in what you share – summarize the high points. A great meeting will lead to follow-up discussions.
3. Consistency: Do your homework on meeting participants. Connect to their interests, including past decisions or common interests.
4. Conversation: Allow for dialogue. Creating an opportunity for a two-way conversation will allow for questions and clarifications, which leads to greater buy-in.
5. Close: End the meeting effectively by including a direct request. Never let an opportunity pass to ask for support – for dollars or for introductions.

So as you plan your meetings with new contacts, remember it is important to start small and build a solid foundation for a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

This post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Suzanne Smith, MBA is a serial social entrepreneur and bridges many disciplines, including serving on the National Board of the Social Enterprise Alliance, coaching nonprofits as Managing Director of Social Impact Architects and Co-Founder of Flywheel: Social Enterprise Hub, and educating future leaders as Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas. She holds an MBA from Duke University, where she was a CASE (Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship) Scholar and continues to serve as a Research Fellow. 

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

You love your website like your baby. It represents your startup perfectly — except when it doesn’t.

Your website might not be delivering the message you thought it was. Here are five of the most common startup website mistakes that I see founders make when creating their own website or hiring a designer to create it for them — and what to do about each:

1. Designing for the “Cool” Factor

You want your startup to stand out from all the others out there, so you design your logo and your site with lots of flair. Figuring that a flashy design will stick in people’s minds, you forgo clarity.

While people may think your site looks good, they won’t remember what your service or product is all about. They might not even grasp your concept while they’re on your site, which will cause them to hit the back button or move on without a second thought.

Ouch. Visitors can be fickle, so make sure to focus on explaining what your startup does and how it will help make your customers’ lives better.

2. On-Page Overwhelm

In an effort to tell people all the reasons they need to sign up for your service or product, you might go overboard and cause more harm than good.

If you have more than three major pieces of information or options on a page, you’re likely overdoing it. When it comes to designing effective websites, keeping the visual options to a minimum always results in better conversions.

Instead of packing your website with the 20 different reasons to try your product, focus on the big three benefits that you can deliver. Think of what your startup helps people get more or less of, whether that’s sleep or anxiety.

3. Not Testing On All Devices

Your website looks great on your computer and maybe your phone. But have you tested it on a variety of different devices? Have you considered making it design responsive, so that it will resize based on the dimensions of the screen?

These are all great questions to consider before you hit publish on your new startup website, but it’s worth going back and checking different browsers and devices even if your site is live.

4. Forgetting to Ask for Contact Details

Most visitors who land on your website will not buy your product or service. It’s just not going to happen — but it doesn’t mean that you should let these curious folks walk away into their busy lives, never to return.

Instead, make sure you have a simple and prominent way for them to stay in the loop with your startup’s progress. Make the offer to join your email list an inviting one by focusing on what benefits they will get from hearing about your startup.

If you can’t think of anything, consider creating free content in the form of articles or videos that you think will be of interest to your ideal customers. No one can turn down a highly targeted freebie that’s designed to solve their exact problems.

5. Not Offering a Taste Before Asking for the Sale

Speaking of freebies, do you have anything on your website that people can try before they buy? Depending on your product or service, you might be able to offer a taste before asking them to commit by plunking down their credit card details.

If you offer an ongoing service, it’s a great idea to let people get used to your software or services. They’ll be hooked and won’t want to stop using it. Try offering a free trial, and be generous — if you did your job right in creating your offering, people will take you up on your paid version, too.

Think outside the box on this one, because offering a sample is one of the best ways to get people open to buying from you.

Do You Make Any of These Mistakes?

Now that you know what to watch out for when creating or updating your startup website, it’s time to be honest with yourself and assess your own site. And if you need an unbiased opinion, ask a friend or colleague — someone who isn’t as close to your “baby” as you are.

Nathalie Lussier got her Bachelors in Software Engineering then promptly turned down a “stable” job on Wall Street to start her own online business. She’s a sought after digital strategist who teaches people how to get techy with their business. Get your Free Website Checkup at http://GetTechyNow.com.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.