If you love the field of business and like the idea of buying the boss, you may be interested in becoming a business manager. Becoming a business manager usually requires extensive experience within the industry of your choice, but it comes with some fantastic rewards.

What Is a Business Manager?

A business manager is a general description for anyone that managers the workings of a business. Common industries include managers of construction companies, retail stores or financial firms.

A business manager may have different responsibilities dependent on the industry they are in and size of the company they are engaged with. The most common form of a business manager is a retail or food service manager.

Business managers need to maintain an overview of all of the workings of a business. This includes maintaining inventory, receiving financial statements, hiring employees, letting employees go and increasing the profitability of their company.

Many business managers will work very long hours but will be extremely well compensated. Business managers that delegate appropriately may not have to work the long hours that are usually required.

What Does a Business Manager Do?

A business manager is responsible for the overall operations of their business. Sometimes, a business manager may not be on-site but may instead connect with an assistant manager on premises.

A business manager may be responsible for the procurement of inventory and may need to make deals with vendors and clients throughout the day.

Business managers can work in many types of industry, and may work with large corporations or even be self-employed at their own business.

Overall, a business manager’s goal is to maintain the profitability of a company through careful management of funds, assets, debts and personnel. Any aspect of a company could potentially cause the profits of a company to plummet if they are not carefully monitored.

Business managers need to be very people oriented and able to manage people as well as create deals. A business manager will usually work very closely with the owner of a business.

How Do You Become a Business Manager?

Becoming a business manager usually requires both a degree in business and experience within the field. Retail managers usually do not come from those skilled in fast food service and those in fast food service usually do not move into corporate management, however there are exceptions for those that have significant amounts of experience in their industry.

A business manager will often start out as an assistant manager first, but occasionally a business manager may be offered the position if they have the educational background to compensate for their lack of experience.

Degrees in the business management field include a degree in business management, business or even accounting. Business managers need to be current on many financial techniques in order to manage the business’s finances effectively. As noted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are many opportunities and different careers that fall under the general heading of business and financial management.

How Do You Advance as a Business Manager?

A business manager may eventually want to become an operations manager. While a business manager usually only manages a single business, an operations manager or district manager will manage multiple businesses. This will usually require hours of dedication but will be repaid with higher pay and better benefits.

Business managers may also be interested in owning their own business or managing larger companies. A successful business manager can move into many industries. Those extremely skilled in the area of business management can become management analysts, a field that O*Net Online describes as growing faster than average.