Sole proprietorship has become a growing trend worldwide and is increasingly present in Romania as well. However, the transition from the status of an employee to self-employment is not an easy process. To succeed in this new position, solopreneurs must possess solid business knowledge as well as leadership skills, skills that can be acquired through experience and education. An EMBA (Executive Master of Business Administration) program is a good option that can help individual entrepreneurs develop their leadership skills and gain a thorough understanding of the key aspects of running a business.

Manuela Maftey, a financial consultant, switched to sole proprietorship in 2021 after previously holding the positions of CFO in several companies. He has been the managing partner of the financial consulting company MFTM Growth Advisors for almost one and a half years.

Manuela is a graduate of the WU Executive MBA in Bucharest, class 2013-2015. The main reason for participating in this program was to get an integrated view of business: “At the time, I was a CFO with a few years of management experience, but I wanted to understand much more and better what drives the actions in each department of the company, how they are justified, so that I can integrate with the financial picture of the company.” Tell meHere is this one.

He chose the program offered by WU because of the university’s international prestige, the reputation of the faculty, the module topics, and the collaboration between WU and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Also, given the commitment and effort involved in the EMBA, the fact that the program was part-time, 14 months long, was an important factor in his decision.

Manuela believes that the experience gained during the EMBA is valuable for her current activities as a solopreneur in several ways – “The most important aspect is precisely this integrated business perspective that I was able to improve after the EMBA program, the fact that I can visualize, feel and think about integrated processes and interrelationships of departments to offer solutions in consulting services, finance and IT systems implementation for measurement and reporting of business activities at all levels”.

In addition, the case studies discussed in the program were very useful as they looked at different and complex scenarios from different companies, among which the most famous international ones. Students had to make decisions as if they were part of the respective companies, both individually and as a team. This exercise contributed not only to the improvement of technical knowledge, but also to an increase in the ability to adapt and understand different situations and challenges in different fields.

Completing the program’s final work, the Capstone Project, was one of Manuela’s biggest challenges in the program. His team participated in the creation of a real project aimed at selling the Romanian company’s products on the international market. The project was challenging because it was necessary to know the specific market, culture and geopolitical environment, as well as legal restrictions in the respective country. However, the effort paid off and the end result was very beautiful.

Although Manuela believes that it is too early to give advice to those who want to become a solo entrepreneur, she believes that discipline, flexibility, openness, the ability to manage uncertainty, which can be quite high, at least in the beginning and not the last line, a passion for of what you do are key elements of that activity.

“The transition from an employee to a solopreneur is not easy, it requires a lot of effort, constant adaptation, and I think it is equally important to talk to other people who have gone through this process and can share their experience with you. I also have colleagues from WU who I have talked to and they have helped me.” she admitted.

When asked how she perceives the ratio of men to women in management positions, she says that she does not perceive a gap in this regard, although she has served on the boards of directors of several companies and perhaps in some of them there were fewer. women He believes that professionalism, fairness and common sense are the qualities that lead women and men to the positions of managers or entrepreneurs.

Speaking about the future of executive education, the entrepreneur believes that EMBA programs should integrate more topics related to digitization and the global business environment, as the prospects of AI and everything that means online business have become particularly important.

The Executive MBA offered by WU Executive Academy is the only EMBA program in Romania with the prestigious triple international accreditation of EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB, which less than 1% of business schools in the world have. The program will start in November and will be part-time for 16 months.

The WU Executive MBA program in Bucharest has opened a €200,000 scholarship session for the new session starting in the fall.

Scholarships are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis and applications are open until June 30, 2023. Full details are available at the WU Executive Academy.