Entrepreneurship, BBA

Why an Entrepreneurship Degree at Belmont?

student hosts table at entrepreneurship fair

You do not wait until graduation to start. In Belmont’s Entrepreneurship, BBA, you build and run a real venture while you study, using resources few universities can match.

That starts with space. Belmont reserves 3,500 square feet of street-accessible retail space in the Curb Event Center for entrepreneurship students to build and run actual retail and service businesses. You also get the Thomas F. Cone Sr. Center for Entrepreneurship, which helps you take a business from idea to launch, and The Hatchery, a co-working space for students starting ventures. Free legal and accounting clinics and the Belmont Entrepreneurship Network connect you to working founders, advisors and investors.

It is a nationally recognized program. Belmont’s entrepreneurship major is ranked No. 1 in Tennessee, No. 7 in the South and No. 34 nationally by The Princeton Review, and it is recognized as a National Model Undergraduate Program by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Your faculty are current and former business owners who teach from experience.

The outcomes back it up. Belmont’s Class of 2025 entrepreneurship graduates reached a 96% career outcome rate within six months, and 21% were working as entrepreneurs, running their own ventures. Student ventures also win thousands of dollars in funding through competitions each year.

Belmont's Entrepreneurship program consistently ranks among the top programs in the world by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.

in Tennessee

in the South

#32

nationally

Build Your Business in a Top-Ranked Market

You launch your venture in one of the best business markets in the country. Checkr ranked Nashville No. 2 in the nation for job opportunities and earning potential in 2025. The city’s growing startup community, combined with Belmont’s network of local founders and advisors, gives you customers, mentors and connections while you are still in school.

Resources That Turn Ideas Into Businesses

You have a full toolkit for building a venture:

3,500 square feet of student-run retail space in the Curb Event Center to run a real retail business.
The Thomas F. Cone Sr. Center for Entrepreneurship to guide a business from concept to launch and management.
The Hatchery, a co-working space for students starting or growing ventures.
Free legal and accounting clinics and practicing-entrepreneur roundtables.
The Belmont Entrepreneurship Network of faculty, staff and local founders who advise you directly.

Request Information

Ready to Apply?

Start Your Application

Funding to Launch Your Future

You can compete for real startup funding while you study. Belmont’s pitch and venture competitions, including the Buntin Pitch Competition and the Business Venture Competition, award thousands of dollars to student entrepreneurs each year, and scholarships like the Jeff Cornwall Foundation Scholarship support student founders.

Is an Entrepreneurship Major Right for You?

This program fits several kinds of students:

The aspiring founder who has an idea, or the drive to find one, and wants to launch it before graduation.
The family-business successor preparing to lead or grow a business they will one day run.
The combiner who wants to pair entrepreneurship with another field like music business, design or marketing, and build a degree around that goal.

You can major in entrepreneurship even without a business idea yet. The program helps you find and test opportunities, and you can team up with other students to build a venture.

Watch Video

Skills to Build and Grow a Venture

In Belmont’s Entrepreneurship, BBA, you learn to:

Identify and test business opportunities in a real market
Build business plans and financial models that hold up to investors
Find and secure funding for new and social ventures
Network effectively to attract investors, partners, advisors, employees and customers
Develop a strategy to launch, grow and sustain a business

You build these skills through coursework and hands-on ventures, so you graduate with real experience running a business.

Program Details

Curious about your coursework? View requirements for this degree in the course catalog.

Accelerated MBA 4 +1

The MBA-Accelerated (A.M.B.A.) program is a full-time M.B.A. designed for individuals with little or no full-time business work experience. Individuals admitted to the A.M.B.A. program begin course work in the fall term and complete their studies in the following summer - a total program length of 12 months from start to finish. Through active learning and scholarly exploration, the A.M.B.A. degree is designed to prepare students for entry-level administrative and managerial positions in both the private and public sector. Students will be equipped with comprehensive business skills, analytical tools, and moral clarity to effectively manage diverse teams and lead organizations in today’s rapidly changing and dynamic, global business environment.

The A.M.B.A. is a non-thesis degree consisting of 36 hours, of which 30 hours are required core courses and 6 hours are elective courses that are chosen by the student. M.B.A. elective courses may be related to a specific area (e.g. FIN, ETP, BSA, etc.) or may be independent of each other providing students with a broader point of view.

Whether you want to launch your own startup, consult with Fortune 500 companies or explore investment banking, you'll get an early start on building your career. As an Accelerated MBA student, you’ll enjoy small class sizes and outstanding faculty who bring industry experience to every class they teach. Classes meet four evenings a week on a full-time basis, giving you flexibility during workday hours to complete internships, graduate assistantships or part-time jobs. And you can complete the program in less than a year.

Learn more about Belmont's AMBA

Integrated Degree, M.ACC./B.B.A.

Belmont University’s integrated M.ACC. and B.B.A. degree program is designed to meet today’s needs of those wishing to make accounting a career choice. Today’s accountants must possess much more than just technical accounting knowledge; they must also have a broad understanding of various business activities and possess strong communication, intellectual, and interpersonal skills. In recognition of those additional skills most states, including Tennessee, have passed laws or issued regulations requiring at least 150 hours of higher education to sit for the uniform CPA examination. Also the AICPA requires new members to possess 150 hours of higher education.

Increasingly, businesses are hiring new professionals who have master’s degrees. These include public accounting firms, manufacturing companies, and service providers in healthcare, finance, and insurance, as well as governmental organizations. Belmont’s integrated accountancy degree is a program which meets employer needs and provides graduates with exceptional career opportunities.

The integrated program is only for accounting concentration students in the Undergraduate School of Business Administration at Belmont University and is designed to be completed in a five-year time period.

Learn more about Belmont's MAcc program

The Jack C. Massey College of Business offers a variety of co-curricular leadership and learning opportunities to qualifying students in the form of student organizations and honors societies. Each organization has a faculty advisor, if not multiple. Therefore, our students are able to network and collaborate with faculty both in and out of the classroom.

Student Organizations

Association for Information Systems
American Marketing Association
Business Student Advisory Board
Collegiate DECA
Enactus
Equity Trading Club
International Business Society
Society for Human Resource Management
Student Center for the Public Trust

Honor Societies

Beta Alpha Psi
Beta Gamma Sigma
Omicron Delta Epsilon
Sigma Nu Tau

A Global Perspective

As the workplace becomes more international in scope, a successful manager needs knowledge and skills that extend beyond the traditional business disciplines. Thus, Belmont’s Jack C. Massey College of Business places a strong emphasis on the global business community and requires all BBA degree-seeking students to complete an international business course. Global issues are also interwoven throughout other courses in the business curriculum.

In addition to classroom learning, all students in The Jack C. Massey College of Business are encouraged to participate in Belmont’s Study Abroad program. Business study abroad programs and exchange opportunities are available in numerous countries. Our students travel to six of the seven continents, immersing themselves in the language, culture and business of each country they visit.

Earn credit towards:

Major
Minor
General Education

Program length:

Academic Year
Semester
Summer
Maymester

Maymester is a 2-3 week study abroad experience during the month of May where Belmont students take advantage of tuition discounts and can sometimes earn up to nine credit hours. Maymester trips are led by Belmont faculty members, so students are able to further connect with their faculty in a meaningful way.

Immerse yourself in language, culture and business on a global scale by studying abroad. For additional information on Belmont’s study abroad programs, please visit our Center for International Business or Office of Study Abroad.

We are an innovative, student-centered learning community that prepares entrepreneurially, ethical and socially responsible future business leaders for the dynamic global economy.

We are committed to:

Relevant, interactive and experiential academic programs provided by faculty with diverse and extensive academic qualifications and professional experience;
Advising and mentoring students for career growth and development;
Impactful scholarship that advances the practice, knowledge and teaching of business and management;
Engaging the communities we serve through value-added relationships.

Organized in 1916, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is the premier agency for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. AACSB International accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide.

Fewer than 5 percent of the world’s business schools are able to adhere to standards that result in AACSB accreditation of their business education programs. A much smaller group, fewer than 2 percent of business schools (185) worldwide have earned the separate, specialized accreditation for their accounting program.

Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey College of Business is the only private college or university in Tennessee that is accredited by AACSB International for our B.B.A. and M.B.A. programs, as well as our Accounting major and Master of Accountancy degree.

Two women seated inside a store front window seal

Watch Video

House Of: Retail, Run by Students

At House Of, Belmont students run a real store on Belmont Boulevard, curating rotating collections from Nashville's emerging designers and handling everything from buying to daily operations. It's one more way you can build hands-on business experience before you graduate.

Career Possibilities

An entrepreneurship degree from Belmont prepares you to start your own business or bring an entrepreneurial approach to any organization. Alumni have founded and led ventures across technology, food and beverage, retail, entertainment and marketing. Here are a few of the paths you will be equipped to pursue:

start, run and grow your own venture.

take over or expand a family business.

advise companies on strategy, growth and operations.

build and grow products and customer communities inside a company.

evaluate opportunities and guide business decisions.

take an early role in a growing venture.

Macey Mefferd

Class of 2025

Entrepreneurship

Senior entrepreneurship major | founder of Fork & Flash, Sparkle By Mace and Say Cheese Please

“I truly don’t think I would be where I am today without Belmont’s entrepreneurship program. It has shaped not just how I approach business, but how I view myself and what I’m capable of.”

Matt Fiedler

Class of 2015

Cofounder and Chairman of the Board, Vinyl Me, Please

“The entrepreneurship program, especially as an entrepreneurship major, has poured into me tremendously. There is no other ETP program that offers classes, opportunities, and faculty quite like Belmont's! I am so grateful for the experience to get real feedback on my pitch as well as make important connections within the Nashville area.”

Emily Henegar

Class of 2022

Content Creator & Founder, Cookie in the Kitchen

"What Belmont gave me in four years was confidence both as a person and an individual, as a business owner, as a friend and just took all the things that I was already excited about and helped distill and direct me into where I’m going next. "

Follow Emily on Instagram

Drew Hanlen

Class of 2012

Entrepreneurship

Founder, CEO, NBA Strategic Skills Coach, Author, Speaker - Pure Sweat Basketball

“Outside of the successful basketball program, the Massey College of Business was a huge reason why I chose Belmont. They blend detailed teaching with real world experience to equip you with the education and tools you need to stand out and excel in the business world. To this day, I use skills that I acquired during my four years at Belmont to help grow all my businesses.”

Learn from Expert Faculty

Your professors are current and former business owners who teach from experience. Belmont’s entrepreneurship faculty prepare you for real business life from your first day, and they advise your ventures alongside local founders in the Belmont Entrepreneurship Network.