A small business you grew is worth more than a degree you finished

Last updated: October 2026 · Written by Adrian Prokopiec, founder of 20 Minute Marketing · 7 min read

The straight answer: Our view, as 20 Minute Marketing with over 20 years experience, is that a small business you grew is worth more on a marketing application than a degree you finished. Running the marketing for a real business proves you can own a budget, live with the results and change course when something fails. A degree proves you can learn. Both matter, but only one shows you've done the job with your own money on the line.

Who this is for

This one is written for two groups. The first is small business owners and career changers who have spent years marketing their own café, trade business, online shop or practice, and now want a marketing role. Many of them undersell that experience because it doesn't come with a job title. The second group is hiring managers, who I think too often skim past it for the same reason.

There are a lot of people in the first group. The ABS counted 2,814,778 actively trading businesses at 30 June 2026, and only 996,203 of them were employing businesses. Most Australian businesses have no staff at all. In my opinion that means, in most of them, the owner is the marketing department.

Why running real marketing counts for more

I run digital marketing for two national brands and I've worked in marketing with major Australian brands for more than 25 years. The hardest things to teach in a marketing team are not frameworks. They are judgement calls: where to put the next dollar, when to kill a campaign, how to tell a busy month from a good month. Small business owners make those calls every week, usually with no one to ask.

That last row matters. A degree is real evidence of persistence. My argument isn't that degrees prove nothing. It's that a business you grew answers more of the questions a marketing hiring manager actually asks.

📚 Changing careers into marketing? See our guide to short marketing courses for a career change.

How to turn your business into evidence

The problem isn't the experience. It's how it gets written up. "Owner, ABC Plumbing, 2019 to 2025" tells a hiring manager nothing about marketing. You need to translate it. I'd build every example around four parts.

• The before. Where things stood, in numbers you can actually back up: enquiries per month, website sessions, Google Business Profile calls, email list size, cost per lead.
• What you changed. The specific decisions. Rebuilt the service pages. Moved budget from print to Google Ads. Started a monthly email. Stopped boosting posts.
• The after. The same metrics, over a comparable period, with the time frame stated. Be honest about seasonality and other things that changed at the same time.
• What failed. At least one thing that didn't work and what you did next. This is the part that convinces me someone has really run marketing, because everyone who has, has wasted money somewhere.

A simple CV line template: "Managed a $[amount] monthly ad budget across [channels]; [what you changed] lifted [metric] from [before] to [after] over [period]." Fill it in with real numbers or don't use it. Screenshots from Google Ads, Meta, GA4 or your email platform, with customer details removed, make it much easier for someone to believe you.

If you're not sure where your strongest evidence sits, the 20 Minute Marketing audit is a quick way to review each channel and spot what you actually moved.

A note for hiring managers

If an application lists a small business, don't read it as a gap. Read it as a test you can run. Ask the candidate to walk you through one decision: what they spent, why, what happened and what they'd do differently. Ask to see the ad account or the analytics. Someone who has genuinely run marketing will talk about trade-offs and mistakes without being prompted. Someone padding their CV will talk in generalities. That conversation will tell you more than most degree transcripts.

Where the other side has a point

There are two fair objections, and I take both seriously.

Self-reported results are hard to verify. A degree comes with a transcript. A business owner's "doubled our leads" comes with nothing but their word, and the attribution is often messy. Did leads double because of the new website, or because a competitor closed? Hiring managers are right to be sceptical. The answer is to show your working: screenshots, time frames and a frank account of what else changed.

Small scale isn't the same as working inside a team. Running a $500 a month ad budget alone is different from working inside a marketing team with brand guidelines, approval chains, agencies, legal review and a budget with more zeros. A business owner has never had to get sign-off from five people or brief a designer they didn't hire. Those are real skills, and some owners find the shift hard. Say so in an interview before they do, and explain how you'll adapt.

Where I draw the line: neither objection makes the experience worth less than a degree. They make it worth presenting properly. And if you need to fill tool or team gaps, short courses for career changers can cover them faster than starting a degree from scratch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does running my own business count as marketing experience?

Yes, if you did the marketing and can show results. Write it up as marketing work, with the budget you managed, what you changed, the before and after numbers, and what failed.

How do I prove results from my own small business?

Use screenshots from your ad accounts, analytics and email platform with customer details removed, state the time frames, and be honest about other factors that changed at the same time.

Is a marketing degree still worth it for a career changer?

It can be for graduate programs or roles that require one. In Adrian Prokopiec's view, a career changer with real business marketing results is usually better served by filling specific skill gaps than by starting a full degree.

What do hiring managers worry about with former business owners?

Mainly two things: that results are self-reported and hard to verify, and that working alone at small scale is different from working inside a team with approvals and larger budgets.

How many Australian businesses have no employees?

Most of them. The ABS counted 2,814,778 actively trading businesses at 30 June 2026, of which 996,203 were employing businesses.

Related: Short marketing courses for a career change · How much should you DIY vs outsource your marketing? · Digital marketing short courses for career changers