Business in the real world

Topics

Choose a topic to revise

Sample objectives

What this unit covers

• The purpose and nature of businesses: Define opportunity cost and apply it to business choices.
• The purpose and nature of businesses: Explain what a business is and why businesses may start, including producing goods, supplying services, distributing products, fulfilling opportunities and benefiting others.
• The purpose and nature of businesses: Define the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors.
• The purpose and nature of businesses: Give business examples that operate in each sector.
• The purpose and nature of businesses: Explain the meaning of enterprise and entrepreneur.
• The purpose and nature of businesses: Outline entrepreneur characteristics such as hard work, innovation, organisation and willingness to take risks.
• The purpose and nature of businesses: Explain how technology, the economic situation, legislation and environmental expectations can affect business activity.
• The purpose and nature of businesses: Explain why the business environment changes over time.
• Business ownership: Identify the legal structures available to businesses.
• Business ownership: Explain how sole traders, partnerships, private limited companies, public limited companies and not-for-profit organisations differ.
• Business ownership: Analyse benefits and drawbacks of each legal structure, including management and control, sources of finance, liability and profit distribution.
• Business ownership: Evaluate suitable legal structures for new start-ups and large established businesses.
• Setting business aims and objectives: Explain the role of objectives in running a business.
• Setting business aims and objectives: Explain the main business aims and objectives: survival, profit maximisation, domestic and international growth, market share, customer satisfaction, social and ethical objectives and shareholder value.
• Setting business aims and objectives: Explain why objectives differ between businesses, including business size, competition and not-for-profit status.
• Setting business aims and objectives: Explain why objectives may change as businesses evolve from start-up to larger established businesses.
• Stakeholders: Define stakeholder and identify main business stakeholders including owners, employees, customers, local community and suppliers.
• Stakeholders: Explain stakeholder objectives, including worker pay, environmental impact on the local community and owner dividend payments.
• Stakeholders: Explain the impact and influence stakeholders can have on businesses and business objectives.
• Stakeholders: Explain how businesses may face conflict between stakeholder objectives.
• Business location: Explain how proximity to the market can influence business location.
• Business location: Explain how availability of raw materials and labour can influence business location.
• Business planning: Analyse the benefits and drawbacks of business planning.
• Business planning: Identify the main sections of a business plan.
• Business planning: Distinguish variable costs, fixed costs and total costs.
• Business planning: Explain revenue, costs, profit and loss in a business planning context.
• Expanding a business: Explain how growth can create diseconomies of scale through communication problems, coordination issues and reduced staff motivation.
• Expanding a business: Explain how growth can create unit cost advantages through economies of scale.
• Expanding a business: Discuss advantages and disadvantages of business growth methods.
• Expanding a business: Explain organic growth through franchising, opening new stores and e-commerce expansion.