AQA AS Business Studies - Business Plans & Technology

Applied business studies revision

?
  • Created by: Leonie :)
  • Created on: 03-01-13 10:43

Business Plans

A business plan is a document that states what the owner wants to do within the business and how they intend to do it.

Reasons for a business plan:

- It's useful as it is used to get a source of finance e.g a bank loan.

- It shows the financial risk in setting up the business so potential lenders and investors will want to invest in the business. Lenders and investors will also want to see a business plan before they invest.

- It helps the entrepenuer see the strengths and weaknesses of the business and whether thier idea is achieveable and realistic.

- It's an important management tool - it gives details of the businesses objectives which they can compare with the preformance of the business once it starts trading, to track progress.

1 of 5

Business Plans

Business plans are not 100% accurate. It is impossible for a business to get accurate information about costs and revenue before it starts trading.

Businesses can get help planning with free advice from government organisations such as business link or from the manager of a small business provider at the bank.

2 of 5

Technology

The main technology that companies use are:

Robotic Engineering - as part of the manufacturing process.
Computer Technology - product development, business communications, finance departments.

Robots:
Robots are used to replace human staff for tasks which may be dangerous, repetitive or boring.

It's cheaper and faster for robots to do these jobs.

Advantages:
- The company needs less employees so staff costs fall
- Robots are more accurate than humans
- Robots are more reliable

3 of 5

Technology

Robots:

Disadvantages:

- Some staff may loose thier jobs so it's demotivating for the collegues.
- incorrect programming can lead to errors being made
- high cost in purchasing it in the first place
- maintanance costs can be expensive

Computers:

- Computers make stock control easier. Holding stock information in a database makes it easier to moniter when you need to order new stock in.
- The finance department can easily moniter and compare current expenditure levels with original budgets using spreadsheets.

4 of 5

Technology

Loyalty Cards:

- Lots of supermarkets offer loyalty cards which give customers money back according to how much they spend.
it allows them to form a database of names and addresses which they can use to create mailing lists for direct marketing campaigns.

- Loyalty cards also tell supermarkets what products a customer is buying. This means they can send out offers which relates to the kind os products the customer normally buys most.

5 of 5

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Business Studies resources:

See all Business Studies resources »See all Business Plans resources »