Business planning

Key words

Business plan- decribes the nature of a business and the activities it will engage in and set out  how it will be structured and how it will make money or achieve its goals

External users- Are people or organisations outside the business that use the business plan to decide whether to support the business by for example lending money or making grants

Internal users- Are people within a busineess that use the business plan to help make decisions and to monitor and control the acitvities of the business

Venture capitalists- Provide investments finance to companies to help them grow and expand in exchange venture capitalists expect a share in ownership of the comapny venture capitalists look to invest in high growth businesses and they usually expect a high rate of return 

Key words

SMART objectives- Are practicak objectives that are capable of being monitored and achieved. Smart is an arconym standing for specific meaureable, achieveable relevant time specific

Unlimited liability- Applies to businesses set up as a sole traders or partnerships these businesses are not leagal enitites the owners rather than the business are liable for all the debts and other responsibilities of the business

Limited liability- Provides protection for the owners of a company normally the shareholders private and public limited companies are legal enitites they can be taken to court if they fail to pay their debts and their owners are repsonsible for what they have invested in the business

Key words

Primary market research- is gathering of information directly from customers or competitors within the target market

Secondary market research- Is the gathering of information about customers and competitors from already published data such as government statistics

Keywords

Market segmentation- is the division of potential buyers into groups with similar characteristics

The marketing mix- is the 4Ps product price promotions and place -used by businesses to influences customers buying decisions

Key words

Fixed costs- are costs that do not vary with the level of output. fixed costs are incurred even if a business is not producing goods and services

Variable costs- are costs that vary directly with output

Fixed reorder stock level- is a method of stock control based on buying stock to arrive before minimum levels of stock are reached

Economic order level- is the stock level that balances money tied up in stock with the costs of ordering stock

Just-In-Time- is a method of stock control in which the lowest possible levels of stock are maintained and stock is only ordered to arrive just when it is needed.

Key words

Start-up budget- is a summary of those costs which must be met befire a business can start operating

Running cost- are the day to day costs of a business they need to be paid on a weekly or monthly basis

Cash flow forecasts- are detailed estimates of when and how cash is expected to flow into and out  of a business

Fixed costs- are costs when do not vary with level of output. fixed costs exists even if a business not a producing any goods or services

Variable costs- vary directly with output

Semi variable costs- are costs that have been both fixed and variable elements  

Key words

Contributuion- is the difference between the selling price per unit and the variable price unit it is an amount that can be used to make a contribution to covering fixed costs and making a profit

Breakeven- is the point at which a business sells exactly the right number of products so that its revenue equals its costs

A profit and loss account- is a financial statement that calculates and shows the net profit made by a business

A balance sheet- shows the financial position of a business at given point in time

Key words

Ratio analysis- makes use of information in the profit and loss account and balance sheet to analyse the financial performance of a business

Payback- is a project appraisal tool that measures how long it takes to recover the outlay on an investment

What if analysis- considers what would happen if variables such as costs changed. it is best conducted using computer software such as spreadsheets

Risk assessment- is a technique for a meassuring the possible risks of an activity

SWOT- is a technique for understanding the strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats to a business

PEST and SLEPT analysis- consider the impact of political economic and social and technological legal factors on a busines