Business Studies

• Sole trader - one person who owns the whole business
• Partnership - two or more people owning the business together, with profits shared between them.
• Entrepreneur


  A person who organizes, operates and takes risk for a new business venture
• Benefits of being an entrepreneur

  • Independence - can choose how to use money and time
  • Innovative - able to put own ideas into practice
  • Status – when business grows and becomes successful, the status and prestige of entrepreneurs also increases
• Disadvantages of being an entrepreneur

  • Risk – many new entrepreneurs business's fail if planning is poor
  • Capital – entrepreneurs have to put their own money for running the business
  • Lack of knowledge and experience in starting and operating the business
  • Opportunity cost – lost income from not being an employee of another business
• Features of successful entrepreneurs

  • Hardworking- To make the business successful, an entrepreneur has to work hard
  • Risk taker - Making decisions to produce goods or services that people buy might buy is risky
  • Creative – A new business needs new ideas – about products, services, and ways of attracting customers – to make it different from existing firms
  • Optimistic – Looking forward to a better future is essential
  • Self-confident – It is necessary to convince other people of one's Skills and convince banks for loans
  • Innovative – Being able to put ideas into practice in interesting and different ways is also important
  • Independent – entrepreneurs have to often work alone on their business
  • Effective communicator – Talking clearly and confidently to bank, other lenders, customers and government agencies about business will raise the profile of the new business
• Business plan


  A detailed document that defines a company's objectives and how it plans to achieve those objectives
• Contents of a business plan

  • Description of the business
  • Products and services
  • The market
  • Business strategy
  • Business location and how products will reach the customers
  • Organization structure and management
  • Financial information
• Why governments support business start-ups

  • To reduce unemployment
  • To increase competition
  • To increase output
  • To benefit the society
  • Can grow further
• How governments support business start-ups

  • Business idea and help
  • Premises
  • Finance
  • Labour
  • Research
• Who would find it useful to compare the size of businesses

  • Investors
  • Governments
  • Competitors
  • Workers
  • Banks
• Methods of measuring business sizes

  • Number of people employed
  • Value of output
  • Value of sale
  • Value of capital employed