Business key words

• Venture capital 


  An experienced business person providing funding for companies which are too risky for other investors in return for equity
• Demographics 


  The characteristics of the population in terms of age and gender
• Digital communication


  communicating with customers electronically
• E-commerce 


  The use of online systems to sell goods and services
• Economic climate 


  Performance of the uk’s economy
• Enterprise 


  Skills shown by an entrepreneur
• Entrepreneur 


  A person who starts a business taking a financial risk
• Exchange rate 


  The price of one currency in another
• Export 


  Goods or services produced in the businesses home country then sold in another country
• Focus group 


  Where a number of customers meet to talk about a product
• Import 


  Goods and services brought into one country from another
• Inflation 


  A general and persistent rise in prices - reduces purchasing power
• Insolvency 


  when a business can’t afford to pay back their debts
• Legislation 


  Laws passed by parliament
• Limited liability 


  When a business and its owners have separate legal identities meaning shareholders can only loose their initial investment
• Margin of safety 


  Number of products sold above the break even point
• Market mapping 


  Used to find a gap in the market and a way of evaluating business ideas
• Market segments


  Group of people with similar characteristics.
• Net cash flow 


  Difference between cash inflows and outflows over a period of time.
• Partnership 


  A business owned by more than 1 person but less than 20 with unlimited liability
• Obsolete

  An out of date unwanted product
• Payment systems 


  Alternate ways for customers to pay
• Place 


  How the product passes from the producer to consumer
• Pressure group 


  A group with a common interest/goal who work collectively to further the cause
• Primary research 


  Research being collected for the first time - more personal to the business
• Private limited company (Ltd)


  Can only sell shares to family and friends. shareholders have limited liability. so are not liable
• Qualitative data 


  Detailed data that has information about people’s feelings and opinions
• quantitative data 


  Limited in detail but can be easily put into graphs and charts
• Resource 


  Land labour and capital used by entrepreneurs
• Retained profit 


  Profit put back into the business
• revenue 


  Money made from selling a product
• Secondary research 


  Collection of pre existing data used for a businesses own requirements
• share capital 


  A way of raising finance through shares
• Stakeholder conflict 


  When different stakeholders have a disagreement
• Trade credit 


  Time between when customers receive the product and when they have to pay for it
• unlimited liability


  When the owners are fully responsible for the business
• Variable costs 


  Costs that change