Business Studies topics

Monday:

Enterprise:

a. motives for becoming an entrepreneur
b. government support for enterprise and entrepreneurs
c. sources of business ideas
d. strenghts/weaknesses of a business idea
e. why start-ups can be risky
f. why start-ups may fail
g. credit crunch (homework)

Tuesday

a. break-even
b. analysing the effects of changing variables on break-even charts
c. how to forecast cashflow
d. the structure of a cashflow forecast
e. why businesses forecast cashflow
f. income, expenditure and profit budgets
g. the process of setting budgets
h. problems in setting budgets
i. benefits and drawbacks of using budgets
j. calculation and interpretation of favourable and adverse variances
k. using variance analysis to inform decision-making
l. the calculation and understanding of net profit margins
m. the calculation and understanding of return on capital
n. the distinction between cash and profit

Wednesday

a. developing business plans
b. the purpose and content of business plans
c. sources of information and guidance
d. methods of primary and secondary market research
e. qualitative and quantitative research
f. size and types of samples
g. factors influencing choice of sampling methods
h. raising finance

Thursday

a. recruitment process
b. internal and external recruitment
c. selecting the best employees
d. how recruitment and selection can improve a workforce
e. methods of training
f. financial motivation
g. improving job design
h. working in teams
i. theories of motivation

Friday

a. operational targets
b. capacity utilisation
c. operational issues
d. quality control
e. quality assurance
f. systems of quality assurance
g. quality standards