Twilight
Year 10 students taking GCSE Business Studies from September 2011 to Summer 2013 are doing this in 'twilight lessons', after normal lessons, from 3.30 on Wednesday's in room T.7. This allows all students in year 9 the chance to choose this optional GCSE subject in addition to the usual timetabled GCSE optional subjects. It is a demanding method of study - equivalent to a triple period at the end of the school day.
As contact time with the group is restricted, the following area of the website is used to communicate information to this group:
Lesson Plans / Content: The details of forthcoming lessons are outlined here. More details will be added as we progress through the work. If you miss a lesson, you fill find the missed work to be done here. The plan below may change.
- Wed 7 September Understanding Business & Enterprise
This is what we did (in case you missed it)…… We came up for a definition of what a business is..it covers all sorts of organisations eg charities, government run organisations eg schools, hospitals. They all seem to employ people, deal with money and provide a product or a service. Many of them are small.
We tried to identify as many businesses as possible in the local area – we found 100’s. We then tried to classify them. We could have used the same headings as yellow pages, but instead learnt what primary, secondary and tertiary businesses are (some had already learnt this in geography) and then classified them this way. We found that most of the local businesses are tertiary. Sibelco is the only local primary business and we found just a few secondary/manufacturing businesses.
We then talked about how the course is structured – 3 units. The unit 1 exam comes at the end of year 10. We also had a look at the text book we will be using.
I collected your email addresses. As we only meet once a week, I might want to send you stuff or get a message out to you easily. These will be stored on the school network and subject to the same security as everything else we keep there.
No homework was given. - Wed 14 September Understanding Business & Enterprise
We now have everyone that should be attending with us. We started by continuing the group work we started last week and developing the ideas that you had for a new business. To help you plan for success, I asked you to refer to an article on the BBC News website. I have emailed this link to you, but here it is again:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4439788.stm
There were ideas big and small. We talked about what an 'entrepreneur' is. We looked at a video clip of Michael OLeary (Ryanair) and discovered that some of them can be quite colourful, imaginative and determined characters. We also looked at ways to find gaps in the market. We will be coming back to your business ideas in a later lesson, when we look in more detail at 'business plans' and how to raise finance. Lastly we looked at 'business ownership' and learnt about the Public (Government) Sector and the Private Sector. We learnt about and made notes on 3 different sorts of legal ownership;
- Sole Trader
- Partnership
- Franchise
We learnt about a significant hazard that threatens the small business owner - unlimited liability.
No homework given
- Wed 21 September Business Aims & Objectives
Today we leant about 'Business Objectives'. These provide a clear focus for new (and older) companies to aim for. They also enable you to answer the important question "how well am I doing". You can't answer this truthfully, if you don't know where you shoudl be! Typical objectives can be found on page 18 of your text book. We then worked in groups to consider business objectives for our own business ideas.To understand more fully the two financial objectives of 'maximising profit' and 'maximising Income', we looked at a simple but important equation:
Sales Income* - Costs = Profit*
This can also be called 'Turnover' or 'Revenue'.For the second part of the lesson we learnt what the phrase 'stakeholder' means. A business can affect a lot of individuals. This can be found on page 23 of the text book. We finished by considering who the stakeholders were in Teign School and tried to define exactly what their stake is.
No homework was given.
- Wed 28 September Stakeholders / Measuring success
Todays's lesson was about BUSINESS PLANS. We looked at what is included in a business plan and then at an example from the text book produced by Alex for his website design business. We also had a quick look at the NATWEST Bank website. Banks offer a lot of advice to new businesses, including how to write a business plan - they even provide a template.
Working in your groups, you then applied the technique to your own business ideas.
A BUSINESS PLAN is used to help you think of everything you need to when starting a business - a kind of checklist. When your business is up and running, you can check how well you are doing by comparing where you are against your plan. A bank manager will want to scrutinise your plan before he'she loans you money for your venture. If they don't think it's good enough or they don't think you will be able to afford to repay a loan - you won't get it. Understanding how to do a realistic plan is therefore important! (pages 24/25 in text book)
After the break we looked at the risks associated with starting a business (pages 26/27 in text book).
A homework was given. This is a question extracted from an exam paper. Under exam condiditons it should be completed in 15 minutes. Try not to spend too much longer. Remember to take more time over the higher pointed questions.
REMINDER. The lesson next week will finish 15 minutes early at 5.30pm.
- Wed 5 October Business Planning – what’s included in a plan
We started the lessons recaping on some earlier lessons. If you missed the lesson, you'll need to read up on the sections you missed. Borrow a textbook from me. The page numbers are indicated below.
We looked again at the contents of a business plan (page 24); the risks attached to running your own business (page 26); the benefits and drawbacks of sole traders and partnerships (page 28). We moved on to understand Limited companies (LTD) and what 'limited liability' means (page 30). Finally we looked at the subject of Business Location (page 32).
No homework given.
- Wed 12 October Business Planning – Making your own plans
We began a new main topic today - MARKETING. We started (by way of a practical example) to look at the differences between Primary Market Research and Secondary Market Research. Some of you were already familiar with the terms from Maths.
The class undertook some primary research to find out about the television watching habits of teenagers? Working in groups we designed a questionnaire of up to 10 questions. We had to choose the questions carefully - in order to answer the question. When we had designed our questionnaires, we used them to do some research by asking a small sample of teeagers (the rest of the class) to answer the questions. We analysed the results and made some discoveries about teenage tv watching habits.
After the break, we tackled the same question, but this time used the internet to try and find some answers. This is secondary research - using the results of somebody elses research. It didn't take as long, but we didn't find out as much. Some things we found out were the same as our primary research.
What did we learn?
Secondary research can be out of date and finding exactly the data you want might be difficult. Some sources of information may not be reliable. But secondary research can be quicker and much less expensive to find out. It can be useful and should not be ignored. eg. To find out the names of all the taxi companies in Exeter, you would use the Yellow Pages. This is secondary data. It's free and pretty accurate. If you were considering starting a similar business and wanted to check out the competition, it would be the best source to use.
Primary research provides up to date information and provides exactly the data you want (you set the questions). But designing a good questionnaire is a skilled job and it takes time to do a survey and analyse the results. If you fail to ask enough people or the wrong people, the results will be weak and/or unacceptable. Doing a 'proper' survey with a large sample can take time and be costly, if you have to pay people up and down the country to run the survey for you. But, before you make an expensive mistake by developing and launching a new and expensive product that's not quite what customers want, it's important to do some primary market research.
A homework was set. This was emailed to all students. It should be returned (by email or on paper) by the next time we meet (Wed 2nd Nov)
Wed 19 October ACTIVITY DAY – No twilight lesson today
HALF TERM
- Wed 2 November Choosing the right legal structure for a business
We introduced the 'Marketing Mix' as a way to remember the 4 items beginning with P which when managed well by a marketing manager should ensure success of a product or service.
Product - The actual range of products or services a firm sells
Price - How much to charge (what do competitors charge?)
Place - Where you sell your product
We made notes on the marketing mix.
- Wed 9 November
We looked in depth at the first 2 'P's of marketing.
PRODUCT: We learnt that in this context, whatever a firm sells (products or services) is its 'product'. Companies constantly change/update their products to; increase sales; stay ahead of competitors; enter new markets.
PRICE: We researched online for the price of some basic food items at leading supermarkets and discovered that the prices were similar. We discovered that for more expensive/luxury items there was a huge range of prices. We learnt theat being the cheapest is not always the best strategy. If your product is perceived to be better then people will pay more for it eg BMW, Superdry.
- Wed 16 November
This was the final Marketing lesson. we looked in more depth at the final 2 'P's of the Marketing mix.
Promotion
This means making the right choices as to how you are going to communicate your business and its products to potential customers.
Place
This is just another way of saying how do we make our product available for customers? We looked at the traditional distribution methods such as: Manufacture > Wholesaler > Retailer (shop). We also looked at e-commerce and how the internet has changed the way we can choose to shop. If you place your business on the internet, you are effectively open 24 hours a day to anyone (in the world) who can access the web. Organisations such as Amazon and RyanAir trade using only this method. This means they cut down on property costs and wages costs (as they have no shops). Which is why they can offer such low prices (their costs are lower).
We finished off by tackling the case study at the end of the marketing section (page 50) and placing it in scal postbox.
- Wed 23 November: Introduction to Finance for small businesses
The topic of finance this year largely revolves around the followinig formula/relationship: Income - Costs = Profit. If costs are greater than income then a loss is made instead.
We started by looking at sources of finance - where the money might come from to start a new business. We looked at 6 different sources and considered the benefits and disadvantages of each (see pages 52/53).
- Wed 30 November
National strike action, no lesson today - we will talk about this later when we look at the topic of human resources!
- Wed 7 December - Finance - Calculating Profit
A companies income is also called revenue or turnover. It is the total value of all items of expense that a company incures eg raw materials, wages, rent. We used the example of a hotdog seller, who tried to increase his prices to improve his profit, but unfortunately when he increased his price, the sales dropped off more than he expected and although he made more profit from each hotdog, because he sold a lot less of them, his profit overall went down (pages 54/55).
- Wed 14 December - Finance - Cash Flow The phrase 'cash flow' is often used. It means when money flows into and out of your business. It is different to profit. We use the phrases positive and negative cash flows to indicate 'good' and 'bad' months. It is a means of measuring that you have enough money available to you each month to cover your expected cash outflows. If several months of negative cash flow occur in a row, corrective action will be needed if the firm is to survive. It is very useful to produce a forecasted cash flow well in advance to spot/anticipate when problems may occur and take corrective action sooner. Pages 56-59 go through this topic.
- Wed 4 January - A recap of the topic of finance
To get back into the swing after Christmas/New Year, we began by re-visiting everything we have done in this topic.
- Wed 11 January - Human Resources - Recruitment
We looked at how vacancies first occur. Either someone moves on (retires/resigns) and they need replacing or a department is expanding and needs more staff to cope with the increased workload. We looked at the structure of job adverts - they must make the job sound appealing and include important points such as 'how to apply' and the closing date. To help produce a job advert, two other documents can be referred to.
A 'Job Description' is exactly what it says. An employer must provide employees with a written job description. It includes items such as:
- Who you report to/Who reports to you
- Your hours of work/holiday entitlement
- Your duties/responsibilities
A 'Person Specification' is not compulsory, but larger companies prepare them. It attempts to list all of the qualifications / skills /experience /personal qualities a person should have to be successful at a particular job. It is often divided into 2 sections. 'Must haves' and 'Nice to haves'.
We practiced producing a job advertisement.
- Wed 18 January - Human Resources - Recruitment continued
This lesson was cancelled.
- Wed 25 January - Human Resources - Rewarding
We attempted to catch up last weeks lesson missed first. We looked at the differences between internal and external recruitment. We looked at the benefits of each.
We then looked at the rest of the recruitment process, after advertising.
Short listing the applications comes next, reducing the larger number of job applicants down to the best ones that are worth interviewing. Interviewing takes a lot of time, so only the most suitable applicants reach this stage.
We did some mock interviews. Each applicant is given the same questions. This is fair, but more importantly allows you to compare how each applicant copes. It is important to keep notes. After the interviews someone may be appointed to the post. If you dont like any of the applicants, you can re-advertise and start again.
We then looked at rewards, but did not finish this topic. We learnt the difference between wages (hourly pay) and salaries (annual pay, but paid in 12 equal instalments), bonus's, Commission and Piece Rates.
Wed 18 January – Human Resources – Recruitment continued
Wed 25 January – Human Resources – Rewarding
Wed 1 February – Human Resources - Motivating
Wed 8 February ACTIVITY DAY – No lesson today
Half Term
Wed 22 February– HR and the law
Wed 29 February – A recap of the topic of Human Resources
Wed 7 March – Operations Management – Different methods of production and measurements of production efficiency
Wed 14 March ACTIVITY DAY – No lesson today
Wed 21 March – Operations Management - the effects of New Technology
Wed 28 March – Operations Management - Quality and quality control
Easter
Wed 18 April –Operations Management - Customer Service and the impact of ICT on customer service
Wed 25 April – Operations Management - Customers and the law
Wed 2 May – A recap of operations management
Wed 9 May – How to tackle the exam paper
Wed 16 May – More exam techniques
Tuesday 22 May (afternoon) – Unit 1 Examination Day
Wed 23 May – Short lesson – Review of exam
Wed 30 May – Unit 2 starts here
Half Term
Wed 13 June
Wed 20 June
Wed 27 June
Wed 4 July