GCSE Topic – Putting a business idea into practice
When taught: November – January
Specification link: Edexcel GCSE Business (2017) | Pearson qualifications
What are we learning?
Business aims and objectives
What business aims and business objectives are.
Business aims and objectives when starting up:
- financial aims and objectives: survival, profit, sales, market share, financial security
- non-financial aims and objectives: social objectives, personal satisfaction, challenge, independence and control.
Why aims and objectives differ between businesses.
Business revenues, costs and profits
The concept and calculation of:
- revenue
- fixed and variable costs
- total costs
- profit and loss
- interest
- break even level of output
- margin of safety.
Interpretation of break even diagrams:
- the impact of changes in revenue and costs
- break even level of output
- margin of safety
- profit and loss.
Cash and cash-flow
The importance of cash to a business:
- to pay suppliers, overheads and employees
- to prevent business failure (insolvency)
- the difference between cash and profit.
Calculation and interpretation of cash-flow forecasts:
- cash inflows
- cash outflows
- net cash flow
- opening and closing balances.
Sources of business finance
Sources of finance for a start-up or established small business:
- short-term sources: overdraft and trade credit
- long-term sources: personal savings, venture capital, share capital, loans, retained profit and crowd funding.
How will we be assessed?
The end of topic assessment will consist of questions from past exam papers. There will be a combination of multiple choice, calculation, short-answer and extended answer, context-based questions.
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
- Good knowledge and understanding of key ideas and concepts
- Effective use of subject specific terminology
- Ability to accurately apply formulae to given data in calculation questions
- Developed explanation (use of BLT framework)
- The ability to apply knowledge and understanding to given contexts
- The ability to construct a detailed chain of argument using multiple strands of development
- The ability to construct well-balanced arguments and counter-arguments in context
- The ability to make clear judgments based on analysis to construct clear and justified conclusions
What additional resources can I access outside of lessons?
Click the links for more information.
GCSE Business – Edexcel – BBC Bitesize
GCSE Learning and Revision | GCSEPod
