Business Studies

What is it?
Business Studies is an exciting and fast moving subject that looks at the way in which businesses operate to satisfy customers and make profits for investors. You will be shown how business decisions are made and have the opportunity to practise your own business decision making in the context of a variety of simulated business situations - How would you set the price for a new games console? How would you raise the capital finance to start your own business? How can a new product be protected? Which of these businesses should I invest in? Your business decision-making skills will gradually be improved and you will begin to understand business articles in newspapers, assess business opportunities for yourself and discover a whole new area of study and possible careers for the future.

Why study Business Studies?
Business is all around us. You are part of it - a customer, possibly an investor through your savings, enjoying some of the wealth created by businesses in the economy or interested in your parents' links with businesses. Studying Business Studies will allow you to play your part in the economy more effectively, become more informed as a customer, act more wisely as an investor and be sharper as a possible entrepreneur or business executive. Business Studies will refine your decision making and allow you to take more control when you deal with businesses or think about starting a business. It is a very popular subject and indeed the most popular subject for university entry.

What is studied?
Business Studies typically includes discussion that relates to such things as :
Business Organization - forming a company, multinational businesses, franchising;
Marketing - finding out what people want and how to satisfy them in terms of product design, price, promotion and where to sell the product;
Finance - sources of finance, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, how to judge the financial health of a business and make investment decisions;
Production - where and how to produce goods and services, computerisation, stock control;
People - how to motivate, organize, select, train and reward workers;
Business Environment - the nature of markets, e-business, business law, the economy.