Learning Outcomes -

• Explore how businesses operate
• Consider how market research helps a business to understand the market
• Investigate the use of the marketing mix (the 4Ps)

Learning Outcomes –

• Know about job roles and functional areas in business
• Produce documentation for specific job roles
• Demonstrate interview skills and plan career development

Learning Outcomes -

• Understand the costs involved in business and how businesses make a profit
• Understand how businesses plan for success
• Understand how businesses measure success and identify areas for improvement  

Learning Outcomes –

• Know how trends and the current business environment may impact on a business
• Plan an idea for a new business
• Present a business model for a business start-up

A business is any activity that provides goods or services, whether that is to make a profit or not. The common thread in business is that owners and employees are striving to satisfy customers. Nowadays, customers are more informed and have more options in terms of what they buy and who they buy from, so a successful business is one that balances satisfying their customers with selling products or providing services. In this unit, you will gain an overview of the key ingredients for business success, how businesses are organised, how they communicate, the characteristics of the environment in which they operate, and how this shapes them and their activities. You will also look at the importance of innovation and enterprise to the success and survival of businesses, with the associated risks and benefits. By developing relevant business knowledge and understanding, this unit will help you to progress to employment, vocational training and higher apprenticeships, or higher education.

Marketing is a dynamic field central to the success of any business. You will gain an understanding of how a marketing campaign is developed. You will explore different stages of the process that a business goes through when developing its campaign and develop your own campaign for a given product/service. You will examine the marketing aims and objectives for existing products/services and understand the importance of relevant, valid and appropriate research in relation to customers’ needs and wants. You will use given market research data and other information to make recommendations about the type of marketing campaign that a business should undertake. To complete the assessment task within this unit, you will need to draw on your learning from across your programme. This unit will give you an insight into how important marketing is to business. It will enable you to make an informed choice as to whether you want to specialise in marketing in employment, training or higher education.

This unit includes aspects of both personal and business finance. Personal finance involves the understanding of why money is important and how managing your money can help prevent future financial difficulties. It is vital you understand the financial decisions you will need to take throughout your life and how risk can affect you and your choices. This unit will also give you an insight into where you can get financial advice and support. The business finance aspects of the unit introduce you to accounting terminology, the purpose and importance of business accounts and the different sources of finance available to businesses. Planning tools, such as cash flow forecasts and break-even, will be prepared and analysed. Measuring the financial performance of a business will require you to prepare and analyse statements of comprehensive income and statements of financial position. This unit will provide a foundation for a number of other finance and business units and will help you to analyse profitability, liquidity and business efficiency. It will give you the knowledge and understanding to manage your personal finances and will give you a background to business finance and accounting as you progress to employment or further training.

Recruiting the right people is essential to the success of a business. It is important that the processes and procedures involved in recruitment and selection meet the needs of the business and comply with current regulations. You will learn that successful recruitment is key to maintaining the success of a business, as people are often considered to be the most valued resource. You will explore the various selection tools and the enhanced use of technology in this area. Businesses with an effective recruitment process in place are more likely to make successful appointments. In a competitive labour market this is a major advantage and will support business success. This unit gives you the opportunity, through role play, to take part in selection interviews. They will need to be organised and prepared so that they demonstrate your communication skills in this work-related competence. This unit will give you a foundation for progression to employment, for example in a human resources role, or to higher education. Through undertaking recruitment activities, the unit will help you to develop the skills needed in an interview situation. You will have an opportunity to review your individual performance and analyse your skills for development.

Exploring Business

Personal and Business Finance

Recruitment and Selection Process

• A task set and marked by Pearson and completed under supervised conditions.
• Learners will be given a context two weeks before a supervised assessment period in order to carry out research.
• Submission completed using a computer
• 70 marks

• Written examinations set by Pearson
• 2 hours
• 80 marks