GCSE BUSINESS STUDIES (UNIT 1)

Lessons Term 1 = 39 Lessons

Lessons Term 2 = 36 Lessons

Lessons Term = 39 Lessons

UNIT ONE SETTING UP A BUSINESS (TOTAL TIME ALLOCATION: 80 HOURS) 114 50 minute lessons

Content

Resources

Starting a Business Enterprise

Candidates should be aware of what a
business is (within the
service, primary and manufacturing
sectors)
Enterprise and entrepreneurs, risk and
rewards, motives for
becoming an entrepreneur,

WL
What is business
NOTEBOOK
What is business
BRAINSTORM
Entrepreneurialism
Entrepreneurial
characteristics?
Enterprising
people

What makes an
entrepreneur
The Apprentice
the Final click
view
CLICKVIEW
GCSE bitesize:
Business studies
2

Business Aims and Objectives

Types
Purpose
Measures of success
complete case study from
exercise book in their books
Influence of the stakeholder
create a concept map of the
stakeholders of S.B.E. See the
folder on this
Business Planning
Content
Purpose

TASK show
clickview movie
of business
nightmares
Doomed Designs
Persil what
where there
objectives?
Stakeholders of
Persil concept
map

Guidance

Approx
Hours

Some discussion about the nature of business linking to types

of business. Producing goods and services.
Unit may be introduced by inviting in outside business people.
Local businesses / entrepreneurs.
Activity to encourage candidates to work in teams / individually
to devise own business idea.
LESSON 1: IDEAS begin by looking at Dragons Den and
decide what an entrepreneur is and what is a business
PRODUCE a wall-chart of ideas
LESSONS 2 to 5: Students will be given a business
scenario and they are starting a business. They make one
product each to then study and sell. E.g. mugs, t-shirts,
mouse mats and Christmas cards.

Strengths and weaknesses: What a venture capitalist looks for

in an investment opportunity news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4439788.stm
Clickview resource Peter Jones How we made our
millions. Useful for entrepreneurship too at any level for
comparing and contrasting. Also useful for management styles
at AS Econs and business
Candidates can make themselves familiar with the role of
objectives in running a business and how success is judged by
how well objectives are realised, by applying chosen objectives
to their own business.
5
Candidates can investigate well known businesses and their
objectives.
A discussion may help the understanding of the importance of
stakeholders in influencing the objectives of their small
business.
Candidates can be made aware of the type of information that is
required in a business plan, and its function in terms of
determining the feasibility of the business and the plans use in

attracting finance.

Uncertainty and risk

Choosing the Appropriate Legal

Structure for the Business
sole traders
partnerships
private limited companies. The
appropriateness of gaining
limited liability status.
The benefits and drawbacks of
the different legal structures.
Franchising
Relative merits and drawbacks of a
franchise to start up a business
Choosing the Location of the
Business
factors influencing start-up
location decisions;
Conducting Market Research.
Market Research for Small
Businesses; purpose & methods.
Methods of primary, secondary
research, factors influencing small
business / start ups using
appropriate methods of market
research likely to be used by a small
business, including:
telephone and other surveys
questionnaires

CLICKVIEW -

Music, Mud
And Making
Money

Whereas time needs to be spent on understanding the main

sections of a business plan, the emphasis should be placed it
being a tool to aid an entrepreneur.
Candidates may draw up a business plan, but as an aid to
understanding the need for planning rather than as an exercise
in itself.
TASK after creating the business plan, do a role play.
Students try to convince the bank manager that their business is
a good idea to invest in! Students should enjoy this hopefully
depending on the group
Create a mind map make sure all the key terms on it. Use
only pictures?
Share information with each other?
Lots of stuff in the staff area.
IDEA for partnerships get students into different sized groups
and give them a series of simple tasks to do E.g. making lists of
music they like. Get the idea of speed of decision making and
how bigger groups have more ideas but may disagree etc.
Then create a Deed of Partnership idea of an agreement
Candidates may investigate the range of franchise opportunities
available, by visiting the web site of franchise operations.
There is a good deal of material on franchises at:
Franchise Expo www.franchiseexpo.co.uk and The British
Franchise Association www.thebfa.org.uk
Candidates may identify and analyse the most appropriate
location for their own businesses or investigate the reasons for
the location of existing businesses in their own locality.
The Times 100 - www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory-market-research--315.php. The Market Research
Societys Introduction to MR:
www.mrs.org.uk/mrindustry/downloads/newcomers.pdf.
Opportunity for candidates to research their own idea /new
ideas / existing businesses in local area. NB size of business.

10

customer/supplier feedback

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10

11

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Using the Marketing Mix

Elements of the mix
product
price
promotion
place
Candidates should consider what are
suitable combinations of the 4Ps and the
impact of e-commerce

Looking at local examples and small businesses that are

web based / serve local area.
Lesson per element of the mix with a summary to bring the
concept together and relate it to the marketing budget
available.

Finance and Support for a Small

Business
sources of finance
types of advice available to small
businesses
Candidates to be familiar with the main
sources of finance
available to a small business, including:
bank loans and
mortgages, loans from friends and family,
retained profits
and grants from voluntary organisations

Visiting speaker from local bank / literature from bank &

other organisations. Local chambers of commerce

Financial Terms.
Candidates should understand the terms:
price, sales, revenue, costs and profit and
the relationship between these. Candidates
should be able to perform simple
calculations based on these figures.
Using Cash Flow.
Candidates should be able to complete and
interpret a simple cash flow statement or
forecast. Candidates need to be able to
consider possible solutions to cash flow
problems.

Daves pink cards in the cabinet upstairs.

Presentation to the Dragons Peer assessment

Towards end of studying the concept get students to write a

set of closed questions that a business would have to
consider when choosing finance e.g. is it for
vehicles/machinery, is it for more or less than a year etc.
Then draw a decision tree based on the questions.
Get students to make top trumps on sources of finance.
www.smallbusinessadvice.org.uk/busplan/suplan.asp.
Some simple calculations based on Profit = Sales Costs.
4
Emphasis should be spend on the interpretation of the
cash flow, and possible solutions to any issues identified,
rather than on its construction.
www.bized.co.uk/educators/level2/finance/activity/cashflow1
2.htm.
Business Link offers some reasons why firms
forecast their cash flow:
www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?

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14

Recruitment
Candidates should understand the suitable
ways by which small businesses might
recruit employees.

Motivating Staff
benefits of good motivation
motivation methods used by small
businesses
Candidates should understand the benefits
of having well motivated staff and suitable
methods by which small businesses might
motivate their employees.
Candidates to understand the benefits to
organisations from a culture of life-long
learning
Protecting Staff through Understanding
Legislation
equal pay and minimum wage laws
employment rights
consumer protection
health and safety
Candidates to have a working knowledge of
the legal aspects of
operating a small business not the law in
detail

E n
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type=RESOURCES&itemId=1076801242.
Practical advice from Business Link on employing different
types of worker:
www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?
r.l1=1073858787&topicId=1079568262&r.s=tl.
Local newspaper advertisements, local shop window
advertisements.
Candidates may evaluate job opportunities from their own
perspective
Lots of sources for the basic process, but use some small
business examples. Useful information is available at:
http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/hrm/chap8/ch8-links.html. The
focus should be on getting the right people. There is a lot of
information on training at the Businessballs site, which also
offers hyperlinks to other useful information http://www.businessballs.com/traindev.htm
An excellent portal for this subject is a page at
Businessballs:
http://www.businessballs.com/motivation.htm

Production Methods
Service Sector
Job and batch production

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T e r

Candidates could be involved in making items in groups some

operating a batch system, some a job production
system.

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Efficiency and technology

Customer Service.
Candidates should be aware of the
importance to small businesses of
providing a good service to customers.
Candidates should have an
understanding of the need for
appropriate levels of quality.

The Times 100 has a series of features on customer

service including a case study based on Portkabin:
http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/case-study--theimportanceexcellent-customer-service--35-235-2.php
Examples of candidates own experience e.g. consider how
McDonalds trains its staff to provide good customer service.
(Franchise) compared to smaller local businesses.
Role Play customer service.