https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4 en-us 2022-04-08 19:49:19 UTC 2022-05-22 01:34:23 UTC hello@padlet.com bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136862596 This chapter is split into 8 segments that each go over a fundamental aspect of business and economics. The goal of this chapter is to give you a basic picture of what business and economics are like. 
To accomplish this goal, it explains the fundamentals of what they are comprised of. Everything from Goods and Services, Quality of Life, and Standard of Living, to things like Factors of Production, a basic explanation of Macro and Microeconomics and the concept of Inflation among other things. All to help you develop a basic summarization.

In summary, Businesses are organizations which strive for profit by providing goods and services, and Economics refers to how resources, goods, and services flow through the businesses and population of a country. Countries use resources to create goods and services, and distribute them to create profit. Profit leads to economic growth, and economic growth leads to improvements in Standard of Living.
Throughout history, several economic systems have been developed, such as Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism. However, real-world economics rarely leans entirely into one or the other. Each system has its advantages, and so, most countries will apply a mixture of each to fit its needs.]]> 2022-04-08 19:50:06 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136862596 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136862687 This chapter is split into 5 segments that discuss ethics and social responsibility. It covers the concept of justice and fairness as a way of dictating what is the right thing to do.

Ethics and Social Responsibility are very important for a business. They govern a set of moral principles that a business must follow, because without morals, business would devolve into rampant corruption. In order to maintain a sense of order within the company, businesses create a Code of Ethics to explain to the employees how they are expected to behave. All employees, no matter their rank in the business, must conduct themselves in accordance with the Code of Ethics, and the higher up in the chain you are, the more important this becomes. With a high rank comes power, with power comes influence, and with influence comes a responsibility to conduct yourself in a way that makes a positive example for those under you. 

In addition to this, businesses are expected to conduct themselves in a similar manner to uphold a sense of social responsibility. These responsibilities include Economic Responsibilities, Legal Responsibilities, Ethical Responsibilities, and Philanthropic Responsibilities in descending order of importance. In other words, Economic Responsibilities make up the foundation of a business, but they're still expected to follow the law, expected to do what is right, and expected to be a good corporate citizen. That being said, it matters little as long as the economic responsibilities fail to be met.

Lastly, all businesses are expected to uphold a positive image of themselves, and have a responsibility to take care of their Stakeholders. Those being their employees, their customers, their investors, and society at large. Without a positive look on your business, people will be less inclined to purchase your goods and services because they don't look favorably upon you. You have a responsibility to take care of your employees as best as you can. You have a responsibility to satisfy your customers to the best of your ability and deliver on your promises. You also have a responsibility to listen to your shareholders and meet their demands. And lastly, you have a responsibility to give back to society and provide a community for jobs, goods and services.

A successful business must manage all of these responsibilities, and know what is most important at any given time.]]> 2022-04-08 19:50:12 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136862687 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863125 This chapter is split into 9 segments that discuss the global marketplace, international trade relations, and multinational corporations. The segments covered in the lesson went over Global Trade in relation to the United States and the impact it has had on the world, and the reasons why different nations trade with one another.

Global Trade has had an enormous impact on the world at large. Many countries depend on international commerce, and engaging in it can greatly bolster a country's economy, improve relationships between nations, raise standard of living, and, among other things, provide jobs. In modern times, a businesses main competition tends to come from foreign sources. Terrorism however, has greatly impacted international commerce. Nations around the world have become more warry about such events, with heightened border security, tighter immigration policies, and stricter regulations helping to stop them from happening. However, these same regulations greatly slow down global trade.

Globalization has many advantages and disadvantages, but as a consequence of the global marketplace, it cannot be stopped. Globalization allows for cheaper prices, spurs innovation, and, among other things, allows products to be produced and distributed more efficiently. However, many also fear losing their jobs as a result of outsourcing.]]> 2022-04-08 19:50:38 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863125 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863209 This chapter is split into 7 segments and cover the many different forms of business ownership, such as Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, Corporations, and Franchising.

Sole Proprietorships are a form of business which only has 1 owner. They possess a great deal of freedom and control over the business, but have an equally large amount of responsibility and personal investment in the business. Suitable for first-time start-ups, and can evolve further.

A Partnership is a business which has multiple people working together to operate a business. In other words, it's a business with multiple owners. The workload and responsibilities are shared between every owner, allowing for a more diverse and manageable workload. However, the owners are cumulatively responsible for the business, can have disagreements over how the business should be managed, and can be held liable for each-other's actions. This last part however, isn't always the case, as is true for a Limited Liability Partnership(LLP) or a Limited Partnership(LP). In the case of of the former, partners are not responsible for the debts and liabilities of the business, and in the latter, a partners liability is limited to their personal investment.

Corporations are legal entities subject to the laws of the state in which they are formed, where a state charter is issued to give them to right to operate. They are taxable entities which exist separately from their owners who are free of personal liabilities over the business. Corporations are stable, have theoretically infinite life spans, and can transfer ownership easily. On the other hand, they are far more difficult to set up than the prior forms of business, have reduced freedom, and complex internal structures.

Finally, Franchising is a form of business in which a franchisee can essentially "rent" out a business from the Franchisor. The franchisee gets a sustainable income from a recognizable brand, as well as training and assistance, and in exchange, the franchisor gets a large cut of the profits, and an increased ability to expand the business. However, franchising is expensive, has restricted operating freedom, and a lack of control over the franchisees.

All forms of business have their upsides and downsides, and it's up to the individual to decide which one is best for the business you are trying to create.]]> 2022-04-08 19:50:42 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863209 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863254 This chapter is split into 8 segments which discuss Entrepreneurship in its many forms, what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and the responsibilities that come with being one.

Entrepreneurs are people who find a want/need in society, and expands on it to form a business and fill that gap. Innovators and Visionaries who spot trends, and start businesses to pursue ideas. Modern society rewards innovation, flexibility, and adaptability. As a result, being an entrepreneur requires the vision and creativity needed to innovate, and the drive needed to put those ideas in motion.

There are several types of Entrepreneurs. Classic Entrepreneurs are risk-takers who start a business based on an innovative idea. Micropreneurs are businessmen who start small and plan to stay small. Growth-Oriented Entrepreneurs desire to expand their business and grow it into a major corporation. Multipreneurs who desire to start several different businesses. And lastly, Intrapreneurs who don't actually own their own business, and instead apply their ideas as an employee of a larger business.]]> 2022-04-08 19:50:46 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863254 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863342 This chapter is split into 8 segments which discuss Business Management, the concept of Leadership, and the responsibilities that a manager possesses.

Management is the process of overseeing and guiding the development, maintenance, and allocation of resources to meet the goals of your organization/business. This process is based on 4 key concepts: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Planning is where you anticipate potential issues or opportunities and create plans to deal with them. Organizing is where you make sure that resources are coordinated and allocated in the way necessary to enact those plans. Leading is where you guide the available personnel through the implementation of that plan. Lastly, controlling is where you review the results of the plan, and make changes where necessary.

Each step is important but Organizing, Leading, and Controlling don't matter much if you don't have a plan to begin with. There are several kinds of plans for different situations. Strategic Plans for long-term goals, Tactical Plans for short-term goals, Operational Plans for creating rules, standards and procedures, and Contingency Plans for emergencies. Effective management takes advantage of all 4 so that the business has a plan for any situation.]]> 2022-04-08 19:50:49 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863342 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863406 This chapter is split into 10 segments which discusses human resources, the labor market, and employee training.

Regardless of the kind of business you are running, human resources will always be necessary. Managing your employees, making sure you have enough personnel, and making sure that the personnel is exactly where it needs to be are all fundamentally important aspects of running a business. This process is known as "Human Resource Management" and "Human Resource Planning".

In order to acquire a work-force in the first place, you need to acquire them through the labor market, and, if needed, train them to accomplish the tasks needed. The labor market can come from two sources, the Internal Labor Market(ILM), and the External Labor Market(ELM). The ILM refers to how a company can redistribute employees into places where they can best take advantage of their skills. The ELM refers to when a company reaches out to the public in order to recruit entirely new employees through a variety of sources. Recruiting methods include setting up job fairs, college recruiting, the internet, social media, and specialized websites.

Once employees are acquired for a job, you have to make sure they are trained to be able to handle the work asked of them. This training can happen either on-the-job, or off-the-job. On-the-job training means the employee gets taught as they work, typically through mentoring and apprenticeships. Off-the-job means the employee gets trained outside the workplace, typically in a classroom environment with films, videos, lectures, and demonstrations simulating, explaining, and showing what they are expected to do. Both have their advantages, and it's up to company to decide which is more beneficial.]]> 2022-04-08 19:50:53 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2136863406 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193588686 This chapter is split into 8 segments which discuss the Production Process and Operations Management. With a focus on resource planning, operations control, operations/production efficiency, location, and market trends.

Production is the process of taking inputs, such as natural resources, and converting them into products and services. The management of this process is known as Operations Management, and Operations Managers are the people in charge of supervising this whole process. Operations Managers control most a firm's assets, and cooperate with other divisions in the firm to ensure everything goes smoothly.

Production and Operations Management involves 3 major types of decisions; planning, control, and improvements. Planning involves deciding where, when, and how the production will work. Stuff life deciding what will be needed, and where the production site will be located. The control stage involves managing the quality of the inputs, the costs involved with procuring the whole process, scheduling the plans, and whatever day-to-day operations are necessary to keep it afloat. Finally, the Improvements stage focuses on figuring out ways to improve the methods of production being used over time.

Operations Managers need to think of a lot of things when making decisions. Where do I get the materials I need? What do I need? How can I cut costs on the things I need? Where do I set up the production line? How long will this take? What layout should the facility have? Asking these questions and finding the best answers you can to them is essential to your job as an Operations Manager.]]> 2022-05-20 23:59:39 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193588686 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193588777 This chapter is split into 10 segments which go into great detail about Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Human Psychology, and Pricing.

Marketing is the process of finding out the wants and needs of potential customers, and providing goods and services which fill those wants and needs. Businesses do research in order to learn what people want, and then create products and services to fill those desires and make profit. The "Marketing Concept" refers to this process, and is based on the "right" principle. Under the Marketing Concept, customer value and customer satisfaction are some of the most important aspects of business. Customer value referring to the comparative value of the product in relation to its price, and customer satisfaction referring to how happy the customer is with their purchase.

When marketing a product, there are 5 things to keep track of in the strategy you choose to use. Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and People, otherwise known as "The 5 P's. Product refers to what you're offering to the customer. Price being what it costs for the customer to obtain the product. Place refers to when and how you get product to the customer. Promotion refers to how you influence customers into buying the product. And People refers to how the business uses employees to support the marketing.

In addition to these things, there are a huge amount of factors which can come together to influence any individual persons' buying decisions. Cultural influences, social factors, age, geography, economics, technology, psychology, politics, legality, gender, and so many more. When marketing a product, you need to have a firm understanding of the kind of person who would want the product in the first place and fine tune your marketing towards that demographic. Understanding this and taking advantage of it is key in a successful marketing strategy.]]> 2022-05-20 23:59:56 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193588777 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193588901 This chapter is split into 12 segments which go into detail about Advertising, Supply Chain Management, and the distribution of products and services.

Distribution is the act of managing the movement of materials from one place to another, and is a fundamental aspect of business. Businesses distribute goods through a series of distribution channels to get to where they need to go. The suppliers give raw materials to the producer, the producer creates the product, distributes it to a wholesaler or a distribution center, which then goes to a retail, which is then purchased by a customer. 

Supply-chain management is used to coordinate this into a seamless process to help improve customer satisfaction as much as possible. Supply-chain managers have 2 roles: a communicator who listens to customer demands and relays it to the supplier, and a physical flow process that engineers the movement of goods through the entire chain. Supply-chain managers are vital as they coordinate, monitor, and manage the entire process from buying resources, scheduling, processing, inventory management, and transportation and storage of goods. The importance of this role cannot be understated.

Lastly, there's advertising. Advertising can take many forms, from newspaper articles, television broadcasts, adverts, or paid promotions, but at its core the point of advertising is to spread awareness and intrigue about your product. The more people that know about your product, the more likely people will be to buy it. The more popular your product gets, the more it spreads and the more money you'll make. Personal Selling is a popular form of advertising which gives a face-to-face sales presentation, demonstrating it to a potential audience. This form of advertising gives a detailed, hands-on explanation of the product and its virtues, and can be targeted towards specific audiences. As a result, it's a very successful method.]]> 2022-05-21 00:00:18 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193588901 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193589169 This chapter is split into 8 segments which go into detail in the basic aspects of Accountancy, such as the profession and what is, the core financial statements, and how to read, analyze, and calculate basic financial information.

Accountancy is the process of documenting, classifying, summarizing, and analyzing financial information, and helps to provide a detailed overview of a business' finances. Financial data is sorted and input into a series of financial statements, which are used to document and calculate whatever information is needed by a business. 

There are 4 primary types of financial statements: The Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Statement of Owner's Equity, and Statement of Cash Flow. The Balance Sheet summarizes all of a business' assets, liabilities, and stockholder's equity, giving a picture of what the business' finances were like at a specific point in time. The Income Statement covers all the revenue and expenses incurred by the business over a period of time, used to calculate the total profits/losses of the business. The Statement of Owner's Equity is used to calculate the total Capital the owner of the business has at a specific point in time. Lastly, the Statement of Cash Flow is a summary of all the money flowing through the business, giving you a firm idea of when, where, and how cash is flowing through the business. Each financial statement is valuable in its own right, and each one is calculated as part of the Accounting Cycle.

Once the financial statements are created, Ratio Analysis is used to calculate and interpret information from the statements. This process can highlight potential problems, and helps give a better understanding of how well the business is doing in a certain regard, but as it is based on historical data, it should generally be taken with a grain of salt. 

There are 4 types of Ratios: Liquidity Ratios are used to measure a firm's ability to pay off any short-term debts they incur. Profitability Ratios measure how well a firm can use its resources to generate profit as efficiently as possible. Activity Ratios measure how well a firm can use its assets. Lastly, Debt Ratios measure how well a firm uses borrowed funds. ]]> 2022-05-21 00:01:08 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193589169 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193589324 This chapter is split into 8 segments which discuss Financial Management, the Securities Market, and Short/Long-term Financing.

Most of this chapter is focused on discussing the roles that Financial Managers play within a business and what things are involved in that job. Financial Managers are responsible for tracking how money flows in and out of the firm, and they coordinate with the other departments of the business to determine how funds will be used, how much is needed, and where to get it from. Their job is closely tied with accounting, but while an Accountants job is to prepare the financial information of the business, a Financial Manager's job is to use the information prepared by the Accountants in order to create financial plans.

A Financial Managers main goal is to increase the firms value as much as possible. The value of a publicly owned company is based on the share price of its stock, while the value of a privately owned company is equal to how much the business can be sold for. To this end, a Financial Manager works to maximize profits in both the short-term and long-term. Putting funds in opportunities with as positive a risk-return trade-off as possible. Marketable Securities, short-term investments which can be easily turned into cash, are quite popular as they are typically a very safe investment with a high return.

Lastly, when doing business, you have to keep in mind that different countries have different cultures, laws, customs, and beliefs. These factors can all greatly affect how business is conducted overseas, and adapting to overcome these hurdles is important.]]> 2022-05-21 00:01:32 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193589324 bisgaardandreas https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193589381 This chapter is split into 6 segments which discuss business as a career, interpersonal skills, and long-term goal planning.

When conducting business, having good interpersonal skills is key. Being able to think on your feet is valuable in day-to-day activities. Being able to connect with other people is valuable for building comradery. Being able to listen and act on feedback is important for building trust and a positive reputation. Knowing how to persuade people is important for getting ahead in life, and influencing business decisions. Persuasion rests on trust, trust rests on honest and integrity. If you're true to your word and build integrity, building trust comes easy. knowing how to exploit what power you have as effectively as possible is important for managing your role in the business. Knowing how to handle conflict and redirect it towards something positive is valuable for making things run more smoothly. Knowing your way through a conversation, being able to build trust, and knowing what to do in any given situation is invaluable for getting ahead in a business.

On top of that, being flexible and planning things out in advance is just as important. What goal do you have in mind? What do you need to accomplish that goal? What options do you have? These are all important things to keep in mind. Creating a plan helps you to understanding what you want to do and how your going to do it; helping to make your life much less stressful. Everyone has dreams, what matters is whether you can take those dreams, twist them into a realistic goal and move towards it. That being said, taking care of yourself is just as important as taking care of your future.]]> 2022-05-21 00:01:42 UTC https://padlet.com/bisgaardandreas/px25bb8mwgmhmyy4/wish/2193589381