UNIT 1 - EXPLORING BUSINESSES
Unit 1 P1
Unit Introduction
A Business is a company that provides goods and services to consumers, a business can either
be profitable and non-profitable. A profitable company uses the money they receive from
consumers into their own business, they improve and actively produce new goods to sell to
their consumers. The common business thread is that owners and employees are striving to
satisfy customers, this is critical for a business since consumers will provide feedback to the
goods that are sold, in turn, businesses get an idea of what customers are looking for and what
their expectations are, from the business goods or service as well as the business as a whole. In
the current era, customers are now more informed than ever as consumers know which brand
they are buying and who they are buying from. This assists to bring recognition to the business
and builds trust for consumers. A non-profitable business usually is a charity organisation,
which is run by a government, in which they don’t use the profit gained because the profit
generated is used to raise money for a cause.
In this unit, we will learn how businesses become successful and you gain more understanding
of the key ingredients behind their success.
Profitable Company: Tesla
Created by Elon Musk now working with many other companies and owner of SpaceX. This
company is highly known for its premium, high-tech electric cars. Tesla is a PLC, worldwide
known company and operates in many countries. The first tesla to begin production was the
Roadster in 2009, the car had run an analogy motor instead of a digital motor this can affect
what customers wanted and what their expectations were to what they got. The other issue
because the first tesla was a complete flop, this was because of its battery, the issue was that
the battery was getting too hot and the air-cooler didn’t provide much cooling to the batteries
thus having a risk of the car exploding or catching on fire. The roadster didn’t do very well in the
car company business, Tesla sold roughly 2,450 roadsters in over 30 countries. From there in
2011 Tesla released a prototype of the Model’s which then in 2012 fully began production.
Tesla designed the first-ever fully electric car, which shaped up to be a huge success in the
electric car market, the Model S was what the customers wanted with high-end technology and
a premium build quality, the body of the model’s was made from
aluminium, the acceleration went from 0-60 mph in 2.28 secs
which is insane for electric vehicles as it even surpasses a
Lamborghini Huracan at 2.9 secs. Model S is the best-selling
,electric car in the world. After the huge success Tesla received, they introduced supercharging
in 2012, this is where you can charge your vehicle (fast). There are now approximately 2,016
supercharging stations worldwide in 2020, this will help Tesla grow even bigger in the business
market. In Mid 2017 Tesla began production of the Model 3, this car was promoted to be more
affordable compared to the other tesla when they began production. The Model 3 was the
best-selling vehicle in the tesla market this is because of the seamless, smooth experience
when driving on the road and the premium feels to the car, another reason is auto-driving
where consumers trust the vehicle to drive itself and take you anywhere you have located,
auto-driving still get updates and improvement to the software, so any bugs or issues are
solved. The car gets many updates, adding new features to the car for example tesla randomly
chooses a food place for the variety you picked(breakfast, lunch, and dessert) and takes you
thereby driving automatic or manual. The Model 3 exceeded over 1 million vehicles sold in
2021. Tesla is one of the largest car companies in the world in 2021 surpassing Toyota market
capitalization by triple its numbers
Non-Profitable Company: Muslim Aid
Muslim Aid is a charity organisation that helps stop poverty, their main goal is to stop people
from suffering in poverty around the world. Muslim Aid works in 70 countries among which are
in Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Muslim Aid started its small organisation in 1985 and is
one of the largest NGOs in the world. Their headquarters is located in London. In 1995 Muslim
Aid Sudan established 7 primary healthcare centres helping 145,000 people. Food, medicine,
clothing, seeds, and fertilisers are delivered to thousands of people rebuilding their lives after
floods in Bangladesh. In 1996 there was a flood and people’s homes were destroyed thus
Muslim Aid provided food and shelter for the needy throughout the years Muslim Aid has been
helping many people. In 2013 Muslim Aid won an international Charity of the year. Muslim Aid
does not use the money for their own business but instead but provides people with medical
care, shelter, etc…This way they are a trusted and well-respected charity organisation
Features of A businesses
Ownership and liability
Ownership is having control over a business that you have set up where you know the business
will strive
Liability is when your business may be at risk of being sued or
held liable
Sole trader
A sole trader is a business that is owned by one person and is
a limited company however that doesn’t mean that you need
, to work by yourself, you are the sole owner of the business, and not the sole worker of the
business thus you can still employ people to work. Examples include Nazir, Rush hair and
beauty salon
Advantages:
⮚ A Sole trader can keep all the profit to themselves
⮚ Easy to set up
⮚ You have much more privacy
⮚ You can manage and make your own decisions compared to a partnership businessman
which has to agree to the other member before making a decision resulting in actions
⮚ The start-up cost is low
Disadvantages:
⮚ Promoting goods can be very difficult
⮚ You are legally responsible to pay any of your debts
⮚ If you become ill or you’re unable to go to work this can cause problems for your
business as there aren't any staff authorised to take your place
Partnership
A Partnership is where two or more members work together in a business to manage
operations in the company and ways in which they have arrangements, that settles agreements
over each other, talk about how their company is doing in the business industry and how much
profit they gained or lost. Examples of partnership companies include Spotify and Uber eats
Advantages:
➢ The idea that you don’t need to do all the work for your business by yourself, you have
two or more people that manage the business with you, in short, combined expertise
➢ If you ever get ill or got into an accident, you can rely on your business partner/s
➢ Spread Workload
➢ Easier to save money that can be raised for funds e.g. loans or you’re on debt
➢ You have greater browning capacity
➢ Start-up cost is low
