Business Studies

LEARN THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE!

Are you:

• Working for yourself?
• Employed within a small business?
• Managing a department within a large organisation?
• Looking for job opportunities?

Then this course could put you on the right track. 

The smooth running of any business is paramount for its success and others will look to you to know how that is done. In this course we can support you with that by providing you with learning around:

• developing and implementing procedures
• understanding different controlling mechanisms
• managing expected and unexpected problems
• evaluating performance
• implementing appropriate responses

This course will give you key fundamentals to keep the business on track, why not sign up and get learning!

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Establishment Procedures
   • The Business World
   • Ways to Begin a Business
   • Buying or Starting Up New
   • Market, Location, Regulations
   • Risks; emotional, financial
   • Common Reasons for Business Failure
   • Developing a 12 Month Plan
   • Creating a Business Plan
   • Motivation, Planning, Customers, Competitors, Promotion, Sales and Pricing, Employees, Premises, Tax, Cashflow, Your Skills, etc
   • Legislation and Business Law
   • Legal Obligations
   • Partnerships
   • Contracts
   • Types of Business
2. Management Procedures
   • Management Theory
   • Economic View, Behavioural View, Stakeholder Theory
   • Policies
   • Management Influences
   • Government Intervention
   • Classical School of Management Theory
   • Humanistic Management Theory
   • Scientific or Contingency Approach to Management
   • Systems Management
   • Neo Human Relations Management
   • Organisational Structures
   • "Functional", "Product/Market" and "Matrix" Structures
   • Coordination
   • Office Work
   • Quality Systems
3. Communication in Business
   • Scope of Office Work
   • Business Letters
   • Customer Service
   • Writing Procedures
   • Clarity in Writing
   • Causes of Confusion
   • Concise Wording
   • Examples of Quality Assurance
4. Problem Solving
   • Problem Solving Approaches
   • Non Complience Procedures
5. Staff Management
   • Introduction
   • Interviewing, Recruitment and Staff Induction
   • Advertising
   • Potential Candidates
   • Interviews
   • Job Specifications
   • Management Styles
   • Supervision
   • Communicating with Employees
   • Giving Orders
   • Delegating
   • Motivating Employees
   • Security, ethics, gratitude, belief systems, etc
   • Negative Motivators
   • Space Management
   • Time Management
   • Vicious and Virtuous Cycles
   • Staff Training
   • Dealing with Complaints
   • Workplace Health and Safety
   • Work Scheduling
6. Productivity
   • Introduction
   • Total and Partial Productivity Ratios
   • Foundation Economics
   • Goods, Resources, Performance Criteria
   • Economic Laws
   • Improving Results in Business
   • Profitability Ratios
7. Financial Management
   • Introduction
   • Liquidity
   • Financial Records
   • Steps in the Bookkeeping Process
   • Basic Bookkeeping; Double Entry System, Ledger, Entries resulting from Transactions, etc.
   • Cash Flow
   • Taxation
   • Financial Assistance
   • Insurance and Types of Insurance
   • Financial Terminology
   • Budgeting
   • Costing
   • Cost of Employing Labour
8. Marketing Techniques
   • Scope and Nature of Marketing
   • Supply and Demand
   • Market Research
   • Making Contact and Communicating with Potential Customers
   • Convincing a Customer
   • Developing an advertisement or Promotional Message
   • The course lasts 100 hours. At the end of the course there is an optional examination. The exam can be taken at a time and location to suit you.
   • If you sit and pass the exam, you will receive an ACS Statement of Attainment. If you do not wish to sit the exam, but pass all assignments, you will receive a Course Completion letter

Aims

• Select appropriate procedures for the establishment of a small business.
• Select appropriate procedures for the management of a small business.
• Develop procedures for communicating with suppliers and customers of a small business.
• Develop procedures for addressing problems in a small business.
• Plan the management of staff in a small business.
• Develop strategies for managing production in a small business or department within a larger organisation.
• Perform different financial management tasks used in small business or department within a larger organisation.
• Evaluate marketing techniques used in business.

What You Will Do

• Find out what pay & conditions must be supplied for a list jobs.
• Find out about how to register a business name in your state, including procedures and costs.
• Find out the procedure for establishing a company.
• List the legal requirements for the establishment of one of a list of businesses.
• What are the legal rights and obligations of both the customer and the supplier in a legal contract?
• Visit an office in a workplace, and observe the layout of that office, and the way in which the layout affects work performance.
• Draw a sketch plan of an office, showing the arrangement of people, furniture and equipment.
• Contact either (or both) the Standards Association in your country and/or an appropriate government department to find out more about Quality Assurance.
• Compile a resource collection of information on office equipment.
• Interview someone who works in a business involved in selling.
• Investigate three different workplaces, in order to evaluate problems in small businesses.
• Investigate two different small business workplaces, making observations and speaking with some staff,
• Investigate the role of unions within a workplace.
• Contact at least one workplace where enterprise bargaining has been used to establish working conditions for staff.
• Investigate productivity in two different small business workplaces, from the same industry, and which provide the same or similar services or products.
• Investigate changing conditions in the business environment that may affect production or objectives of business.
• Investigate and prepare a management report on a business.
• Investigate investment opportunities with an investment counselor.
• Investigate an established business. Consider how a product is marketed by this business in three different ways.

LEADERSHIP

Good business managers will provide inspiration and leadership to their subordinates. Without guidance and motivation, staff do not perform, and with decreased performance comes decreased efficiency and profit. If you can't be an effective leader; you might have difficulty being an effective business operator.
As such, the manager has enormous influence on the morale and productivity of the people in the organisation. Good leaders are able to motivate their subordinates to work willingly and effectively towards achieving group objectives.

There is no one leadership style that managers should adopt – for managers the correct leadership style is the one that provides the best results in a given situation. Some factors that influence the type of leadership used by a manager include:

• Workers’ motivation levels and skills –A skilled, motivated workforce will have less need for a domineering manager and, indeed, will probably not tolerate that style of management.
  
  
• Task urgency – An autocratic leadership style may be tolerated for short periods if urgent tasks are to be completed but is unlikely to be tolerated if used in more mundane situation.
  
  
• Worker expectations – The workers may become accustomed to a certain type of leadership style and will work best if that style is continued.
  
  
• Company expectations – Many organisations expect their managers to conform to a certain style of leadership.
  
  
• Economic climate – In times of recession, many companies expect their managers to exert more control over subordinates and to be more task-oriented than during more prosperous periods.

Some characteristics which we expect to find in good leaders include:

• Maturity;
• Integrity and honesty;
• Enthusiasm;
• Good knowledge of the job to be done;
• Respect for other people;
• Flexibility and consistency;
• Willingness to communicate.

WHY STUDY WITH ACS?

There are lots of reasons why you should sign up to do this course with us, including:

• The information is comprehensive and will give you excellent depth to your knowledge about aspects of working within business
• Within each lesson you have the opportunity to apply your learning to activities in order to extend your knowledge and research specific areas of interest, enhancing your understanding
• Knowledge of the key operational areas will enable you to stand out from other applicants when it comes to applying for jobs, it will also give you greater confidence
• Studying the basics of doing business will give you flexibility now and in the future as it can be applied to many different industries
• Our subject specialist tutors will be there to support you throughout your course, they are only too happy to share their industry knowledge and experience with you
• When studying with us you set your own deadlines, meaning you study at your own pace enabling it to fit around other commitments

TAKE THE NEXT STEP AND ENROL NOW!

You can enrol on the course now, but if you have any questions about the content of the course or studying with ACS, then please get in touch with us today - use our FREE COURSE COUNSELLING SERVICE to get in touch with our expert tutors. They will be pleased to help you!