Summary of Major Topics:

• Business objectives, planning and forecasting in business.
• The business plan; competition, location, knowledge, skills, market potential.
• The business environment: public, private and trading enterprises.
• Sole-proprietors, partnership firms, limited liability companies, the board of directors.
• Capital and the financing of businesses, sources of capital, share issues.
• Business revenue, income, expenditure, overheads.
• The importance of working capital, its components and management; cash and funds flow.
• Starting or taking over a business – factors to investigate and consider, research, competition, market potential, location factors, goodwill.
• Business organization, structure, expansion, delegation, re-organizing.
• Communications: internal and external, vertical and horizontal, channels
• Communications: effect on employees, managers and customers
• Budgeting, budgetary control, limiting factors
• Sales budgets, production budgets, other sub-budgets, the master budget
• Pricing policy and factors effecting prices set
• Credit: types and purposes, credit limits, credit control, bad debts
• Discounts: trade, quantity, others, why and how offered.
• Management of personnel: recruitment, job analysis, advertising, selecting, inducting
• Personnel and employees: training, controlling, remunerating.
• Motivation, human resources, discipline, counselling, resignations, retirements.
• Stock control, the stores department, costs, stock levels, stock records, stock-taking.
• Purchasing, buying, choosing suppliers, ordering, negotiating with suppliers.
• Selling, sales and marketing management, market research.
• Advertising, publicity and sales promotion.
• Prices and pricing policy
• Office management, structure, charts.
• Business control and setting standards
• Production management: market, technology and manpower factors
• Production methods, factories, machinery and equipment; costing, standard costs, variance
• Financial accounting and records, bookkeeping
• Manufacturing and trading and profit & loss accounts, the balance sheet, ratios and analysis
• Office organization and control, layout, data, records, the office environment.
• Health and safety in the workplace, O & M Studies
• Computer programs and systems, IT, security