OCR GCSE Business

## The purpose of business activity A **business** exists to provide goods or services that customers want. Goods are physical products such as bread or laptops; services are things done for a customer, such as a haircut or a repair. Making money is usually part of the reason a business exists, but the reason it can keep going is that it satisfies a need or a want better than the alternatives do. A business that sells something nobody wants has no revenue, whatever the owner hopes. **Enterprise** is the activity of spotting an opportunity and organising resources to take advantage of it. An **entrepreneur** is the person who does this: they notice a gap in a market, develop an idea to fill it and take on the responsibility of starting the business. The opportunity might come from an unmet need (no shop sells fresh food within walking distance of a new housing estate), from a problem with an existing product (a charger that wears out within a year), from a change in technology or fashion, or from the entrepreneur's own skill or hobby. Spotting an opportunity is only the first step. The idea then has to be developed into something customers will pay for. That means deciding what exactly is being sold, who will buy it, how it will be made or delivered and what it will cost. An idea that has not been tested against these questions is a hope rather than a business. ## Characteristics of an entrepreneur Entrepreneurs tend to share some characteristics, and each one helps with a…