The Business Environment

Business as a whole is the most important factor when speaking on the topic of the economy. If business did not exist then we would have to grow our own food, build our own cars, or even sew our own clothes. Many of us barely have the time to cook a meal during the day, so one can only imagine how hard life would be if we actually had to grow vegetables and slaughter animals just to survive. Coming from a culture that is always on the move, most of us do not even think about all of the things that go in to making a business successful in this day and age. If one was thinking about starting a business today, there are four factors to remember: Strategy, Operations, Marketing, and Financing. Strategy is at the base of any business, because you have to determine who your business serves and what it will serve. Operations is the next step in building a business. You have to determine how you will serve your customers, and how you will staff your business and train your employees. What separates a lot of good businesses from great ones is their execution. Businesses that get the right stuff done grow faster and more consistently than ones who struggle at execution. The next business factor has to deal with marketing. Marketing is very important because marketing brings cash flow. Though we often talk about increased revenue when we speak of marketing, it’s also just as true that effective marketing makes sure that a business’s resources are controlled in the best way possible, thus making it a great way to keep money in your business as well as make more. The final factor for business is finances. Finances are how much money you make in revenue and profit. When a business knows about its finances, it can determine its growth or decline over a period of time and it can also plan for future investments. With those four factors of business in mind, comes the question of the differences between for profit and nonprofit businesses. The one thing that nonprofit