Business Terms I

1. Business – the activity of making, buying, or selling goods or providing services in exchange for money.2. Economy – the process or system by which goods and services are produced, sold, and bought in a country or region; thrifty and efficient use of material resources.3. Free-market economy – a market-based economy where prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy.4. Economics – a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.5. Consumer – a person who acquires goods and services for his or her own personal needs.6. Producer – a person or business enterprise that generates goods or services for sale.7. Supply – the amount of a commodity available for meeting a demand or for purchase at a given price.8. Demand – the desire for goods or services in an economy, measured as the amount people are ready to buy at a given price.9. Price – the quantity of one thing that is exchanged or demanded in barter or sale for another; the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing.10. Competition – rivalry among businesses for sales to potential customers.11. Fair/pure competition – competition based on the factors of price, quality, and service; not on the abuse of near-monopoly powers, competitor bashing, predatory pricing, etc.12. Oligopoly – a market condition in which sellers are so few that the actions of any one of them will materially affect price and have a measurable impact on competitors.13. Monopoly – exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service.14. Monopolistic competition – a type of imperfect competition such that many producers sell products that are differentiated from one another (e.g. by branding or quality) and hence are not perfect substitutes.15. Barter – trading in which goods or services are exchanged without the use of cash.

16. Inflation – a continuing rise in the general price level usually attributed to an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods and services.17. Business Ethics – the application of moral standards to business situations.18. Code of Ethics – a guide to acceptable and ethical behavior as defined by the organization.19. Social Responsibility – the recognition that business activities have an impact on society and the consideration of that impact in business decision making.20. Social Audit – a comprehensive report of what an organization has done and is doing with regard to social issues that affect it21. Career – a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life.22. Business Writing – professional communication used in organizations to communicate with internal or external audiences.23. Application Letter – a letter to a company from a person who is looking for a job, usually in response to a job advertisement.24. Curriculum Vitae – a document giving details of your education and past employment, used when you are applying for a job.25. Interview – a somewhat formal discussion between a hirer and an applicant or candidate, typically in person, in which information is exchanged, with the intention of establishing the applicant’s suitability for a position.26. Sole proprietorship – a type of business entity that is owned and run by one natural person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business.27. Partnership – a legal relation existing between two or more persons contractually associated as joint principals in a business.28. Corporation – an artificial person created by law with most of the legal rights of a real person, including the rights to start and operate a business, to buy or sell property, to borrow money, to sue or be sued, and to enter into binding contracts.29. Company – a business organization that makes, buys, or sells goods or provides services in exchange for money.30. Board of directors – the top governing body of a corporation, the members of which are elected by the stockholders.31. Entrepreneurship – the process of designing a new business, i.e. a startup company offering a product, process or service.

32. Share – unit of account for various investments, the stock of a corporation, but is also used for collective investments such as mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts.33. Stock – the shares of ownership of a corporation.34. Shareholder/Stockholder – a person who owns a corporation’s stock.35. Management – the process of coordinating people and other resources to achieve the goals of an organization.36. Business Plan – a carefully constructed guide for the person starting a business.37. Strategy – a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.38. Objective – a specific statement detailing what an organization intends to accomplish over a shorter period of time39. Policy – a plan or course of action intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters.40. Human resources management – all the activities involved in acquiring, maintaining, and developing an organization’s human resources.41. Manager – someone who controls resources and expenditures of a company.42. Motivation – the individual internal process that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior; the personal “force” that causes you or me to behave in a particular way. 43. Social needs – the human requirements for love and affection and a sense of belonging. 44. Labor Union – an organization of workers acting together to negotiate their wages and working conditions with employers.45. Business Negotiation – the act of discussing an issue between two or more parties with competing interests with an aim of coming to an agreement.46. Socializing – process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, language, social skills, and value to conform to the norms and roles required for integration into a group or community.