INTRODUCTION

IN THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL LEARN

How this book is organized
Who the book is intended for
How this book will help you
How to use this book

There are six topics in Improve Your Business Basics. Each topic helps you solve problems and improve the management of one important part of your business.

· Marketing helps you provide what your customers want
· Buying helps you buy goods, materials and equipment
· Stock control helps you keep and control stock
· Costing helps you calculate the costs for your products or services
· Record-keeping helps you keep and use records
· Financial planning helps you make plans for cash, sales and costs

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?

Improve Your Business (IYB) Basics is written for managers of small- and medium- sized businesses. The idea underlying the book is that the most effective improvements come from the active and creative thinking of entrepreneurs themselves and the content therefore is designed to encourage such creative thinking and to motivate entrepreneurs to take action.

The intended reader of IYB Basics is a single manager. This single manager may or may not be the owner of the business, but he or she is the person who makes management decisions.

HOW THIS BOOK WILL HELP YOU

IYB Basics takes a practical approach to business management. Theory is kept to a minimum and the focus is on the day-to-day running of a business. Step-by-step guidelines are often suggested and the reader is encouraged to apply these to his or her own business.

Management methods in six key areas are presented. The Marketing chapter assists you in making strategic decisions in the business, for example, deciding what to sell, to whom and in what way. The Costing and Financial Planning chapters help you to make plans to guide you in running the business and as a help in making management decisions, for example planning cash flow and setting prices. The Buying and Stock Control chapters introduce you to methods for designing and implementing procedures that will help you to run the business more efficiently and more profitably, for example, stock control systems and procedures for buying. The Record-keeping chapter shows you a basic record-keeping system and methods for analysing the records. It helps you to implement control systems to ensure that the business is profitable and to make decisions about the future, for example, to ensure that costs are not rising faster than sales.

In most cases, the best order to read the chapters in IYB Basics is to follow them as they are presented, from Marketing to Financial Planning. For specific purposes, the order can be changed. IYB Basics can be used equally well for self-study and in training, where trainers can benefit from the accompanying IYB Basics Trainer’s Guide.

Since this book is intended for use in many different countries, we have used the term “NU”in the examples to represent an imaginary “National Unit of currency”.

It has been assumed that at the time this material is adapted for any particular country, the country-specific details will also be adapted accordingly.

HOW TO USE IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS BASICS

In this book you will find:

· Explanations of business management methods. Learn these methods and use them to improve your business.

· Practical exercises. Do the exercises in each chapter to practise the business management methods you read about.

· An action plan. Fill in the action plan you will find at the end of the book. This will help you to put your new knowledge into practice.

· Useful business words. Look up the meaning of business words in this section.

· You will also find different types of boxes. Each type of box shows you one kind of information:

	In these boxes, you will find exercises or questions to answer about the content of the chapter.
	In these boxes, you will find answers to the exercises and questions.
	These boxes tell you where to find more information in the other chapters. For example: Read more about indirect costs in the COSTING chapter.
	In these boxes, you will find questions about your own business. For example: Do you know your customers’ needs? Does your business provide the right goods or services to satisfy your customers’ needs?
	These boxes tell you something extra important for you to remember. For example: The customer is the most important person for your business.