Edexcel GCSE Business - Key terms for Theme 1 - Investigating small business

Sep 5, 2026

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Edexcel GCSE Business Theme 1 provides a structured glossary of essential terminology for investigating small businesses. It defines core concepts across enterprise and entrepreneurship, spotting business opportunities, and putting ideas into practice. Topics include enterprise, entrepreneurs, consumers, e-commerce and m-commerce, social media, payment platforms, marketplaces, data and demographics, risk and ethics, market research and analysis tools, forecasts, and key financial terms such as revenue, cash flow and profit.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Theme 1: Investigating small business

1.1 Enterprise and entrepreneurship

1.2 Spotting a business opportunity

1.3 Putting a business idea into practice

Edexcel GCSE Business: Key terms for Theme 1 Theme 1: Investigating small business | 1.1 Enterprise and entrepreneurship | | | --- | --- | | Key word | Definition | | Enterprise | Entrepreneurial activity (can also mean a business or company) | | Entrepreneur | Someone who creates a business, taking on financial risks with the aim of making a profit from the business | | Consumer | Someone who buys and uses goods and services | | Obsolete | Out of date of not used anymore | | E-commerce | Using the internet to carry out business transactions | | M-commerce | Using mobile technologies, such as smartphones and tablets, to carry out business transactions | | Social media | Websites that allow users to interact with other users, by sharing text-based messages, pictures or links to online content | | Payment platform | Enable businesses to take online payments from customers. They are usually free for the customer to use, but take a small amount of commission from the seller | | Marketplace | The activities involved in buying and selling particular types of goods and services, in competition with other companies | | Data | Information, particularly statistics, that can be collected and analysed | | Demographic | Relating to the population, such as average age, average income and so on | | Risk | The possibility that an enterprise will have lower than anticipated profits or experience a loss | | Financial reward | The money that an entrepreneur or investor receives when a business succeeds | | --- | --- | | Market research | The process of gathering information about the market and customers’ needs and wants in order to help inform business decisions, including product design and marketing | | Revenue forecast | A prediction of future revenue based on expected sales; this is either a judgement or based on previous sales patterns | | Cash flow | The amount of money coming in and going out of the business and the timing of the movement | | Sales revenue | The amount of money that comes in from a business’s sales | | Investment | Putting money into a business with the intention of making a profit | | Start-up | A new business, usually with only a small number of employees – perhaps only one | | Intuition | Knowing something instinctively or understanding something easily without conscious thought | | Stakeholder | Anyone who has an interest in the activities of a business, such as its workers, its suppliers, its directors, the local community and the government | | Ethics | Moral principles or standards that guide the behaviour of a person or business | | Unique selling point (USP) | Something that makes a product stand out from its competitors | | Values | Standards of behaviour or moral principles | | Loyalty | Wanting to always support something or someone | | Market share | The proportion of sales in a market that taken by one business | | Economy | The system by which a country’s money and goods are produced and used | | 1.2 Spotting a business opportunity | | | Key word | Definition | | Convenience | A good or service’s ability to fit in well with a customer’s lifestyle or routine, the ease with which it can be used and/or its easy to reach location | | Viable | Able to work properly or successfully | | Market research | The process of gathering information about the market and customers’ needs and wants in order to help inform business decision, including product design and marketing | | Focus group | A group of people who discuss their views on a product, service advertisement or idea, either face-to-face or online | | --- | --- | | Target market | A particular group of consumers at which a business aims its products and services | | Sample | A portion of the population asked for their opinions in order to draw conclusions about the behaviour of the whole population | | Generation Y
(also known as Millennials) | The people born shortly before the 21st century, usually defined as born between 1980 and 2000 | | Data

FAQs

What is an enterprise and how does it relate to entrepreneurship?

An enterprise refers to entrepreneurial activity, and it can also mean a business or company. Entrepreneurship focuses on creating and running that enterprise while taking risks to aim for profit.

How do market research and data support business decisions?

Market research is the process of gathering information about the market and customers’ needs and wants. Data refers to information, especially statistics, that can be collected and analysed to help identify patterns and inform decisions.

What do key financial terms like cash flow, revenue forecast, and profit mean?

Cash flow is the money coming in and going out of a business and the timing of that movement. A revenue forecast predicts future revenue based on expected sales, and profit is the revenue left over after costs are deducted.

Sep 5, 2026

Upload by Jacob