E5 Understand how small businesses work
If you want to work in business support, you need knowledge or experience of the essential areas of business, including finance, marketing, sales and customer service, and how they link to and support each other. You also need an understanding of the demands, pressures and motivations facing the people who run businesses. This Standard sets that knowledge at an introductory level, as a basis for progressing to the Core Standards (C6 sets the level expected of a business support professional).
What you need to know and understand
Finance
- E5.K1
How to work out how much money a business needs, where it can come from and what funders look for
- E5.K2
How money moves in and out of a business, and how to forecast and track it
- E5.K3
Opening and managing a business bank account, and understanding basic financial accounts
- E5.K4
Common accounting terms, and the basics of business tax and record-keeping
Marketing, sales and customer service
- E5.K5
Market research, understanding what customers want, and knowing who the competition is
- E5.K6
Basic marketing and sales techniques and tools, including websites, social media and selling online
- E5.K7
What good customer service looks like and how to check it is being delivered, and the basics of terms of business
Running a business
Small business experience
- E5.K10
How much of themselves people put into their businesses, and the time and energy it takes
- E5.K11
The main parts of a small business and how they depend on each other
- E5.K12
What starting and running a small business well involves, and the pressures that pull owners in different directions
- E5.K13
The range of abilities business owners need, and the risks they take on
Evolved from
Introduction to Enterprise Support 5 (Knowledge and experience of a small business and its core functions); Business Information 8; Business and Enterprise Support (2013) unit 7 (in part).