Business Basics For Non Business People

Let's just suppose (for the sake of supposing) that you were a bank teller, or a machine operator, a file clerk, a mechanic, a nurse, or a person in law enforcement who walked a “beat,” in a fairly large city; what, if any knowledge about business would it be nice to know?

And, there will always be those who say: “I need to know nothing.”

Guess what?

They are absolutely right... you do not need to know anything about business that will make your life or job better.

So, the knowledge I am about to share is purely informational.

Omnipresent is a word that the spiritual people throw out a lot and meaning no disrespect, the word is used to signify a presence that is everywhere all the time, without question, without fail.

This word can apply to business and should apply to business because it is everywhere all the time as well. And, as I have mentioned before, everything (without fail) that we do is actually performed and completed as if it were a project.

Therefore, business is everywhere and all work is done like a project.

Reiterating briefly, a project is an activity that has a beginning, middle, and an end that brings resources and people together over a specific amount of time to achieve a desired outcome.

Can you think of anything that is not a project?

Now, let's imagine that we live on an island somewhere world where the waters are warm all year long and we call our island: Ruby. Off to our east is an island called: Diamond. Off to the west another island called: Gold. And, to the north and south, we have islands referred to as: Major and Minor, The people of Major and Minor are very good at transporting stuff (and have been known to explore far beyond the waters of the 5 islands) and storing stuff with great care before it is transported.

Ruby people (our people) are great fishermen and always catch more than we can eat. The folks over on Diamond are great crafts people, constructing dwellings that do not leak when the summer rains arrive. The people of Gold are unfortunate in that no fish swim around their waters but these people are great farmers and it is said that the Gold people store food with Major and Minor in return for vegetables.

As you can see, each island has inhabitants that have a unique and specific skill:

Ruby – fishermen

Diamond – builders

Gold – farmers

Major/Minor – transportation/storage

Each one of these islands can be seen as an autonomous business

As life continues for these 5 islands, they begin trading with each other exchanging what they have for what they need and the barter system is created and has been given birth out of necessity.

And, over time, and because Major and Minor and also explorers, they begin to transport and sell for some type of currency the goods from Ruby, Diamond, and Gold.

But, Ruby, Diamond, and Gold have no need for this “currency” and do not know what to do with it, so the next time, Major and Minor travel to these other lands, representatives from Ruby, Diamond, and Gold go with them.

These representatives finally return with all sorts of unusual gifts that they have purchased from these far away lands and while some are given away, others are traded as is their custom on the islands of Ruby, Diamond, and Gold.

Eventually, the representatives have acquired so much “rare stuff” that they have to store it at the warehouses located on Major and Minor... for a price that is... and this time instead of a barter arrangement, they use some of the “currency they have acquired and now representatives from Major and Minor can now acquire stuff when they travel to these foreign lands.

Major and Minor sometimes use this currency to pay for the fish and food, and building supplies they get from Ruby, Diamond, and Gold who in turn use that currency to acquire other stuff on their respective islands or from these foreign lands.

So, now we have currency introduced into business so our first understanding then of business is that it involved buying and selling goods and services for some type of currency and/or in exchange for some type of goods and services referred to as bartering.

We can also see very easily as well that as our islands involved each other and then others, they begin to grow which is referred to as economic growth and simply automatically occurs as commerce develops and grows as it always seems to do.

There is a point-in-time, when commerce will slow or even stop as people have all that they want and need... but, there is always someone who invents something that they people never dreamed of and once they know about it, everyone wants it.

Economic growth begins again.

As married couples have babies, they will want stuff for their children and it starts with receiving “hand-me-downs” from their parents but eventually they decide that they want NEW. Then, we have babies growing up and having babies and economic growth continues in this area.

As the members of our islands grow in population, these people will see the need to establish a government to protect their rights and eventually an army to protect their lives and their merchandise while on route to a foreign land.

Finally, these 5 islands join forces (to save money from the duplication of efforts) and create their own currency which now has to be regulated and distributed and taxed to pay for current and future services.

As commerce on these 5 islands grow, not only do they realize they need people to work either fishing, farming, or building, but that they need people to sell their fish and collect currency and they need people to create opportunities that will strongly influence the people to buy, and they will need people to wrap and package and ship their product to the islands of Major and Minor for storage and later shipment.

Some of these island merchants have collected so much currency that they are looking for a place in which they can store all their currency and get it out of their living rooms, so now we have the need for banks developing.

As each one of these new needs develop, it comes to fruition because it is being conducted (without realization) as if it were a project. It is only after doing it a certain way for such a long period of time that we called it Project Management. Project Management simply developed as a way of explaining what we were already doing and how we were doing it, with some recommendations..

Now, if you were to enroll in a Business Basics or a Business for Dummies course, they (whoever they are) would inform you that their course will cover the following basic topics:

Strategic Management - Creating a business and strategic plan for your business and making sure you keep to it.

Basic Accounting - Which records to keep, how to keep them and how to file them.

Financial Management - Where to find financing and how to manage it once you’ve sourced it.

People Management - Hiring your first employee and how to manage them.

Marketing - To market your business through traditional channels, web and social media.

Sales - How to complete a sale and look after your customers.

Operations Management - Choosing and managing your suppliers.

What is ironic here is that you changed your major or turned off to business the first time you saw these words because it sounded too complicated or convoluted to you. Business is not that complicated and actually it is pretty simply when looking at the basics.

Think of it this way:

Suppose you are married and your combined income is $50,000 annually and you have no other sources of income therefore your annual budget it $50,000 and it is your job to manage that money on items that your family needs like: shelter, food, and clothing... and, each year you do exactly that.

Suppose your combined income increased to $100,000 or to $1,000,000 or to $10,000,000 or to $100,000,000... would you not manage your money in essence the same way, even though you had a little bit more of it? Ok, a lot more of it... but, it is the same concept, you just have more.

What makes business complicated is all the unethical and immoral people that we have operating companies at the top level without integrity or regards for the people who work for them or the country in which the company is located.

But, that is not business.