An Immigrant’s Guide to Starting a Business in Saskatchewan Glossary
- Proficient means to be skilled or knowledgeable about something.
- A credit history shows how a person paid back the money they owe. It shows how responsible a person is with their money.
- A credit score is based on a person’s credit history. Lenders use credit scores to determine if a person will pay back their loans on time
- A purchased business is less risky if it is purchased at a fair price, managed well, and has shown a profit.
- Initial investment is the amount of money needed to start up a business. The initial investment amount for a franchise depends on what the franchise is. A Tim Horton’s has different start-up costs than a McDonald’s.
- To wear many hats is a saying that means you have many roles and responsibilities.
- Cross-cultural management helps us to communicate with, understand, and work with people who belong to other cultures.
- Small talk is social communication. Asking a person how they are, how their day has been, or talking about the weather are examples of small talk.
- Personal Liability means a person is legally responsible for something. A person may have to pay money to cover any damages to property or injuries to another person.
- Consideration means an agreed upon value.
- Bylaws are the set of rules and regulations that a municipality follows.
- An elevator pitch is a short, concise explanation of who, where, what and why you and your business is, or will be. It is not technical, or detailed. IT’S NOT A SALES PITCH. It is an introduction to make your audience want to know more, or just know who you are.
An Immigrant’s Guide to Marketing your Small Business in Saskatchewan Glossary
- Personality means the qualities that make someone or something interesting.
- Desire is a want or wish for something.
- Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market of potential customers into groups, or segments, based on characteristics. The segments, or groups, are made up of consumers. These consumers react in the same way to marketing strategies. These groups of consumers, or segments, share similar qualities, such as living in the same area, or have similar interest or needs.
- Multinational corporation are large companies with a head office in one country that also sells goods and services in several other countries. McDonald’s, Costco, and Walmart are examples of multinational corporations.
- The term Diaspora comes from the Greek word meaning “to scatter about.” That is exactly what the people of a diaspora do – they scatter from their homeland to places across the globe, spreading their culture as they go.
- A Market Segment is a group of people who share one or more common characteristics. Each market segment is unique.
- Client is another word for customer.
- Demographics are the characteristics of the customers you have, or might have, that you can measure. Examples of demographics are income, age, location, and education.
- Psychographics are the attitudes, opinions, interests, values, and lifestyle choices of your target customer market.
- Sustainable means the ability to continue for a long time.
- Direct competition is when two or more businesses offer the same product or service and compete for the same market. McDonalds and Burger King are direct competitors.
- Indirect competition is when two or more businesses offer different products or services and compete for the same market. McDonalds and Pizza Hut are indirect competitors.
- Market position is what a customer thinks about your product or service.
- Your ideal client must value your market positioning. If your positioning takes care of a specific frustration common to your industry, then many of your customers may value it.
- Niche is a specialized market.
- Resonate with is when something has a special meaning or importance for someone
- An elevator pitch is a short, concise explanation of who, where, what and why you and your business is, or will be (pre-startup). It is not technical, or detailed. It is an introduction to make your audience want to know more, or just know who you are.
An Immigrant’s Guide to Financial Fundamentals for Small Business in Saskatchewan Glossary
- A credit history shows how a person paid back the money they owe. It shows how responsible a person is with their money.
- A credit score is based on a person’s credit history. Lenders use credit scores to determine if a person will pay back their loans on time.
- Budgeting is when you estimate your income and calculate your expenses.
- The Accounting Cycle – Think of the accounting cycle as a process that every financial transaction goes through. Every time you make a financial transaction, such as buying office supplies it gets recorded in your journal. Your journal is a list of transactions in chronological order.
- Fixed costs are the costs that do not increase or decrease based on the products and services sold. They are the costs your business pays whether your company is generating income from sales or not: usually rent and overhead, and sometimes salaries. Technically, fixed costs are those that the business would continue to pay even in the event it was to sell nothing.
- Variable costs are costs that fluctuate in direct proportion to the volume of units produced. The best and most obvious examples are the physical Costs of Goods Sold (COGS) and direct costs (such as materials, products/services purchased for resale and production costs).
- Interrelated means connected to one another. Calculating the breakeven point is just one part of cost-volume-profit analysis, but it’s often an essential first step in establishing a sales price point that ensures profit. Now that you know your price point – check with your competitors to see if you are aligned. Think about your capacity to produce your products / services – how many units are you capable of producing?
