Making the Start-up Effective.

Limited Liability: Where responsibility for paying the debts of the business is limited to the business, and cannot be passed on to the owners (the shareholders).

Vision: A clear view of what the business should be aiming for (e.g. bringing millions of people together).

Word of Mouth: People speaking to each other about a topic or business.

Customer Focus: Keeping your staff thinking about customers' needs and wants.

Target Audience: The part of the market your product is aimed at (e.g. women aged 15-24).

Unethical: Doing something that is morally wrong (e.g. selling cigarettes to children you know are under 14 years).

Bankrupt: When an individual is unable to pay his/her debts, even after all personal assets have been sold for cash.

Limited Liability: Restricting the losses suffered by owners/shareholders to the sum they invested in the business.

Private Limited Company: A small family business in which shareholders enjoy unlimited liability for any business debts.

Sole Trader: A business run by one person; that person has unlimited liability for any business debts.

Unlimited Liability: Treating the business and individual owner as inseparable, therefore making the individual responsible for all the debts of a failed business.

Corporation Tax: Tax paid as a percentage of a company's profits.

Discrimination: Treating some types of people worse than others for reasons of prejudice.

Income Tax: Tax paid as a percentage of a person's wage/salary.

National Insurance: A form of tax that is paid by employers and employees as a contribution towards welfare payments such as unemployment pay. Employers pay around 13 per cent of the employee's salary.

Customer Satisfaction: The degree to which buyers rate the quality of service they have received.

Supply Chain: The links in the chain from the start to the end of the supply process. For a bakery that might be: wheat from farm - ground into flour - delivered to baker - baked into bread - sliced and wrapped - delivered to shops.

Curriculum Vitae: The story of life (i.e. a summary of a person's qualifications, achievements and interests).

Discrimination: Choosing one type of person in preference to another, perhaps on the grounds of race, age or sex.

Reference: A letter to support a job application from someone the job applicant has chosen (e.g. a previous boss).

Induction: Initial training to make newcomers feel comfortable in their new job.

Off-the-Job: Training that takes place away from the job (e.g. at college or at a company's training centre).

On-the-Job: Training that takes place while working at the job (e.g. till training at a supermarket).

Absenteeism: The percentage of the workforce that is absent on the average day. The national average is about 3 per cent, but in some organisations it is as high as 10 per cent.

Labour Turnover: The percentage of the workforce that leaves each year and has to be replaced.