by Santosh Kumar
on 21-07-2020

Business Fundamentals - What Is Business

Business is primarily about creating value for the customers along with serving the community where we live and bringing joy and happiness for the people around you and generate enough profit to make a living for all the business stakeholders.

After four days of being away from home on a business trip, I returned from Scotland on Thursday night, took a break for a day and promised my little angel to go for a walk with him on the weekend. Unsure of where to go, my seven-year-old son and I decided to drive up to Lakeside Country Park and take a stroll, enjoying the magnificent walk around this beautifully landscaped park in Eastleigh, having the acres of land. We started walking along the footpaths and started seeing different birds and wildlife whilst spending time in the naturally beautiful park.

After a little walk, we reached an area near the pond, sat on the grass and started watching the activities taking place in the park.
There were a number of Newfoundland dogs and their handlers going down to the water to teach them how to swim.

“What are they doing Pa?” Mo asked looking at the dog and their handlers.
“Training the dogs,” I said.

“Why?” he asked next.
“Because that is their business, to train the dogs,” I replied.

“What do you do pa?” was his next question
"I run a business," I replied while watching the handler going down to the water.

“Why were you away from home for so many days?" he asked.
I immediately turned toward him, looked at him and saw that he was eagerly waiting for my response. I gave a quick ten-second thought and replied, “To meet people.”

“Pa, why do you meet people?” he asked.
“To listen to their idea," I said.

His immediate question was, "Why to listen to ideas?"
"Because that is our business," I replied.

"Why listening to the ideas is our business? " he asked again.
“So that I can address the needs of people and provide a solution to the challenges that they face,” I answered.

“How do you provide a solution?” he asked next.
"By the way of our offerings, "I said.

"What is offering?" he asked.
I replied, “It’s a combination of goods and services to create value for customers.” I continued, “We create software products to make other's life easier and fulfil the needs of people to create value for our customers.”

“Why to create value?” he asked.
“So that we make a difference in the lives of people around us and our products or services become popular,” I replied.

“Why to become popular?” was his next question.
“So that I can make more profit while creating value and making a difference,”I replied.

“How do you make a profit?” he asked.
“By buying and selling goods or services,” I said.

“Ohhhhh, so does business mean buying and selling?”
I nodded, “Yes, business means buying and selling goods and services and making a profit” I continued.

“Why to make more profit?” he asked.
“So that I can buy more cars for you,” I said.

“OK. Can you buy me that red remote-controlled car which we saw earlier please?” he requested.
I smiled and said, “Yes, next week”.

On that day, we spent a couple of hours walking in the park, looking at the people who were fishing, sailing model yachts, watching water birds and playing in the play area.

Next week when I returned from the office and took a shower, I asked my son to come over to me.

“Come here Mo”, I called and Mo, who was playing with his toys nearby while sitting on the sofa, quickly jumped up to me and sat in my lap.

“Do you know what daddy does for a living?” I asked
“Yes, you run a business,” he said immediately.

“What is a business?” I asked.
“Buying and selling goods and making a profit,” he said.

“And why to make a profit?” I asked
“So that you can buy more cars for me,” he added innocently.

“Good." I laughed, "Now can you go and bring that bag from my computer table and open it?”I asked.
He quickly ran and as soon as he opened the bag, the joy bubbled up inside of him and his happiness overflowed.
He saw the red remote-controlled car that he had asked for inside it.

He was all over me, thanking, hugging, kissing for the little toy car which made his heart sing and dance with joy. Like every other gift before, he started jumping and saying, “This is the best gift I have ever got. Thank you, Pa. I love you. You are the best dad in the world.”

I again felt a sense of pride, a sense of achievement, a sense of satisfaction and proud to be a father who is trying to bring the dreams of their little ones to reality. The value of gifts which I buy is tiny for me as compared to the joy and happiness which it brings for our family but for them, it’s the whole world. It gives a sense of pride in elevating the mood of my loved ones with such small presents and make their spirits brightened.

Wow!

Anyway, coming back to our topic, what is business?

WHAT IS A BUSINESS?

DICTIONARY DEFINITION
The dictionary defines business as “The activity of making, buying, or selling goods or providing services in exchange for money”

Another definition from a dictionary which you will commonly find is,
“Business is any profit-seeking organisation that provides goods or services designed to satisfy customers’ needs."

In other words, it's not a true business if you only produce goods and services primarily for your own needs or work exclusively for your family and friends. To classify an activity as a business you have to produce for a wider audience; for your business customers.

From the definition of books,
Business is the production, distribution, and sale of goods and services for a profit. Although this is technically correct, the type of activities used to generate profit also played a very important role in defining a business. Let me give you the practical explanation of business types in my next article “Business Buzz Fundamentals – Types of Business”

My definition,
• Business is all about creating value for our customers.
• Business is all about bringing happiness to everyone.
• Business is all about making a difference in other's life.
• Business is all about creating a moment of joy, creating a moment of satisfaction, making sure that we are thinking of others before we think of ourselves, and get a feeling of self-fulfilment.

In my view, business is primarily about creating value for the customers along with serving the community where we live. It's about bringing joy and happiness for the people around you along with generating enough profit to satisfy the personal needs of all the stakeholders linked with the business.

SUMMARY

One definition of business is as follows.
“ A business is an entity that offers goods and/or services to customers, charge a price for their goods and services to cover the cost of goods and make a profit.”

In the words of Mo, my lovely sweet, little seven years old son, is
“ Buying and selling goods and making a profit.”

In my words, business is all about
“Buying and selling goods and services and creating value while making a profit to bring joy and happiness for people around you and your community.”

About Author

Santosh Kumar

Manager , iBraine UK

Managing Director. Helping businesses out-perform the competition, increase revenue, decrease expenses & mitigate risk. Guaranteed More Savings. Guaranteed More Sales. Guaranteed More Customers. Guaranteed Better Growth.Are you sure that your digital assets such as website and customer portals are d...

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1 Comments

Excellent Article. Thank you for sharing your thoughts
28-07-2020 11:35AM

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WHAT IS A BUSINESS?

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