Small businesses in the middle of the crunch - insights for students

Lots of business surveys around at the moment provide insights that the savvy AS business student might bear in mind as they do their revision.  A particularly useful one is just out from O2…

Video case study - flexible storage is a boom business

This video case study makes a really nice link between choice of business location,, and fixed versus variable costs.  Traditonally, businesses have paid for storage space and facilities at their own premises.  But for many small businesses, a better option might be to opt for flexible storage hire. For example, ebay or home-based businesses still need storage space, but the entrepreneurs dont want their homes filled up with stocks!

Download student worksheet (pdf) and video link

A Devastating Blow for the Irish Economy

Dell’s decision to close its manufacturing capacity in Limerick and transfer production to a low-cost location in Lodz in Poland will come as a severe blow to the Irish economy....

Video case study - Tourist town reinvents its economy

A nice little case study here about how a popular tourist destination is changing its economic mix - moving away from traditional industries such as tourism and fishing to embrace the digital creative sector.

Download worksheet and video link (pdf)

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Here’s a useful short video about a start-up business

I just spotted this excellent two-minute video clip that appeared on the BBC website a few days ago.  It would make an excellent stimulus piece for business students looking for a simple example of a business start-up…

Not enough customers to break the daily grind at Beanscene

A couple of weeks ago Beanscene, one of Scotland’s leading chains of coffee shops, was put into administration.  We should find out soon whether the business has been saved by a new buyer…

Start-ups and small businesses abandon their traditional offices

An interesting article in the Times is really useful for the “location” topic in the new AS Business Studies specifications…

How much would you pay for a fish & chip shop?

If I offered you the chance to buy a profitable fish & chip shop, how much would you pay?

Working from home - the cost effective location for a start-up

Reading through the sections on “location” in the growing batch of new textbooks for AQA AS Business Unit, you might be forgiven for thinking that there are only really two locations for a new business - retailing on the high street, or hiring a unit in an industrial park.  What the textbooks largely ignore is the choice of an entrepreneur’s home as the starting location for a new business. I have come across a great website that focuses on home businesses - it would make a great support resource for the new AS units on starting a business…

Add flexible space to flexible working as a success factor for a start-up

I’ve been doing some background research on the location issues facing start-ups, as well as considering some of the location issues facing our business.  Then I came across a rather unfortunate piece of writing in one of the new AS Business textbooks that brought the issue home to me.

The Apprentice 2008 (Week 1) - In Cod We Trust

A fantastic opening to series 4 of The Apprentice had the 16 hopefuls dumped immediately into the smelly, cut-throat world of a fish market.  Did the contestants look out of plaice? Will the competition prove a bream come true?  And will we see the losers carping about how things could have been much, much batter?

Fudges finds its niche

Here is a great example of a food manufacturing business that has reinvented itself to successfully exploit a niche for luxury food products. The video link would make a great lesson starter resource and there is lots of business studies content that can be drawn out through discussion and further research.

Which business location is this? A simple starter activity

I’m a big fan of the free Google Earth.  Here’s a suggestion for how it might be used as a simple starter or research activity in a business lesson.

Can you guess - what is Britain’s fastest-growing sport?

Friday evening is approaching yet again.  And it turns out that by participating in my regular Friday exercise I’m taking part in Britain’s fastest-growing sport.  A sport that also claims to be “recession-proof”.

Are supermarkets morphing into community centres?

Where is the heart of your local community?  The village or town hall?  The Library? Or perhaps now it is the largest local supermarket.

The Social Network that Friends Forgot

Browsing Facebook the other night I saw a passing reference to one of the earliest social networking sites - Friends Reunited.  I remember using that site a few years ago, before it was bought by ITV for £120m and wondered what had happened to it since?