1. Mr.Sassine

2.  Business planning :Duration six weeks  Depending on progress with topic revision before exams, hopefully one or two weeks.  Homework: Will be practice questions on what we are learning: Hand in some times and marked in class: Designed to help you so do it!

3.  No universally accepted definition of a Small to medium enterprise (SME)  A number of qualitative measurements (those based on personal observations and a description of the business) and quantitative measurements (statistical calculations) have been used to determine whether a business is a small or medium enterprise business.  So what's with the photo???

4. Micro: Fewer than 5 employees Small: Between 5-19 employees Meduim:between 20 and 199 or more employees

5.  The definition of a small to medium enterprise will now align with that used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  A small business is defined as a business employing less than 20 people and a medium business (excluding agriculture) is defined as a business employing 20 or more people but less than 200.

6. Role of SME’s Employ 73% of people working in the private sector Created 80% of Australia’s employment in the last ten years Generate an increasing amount of exports

7.  Economic growth occurs when a nation increases the real value of goods and services over a period of time.  A common measure to check if economic growth is occurring is to compare economic growth to real GDP growth. Gross Domestic product allows us to examine how much goods and services we are producing compared to the previous year.

9.  In 2009-2010 SME’s employed about 7.5 million people. Representing 73% of private sector employment.  During economic downturns such as the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-2009, SME’S were more likely to retain their existing employees than large businesses.  SME’s also pay large amounts of taxation. Taxation is used to pay for goods and services that will be of benefit to the whole economy.

12.  http://www.smeaustralia.asn.au/sitebuilder/newsmedia/knowledge/asset/ files/38/revised3.pdf http://www.smeaustralia.asn.au/sitebuilder/newsmedia/knowledge/asset/ files/38/revised3.pdf

13.  SME’s have started to export and make use of overseas markets.  Globalisation of the word “One global economy”.  Encourage a positive balance of payments as SME’s have now made use of the global market. When you export (out of the country ie:Iron ore, more than you import into the country, new technologies: IPAD).  AUSTRADE, is encouraging SME’s to export to overseas markets.

14.  http://www.austrade.gov.au/Assistance-from-Austrade http://www.austrade.gov.au/Assistance-from-Austrade  Assistance from Austrade  “Austrade provides information and advice to assist Australian companies reduce the time, cost and risk of exporting. We also provide a range of trade services to Australian exporters looking to grow their business in growth and emerging markets, where there is strong demand for our services and where we can add the most value. These markets include Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Russia”

15.  Invention: Something new  Innovation:Improvment on an existing product  Finding new ways to do things results in increased efficiency and productivity  However Small to medium enterprises often have difficulty in obtaining finance when it comes to undertaking research and development for new products

16.  In groups of two, you are going to analyse case-studies relating to small to medium enterprises  Task purpose: To assess you levels of understanding  Will share answers next lesson