Businesses exist to satisfy people's wants and needs by providing goods and services. While needs are necessities for survival like food and shelter, wants are optional desires that businesses aim to fulfill. Goods are physical products that can be seen and touched, while services are tasks performed by individuals. However, both individuals and businesses have limited resources, so they must choose which wants and needs to satisfy from the many possibilities.
2. Learning Objectives
• Explain the difference between wants and needs
• Discuss what businesses do to provide goods and services
• Describe some steps in planning for a career
• Identify some jobs and skills in business and financial operations
• Explain the steps in decision making
4. Wants
• Wants are the things we wish we could have.
• Some wants are shared by more than one individual, like families or institutions.
• Some wants are public, like parks and highways.
• Are wants necessary or optional?
5. Needs
• Necessary wants become needs, or things we must have to survive.
• Many of the items that are important to our daily lives are actually wants.
• Food, shelter, and clothing are the most basic of these needs.
• Is the mobile phone a want or a need?
6. SatisfyingWants: Goods and Services
• Most of our wants – public or private, necessary or optional – can be satisfied by
some type of good or service.
• Goods can be physically weighed or measured.
• Goods satisfy our wants and needs for material things – things we can see or
touch.
• Services are tasks done for you by people or machines. Services satisfy some of
our wants for nonmaterial things – things we can’t see or touch.
7. SatisfyingWants
• Although many wants could be satisfied by some type of good or service, some
could not.
• What are some wants that cannot be satisfied by goods or services?
• When we talk about wants in this course, we are not talking about intangible
desires like love, respect, or recognition. We are talking about wants that can be
satisfied by goods or services.
8. UnlimitedWants
• Everyone wants goods and services. Only few have enough to satisfy all of their
wants.
• A resource is anything that people can use to make or obtain what they need or
want.
• Individuals, companies, and nations can suffer from limited resources.
• Our resources limit the number of wants we can satisfy.
9. Limited Resources
• You receive $200 as a gift. How do you spend it?
• You can work to earn more money, but you only have a limited amount of time to
spend.
• Just like individuals, businesses and government agencies may lack the resources
to do all the things that they want to do.
• What is one want or need that your school has, but cannot satisfy?
