This document provides an introduction to business concepts including: - Businesses provide goods and services to meet consumer wants and needs. - Decision making involves determining how to best meet wants and needs with limited resources, and understanding opportunity costs of different choices. - Personal values and goals guide decision making by helping determine priorities.

1. BUSINESS IN
TODAY’S WORLD
INTRODUCTIONTO BUSINESS
Chapter 1

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

3. Business terms
• wants
• needs
• goods
• services
• resource
• opportunity cost
• business
• ability
• aptitude
• career clusters

4. Making Choices
• Having limited resources means that we must make choices.
• Decision making is the process of determining which wants and needs to meet at a
particular time.
• Wise decision makers want to gain as much satisfaction as possible from their
limited resources.
• How do you determine your priorities?

5. The Cost of Choosing
• Remember the $200 gift? How did you spend it?
• What you give up when you make one choice instead of another is called the
opportunity cost.
• Sometimes, that cost is not money or another item. When you decide to study
instead of inviting your friends over, the opportunity cost of passing the test would
be having friends over.
• Choosing the best alternative involves knowing what you give up, and what you
gain.

6. Values and Goals
• The decisions you make regarding spending your time, energy, and money have a
lot to do with your values.
• You may value a good friendship, a prosperous career, some free time, or a nice
view.
• Your own values help guide you in making decisions. When choosing an
alternative, you are basically placing one of your values ahead of another.

7. Values and Goals
• Your goals also play a role when making decisions.
• Your goals may include passing a driving test, making new friends, or buying a new
laptop.
• Some goals, like making new friends, are long-term goals.
• Some, like passing a driving test, are short-term goals.

8. Values and Goals
• The goals you set for yourself can tell you something about your values.
• Having values and goals is not enough.You need to recognize what they are, and
you need to know which ones are most important to you.
• If you do not know what your values and goals are, it is difficult to set priorities or
to determine the opportunity cost of your choices.
• How would you decide between creating your own business, getting a full-time job,
and getting a degree in higher education?

9. End of Section 2

10. Quiz Check
• Define decision making, priorities, values, and goals.
• What costs do you encounter when you give up one choice in favor of another?