Glossary

Accounting Processes: Accounting processes should be established early in the life of a business. They allow you to record the financial transactions of your business and help you to meet various reporting obligations imposed by law.
Assignment: Assignment is selling the rights to use your patent, trade mark, copyright or other form of intellectual property.
Bankers, Investors and Venture Capitalists: Bankers, Investors and Venture Capitalists are critical sources of financial and business support in the path to commercialisation, and expect to see evidence upfront about the projected rate of growth, return on investment, degree of risk and protection of the intellectual property of the business.
Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping is a means of financing a small firm through highly creative acquisition and use of resources without raising equity from traditional sources or borrowing money from a bank.
Business Angel: Business Angel is a high net-worth individual who invests directly in entrepreneurial companies for equity (usually between $10,000-$1 million).
Change, Merger and Acquisition: Change, Merger and Acquisition are deliberate strategies for growing the business by acquiring new business capabilities either by internal growth and change or by acquiring other businesses through merger and acquisition.
Commercial Structure: Commercial Structure is the form you will use for your new venture in seeking to successfully commercialise your new ideas, products or services.
Commercialisation: Commercialisation is a process in which the creator of the knowledge either builds or engages with an entity that can further express, develop and deliver its embodiment to markets that desire it.
Compensation Programs: Compensation Programs are a range of ways of arranging remuneration to be linked to individual, team or corporate performance.
Copyright: Copyright is traditionally the protection of the original ideas and works used by composers, authors, musicians and screenwriters.
Customer Loyalty and Retention: Customer Loyalty and Retention efforts focus on methods of building on the product loyalty and product satisfaction of customers.
Delegation: Delegation involves the decision to pass the authority for the completion of specific tasks or roles to others in the company.
Early Seed Capital: Early Seed Capital refers to the initial cash injections required to start up a company, protect intellectual property, develop prototypes, field and market test the prEntrepreneuroduct or service, and conduct market assessment.
Entrepreneur: Entrepreneur is a person who converts an opportunity into a workable and marketable concept. They apply their time, money, skills and effort to the process of getting their product or service into the marketplace.
Exporting: Exporting occurs when goods leave Australia en route to another country or when you provide a service in another country.
Feasibility Study: Feasibility Study is a test against a set of criteria to ascertain the commercial viability of a proposed venture. These criteria require a detailed understanding of your product or service, the industry you will be competing in, the nature of the market, and the amount of capital needed to kick-start the venture.
Financial Plans: Financial Plans outline details about the financial objectives of the business, its financial and cash flow forecasts, and includes statements of projected profit and loss.
Flowcharting Service Delivery: Flowcharting Service Delivery is a tool for examining the links between what a customer expects, having staff that are trained to deliver the service, and success of the service in meeting customer expectations.
Growth Stage: Growth Stage is focused on putting in place a variety of systems that achieve and maintain the competitive edge that the business has over its competitors.
Growth Strategies: Growth Strategies are about making sure that systems are in place to influence the continuous improvement of the business, and the continued quality of the services or products that it produces for the market.
Harvesting the Wealth: Harvesting the Wealth can involve either an exit plan to leave the business or a plan to access some of the financial rewards of the business in order to invest in other new ventures.
Human Resource Management: Human Resource Management involves the functions of planning and forecasting the personnel needs of the business, as well as putting in place systems for appraising, rewarding and developing staff.
Incubators: Incubators are regional economic development tools that offer start-up firms and other newly formed enterprises numerous tangible and intangible benefits in an effort to foster growth among these firms.
Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property (IP) is the term used to describe a range of intangible ownership rights that include patents, trade marks, copyrights and trade secrets.
Job Descriptions: Job Descriptions contain information on position details, including the nature of the job, and the necessary skills, knowledge and abilities to do the job well.
Joint Ventures: Joint ventures are more formal relationships developed between legal entities (usually companies), and are created either as unincorporated joint ventures (using a legally-binding agreement) or as an incorporated joint venture (using a company established for the purpose of the joint venture, with the joint venturers acquiring shares in the company).
Leasing: Leasing is a legal arrangement in which a landlord agrees to allow a tenant to occupy a defined space for a certain period of time in exchange for regular payments of rent.
Licensing: Licensing allows someone to use your idea, trade mark, or copyright (or other form of intellectual property) in exchange for money or other form of financial return.
Market Tests: Market Tests take the product or service to potential consumers in order to determine whether they will buy the benefits the product or service offers.
Marketing: Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of your ideas, goods or services. The goal is to produce goods or services that satisfy the needs of individual consumers or organisations.
Marketing Plan: Marketing Plan is a written document that describes the needs of the consumer, and how the product or service will meet their needs in the short or longer term.
Merit Pay: Merit Pay is a compensation strategy where pay increases are linked to individual performance as discussed at performance appraisal meetings, and by one’s position in the salary range for the job.
Model Plans: Model Plans provide an electronic pro-forma document that guides the preparation of statements of the purpose of the business, findings of the market analysis, and a financial review of the prospects for the firm.
Monitoring and Reviewing Costs: Monitoring and Reviewing Costs involves establishing a strong focus in the business on estimating sales, forecasting expenditures, and monitoring cash flows. Motivation is the level of effort that you and others will put into achieving the goal of commercialising the idea.
Organisational Structure: Organisational Structure is a statement of the roles and reporting relationships between people or teams in the business.
Ownership: Ownership is a compensation strategy where employees are provided with shares, or promises of shares, in the company.
Partnership: Partnership is a commercial structure where others are brought into the enterprise to share the workload and responsibilities. By law, partners may bear unlimited liability for the debts of the firm, so it is important to seek legal advice before you enter into any form of alliance or partnership with another person or company.
Patents: Patents are the most frequently used legal means of Intellectual Property (IP) protection. According to IP Australia, a patent is a right granted for any device, substance, method or process, which is new, inventive and useful.
Pay: Pay is the amount of money that the business is willing to pay for staff with certain sets of skills or knowledge that are required for the day-to-day operations as well as future growth of the business.
Planning Growth: Planning Growth involves using a range of financial and operational strategies to ensure that the business has the people, funds and resources to achieve its commercial objectives.
Pre Start-Up Stage: Pre Start-Up Stage focuses on investigating and researching the feasibility of your idea, product or service. Your aim is to determine if people will pay to buy your product or service and if they will want to buy it in such numbers that it is worth commercialising.
Profiling Target Customers: Profiling Target Customers is the alignment between the product or services of the business, and customers’ current and future needs.
Profit Sharing: Profit Sharing is a compensation strategy where payment is linked to company performance.
Proprietary Limited Company: Proprietary Limited Company is a company that is privately owned, and the liability of the owners is limited to any unpaid portion of the face value of their shares.
Prototyping: Prototyping is a sample or model created to verify a concept design before fabrication of a product or development of a system.
Recruitment and Selection: Recruitment and selection processes include activities that assist the business to recruit a pool of job applicants and to select from this pool the best applicants for the available jobs.
Retention: Retention of talented staff requires the use of explicit strategies that show staff how well they are doing, and rewards them accordingly.
Selection Tools: Selection Tools in job selection can include the use of job interviews, reference checks, psychometric assessment and job trials.
Selling the Business: Selling the Business is a planned process that requires preparing a financial analysis, examining tax implications, advertising the sale, and closing the deal.
Sole Proprietorship: Sole Proprietorship is a business or enterprise owned by one person. It is a simple, cheap and common form of legal structure for uncomplicated businesses.
Start-Up Stage: Start-Up Stage involves a number of key decisions about the structure of the business, writing a business plan, selecting staff and marketing. The goal is to make the new enterprise viable.
Strategic Alliances, Partnerships and Joint Ventures: Strategic Alliances, Partnerships and Joint Ventures involve the establishment of informal and formal relationships with other individuals or businesses to share resources, ideas or capital.
Succession Planning: Succession Planning involves the transition of the management and leadership of the business to other people.
Systems: Systems allow businesses to continuously change and improve the delivery of products and services through gaining feedback and measurement about product performance in the marketplace.
Teamwork: Teamwork is the use of many individuals and their unique skills to complete tasks in ways that increase the levels of effectiveness and innovation in the business.
Trade Mark: Trade Mark is a symbol, design or text that is used to identify a business or a product.
Trade Secrets: Trade Secrets are aspects of your business that you wish to protect from disclosure, often by employees to other businesses.
Venture Capitalists: Venture capitalists operate either as individuals or most often as venture capital firms. As investors, they are betting that the money they put into your business (generally no less than $500 000) by buying a share of the ownership will increase over time at a higher rate than money invested in the bank or in the share market.