About Business
Conceptually, business is not Rocket Science. There are certainly concepts that are hard to understand, but the majority of what goes in to “Business” on a daily basis is pretty simple.
The key word here really is BUSINESS. Dictionary.com has the following to say:
business
noun
(i) The occupation, work, or trade in which a person is engaged: the wholesale food business.
(ii) A specific occupation or pursuit: the best designer in the business.
(iii) Commercial, industrial, or professional dealings: new systems now being used in business.
(iv) A commercial enterprise or establishment: bought his uncle’s business.
(v) Volume or amount of commercial trade: Business had fallen off.
(vi) Commercial dealings; patronage: took her business to a trustworthy salesperson.
(vii) One’s rightful or proper concern or interest: “The business of America is business” (Calvin Coolidge).
(viii) Something involving one personally: It’s none of my business.
(ix) Serious work or endeavor: got right down to business.
(x) An affair or matter: “We will proceed no further in this business” (Shakespeare).
(xi) An incidental action performed by an actor on the stage to fill a pause between lines or to provide interesting detail.
(xii) Informal. Verbal abuse; scolding: gave me the business for being late.
(xiii) Obsolete. The condition of being busy.
While I like the informal usage, the key parts for me are pursuit, professional dealings, and commerce.
Pursuit is pretty obvious. You have to actually be doing something to build a business. I hopefully this does not come as a shock.
Professional dealings are often overlooked, but in my opinion, businesses should strive to be professional at all times.
And lastly, commerce. The idea of commerce may leave you a little cold, but take comfort from the fact that it scales according to the situation.
The bottom line: You need enough commerce to be able to continue your activities.
And by commerce, I’m really talking about money.
If it doesn’t take much money to continue your business, you don’t need much commerce. Perhaps you have another source of money that can subsidize your business (like an open source programmer with a day job).
Some folks like lots of commerce, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. My point is that the lower limit of the amount of commerce you need is determined by the amount of money you need to continue to do whatever it is that you do in your business.
Sure, you can raise money, get investors, borrow from the bank etc etc etc. But that’s just a delaying tactic equivalent to building a wall of sand on the beach. Yes, it will stop the tide for a little while, but sooner or later that tide still comes in.
If you like, you can think of a Business as a Calvin & Hobbes-style transmogrifier with a feedback loop. Business is a magic black box that converts ideas into money and that money funds further ideas.
NOTE: Okay, so lots of businesses don’t fit this definition, but those aren’t the kind of businesses I had in mind when I built this wiki.