NYSTCE Business and Marketing (168) cheat sheet
NYSTCE Business and Marketing (168) · Keep the key ideas within reach.
Business and Marketing
Accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity; every transaction keeps it in balance through double-entry recording (each debit has an equal credit).
Gross profit = Net sales − Cost of goods sold; operating income = Gross profit − Operating expenses; net income = Operating income − Interest and taxes.
Break-even units = Fixed costs ÷ (Selling price per unit − Variable cost per unit); the denominator is the contribution margin per unit.
Markup on cost = (Selling price − Cost) ÷ Cost; gross margin (markup on selling price) = (Selling price − Cost) ÷ Selling price. The two differ whenever cost is nonzero.
Current ratio = Current assets ÷ Current liabilities; quick (acid-test) ratio excludes inventory and prepaid items from current assets.
Inventory turnover = Cost of goods sold ÷ Average inventory; a higher ratio generally signals faster stock movement and lower holding cost.
Marketing mix (4 Ps): Product, Price, Place (distribution), Promotion. The extended 7 Ps add People, Process, and Physical evidence for services.
Product life cycle stages - introduction, growth, maturity, decline - drive pricing, promotion, and distribution decisions; competition peaks at maturity.
Promotion mix tools: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct/digital marketing; push strategy targets channel members, pull strategy targets end consumers.
Business and Marketing
Market segmentation bases: demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral; a viable segment must be measurable, accessible, substantial, and actionable.
Positioning = the place a brand occupies in the consumer's mind relative to competitors; it is built through differentiation and communicated via the marketing mix.
Pricing strategies: cost-plus (cost plus markup), penetration (low introductory price to build share), skimming (high launch price for early adopters), and value-based pricing tied to perceived benefits.
Price elasticity of demand = % change in quantity demanded ÷ % change in price; demand is elastic when the absolute value exceeds 1 and inelastic when below 1.
Channels of distribution: direct (producer to consumer) versus indirect (producer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer); each intermediary adds cost but can add time, place, and possession utility.
Business ownership forms: sole proprietorship (unlimited personal liability), general partnership (joint and several liability), limited liability company, and corporation (limited liability, double taxation of C-corps).
Supply and demand: a surplus pushes price down, a shortage pushes it up; equilibrium occurs where quantity supplied equals quantity demanded.
Business plan components typically include executive summary, market analysis, organization and management, product/service line, marketing strategy, and financial projections.
Management functions (POLC): Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling; controlling compares actual performance to standards and takes corrective action.
Business and Marketing
Balance sheet: Assets = Liabilities + Equity at a point in time; income statement reports revenues and expenses over a period; statement of cash flows splits operating, investing, and financing activities.
Debit/credit rules: assets and expenses increase with debits; liabilities, equity, and revenue increase with credits.
Straight-line depreciation = (Cost − Salvage value) ÷ Useful life; declining-balance methods produce larger early-year expense.
Payroll deductions include mandatory items (federal/state income tax withholding, FICA Social Security and Medicare) and voluntary items (insurance, retirement contributions).
FICA: Social Security tax applies to earnings up to an annual wage base; Medicare tax has no wage cap and includes an additional rate above high-income thresholds.
Cost classifications: fixed costs do not vary with output in the relevant range; variable costs change proportionally with output; mixed costs contain both elements.
Return on investment (ROI) = Net income ÷ Investment; it can be decomposed into profit margin (net income ÷ sales) times investment turnover (sales ÷ investment).
Internal controls rest on segregation of duties, physical safeguards, independent verification, documentation, and authorization procedures; separation of custody from recordkeeping is central.
Business and Marketing
Contract elements: offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, and legality; a contract for goods over the UCC threshold must generally be in writing to be enforceable.
Agency relationship: the principal grants authority to an agent; actual authority may be express or implied, while apparent authority binds the principal based on third-party reasonable belief.
Employment law concepts: at-will employment (either party may end the relationship absent a contract or statutory protection), minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA, and prohibitions on discrimination in hiring, pay, and termination.
Intellectual property: patents protect inventions for a limited term, copyright protects original expression fixed in a medium, trademarks protect source identifiers, and trade secrets protect confidential business information.
Consumer protection: bait-and-switch advertising is deceptive; the FTC regulates unfair or deceptive trade practices, and truth-in-advertising requires substantiation of claims.
Business torts and product liability: negligence requires duty, breach, causation, and damages; strict product liability can attach to defective design, manufacture, or failure to warn.
Negotiable instruments and credit: a check is a draft drawn on a bank payable on demand; usury laws cap interest rates, and truth-in-lending disclosure requires stating the annual percentage rate.
Ethics frameworks for business decisions: utilitarian (greatest good), deontological (duty/rights), and virtue (character) approaches; codes of ethics and whistleblower protections support compliance.
Business and Marketing
Communication process: sender encodes a message, transmits through a channel, receiver decodes, and feedback confirms understanding; noise is any interference at any stage.
Business letter formats: block (all lines flush left), modified block (date and closing indented or centered), and simplified; memos use To/From/Date/Subject headings and omit salutation and closing.
Networking basics: a LAN spans a limited area, a WAN spans wide distances, and the Internet is a network of networks; IP addresses identify hosts and DNS translates domain names to IP addresses.
Spreadsheet use: relative references adjust when copied, absolute references (with $) do not; functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, IF, and VLOOKUP automate calculation and lookup.
Database fundamentals: a record is a complete set of fields about one entity; a primary key uniquely identifies each record, and a foreign key links tables in a relational database.
E-commerce models: B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer), C2C (consumer to consumer via platforms), and B2G (business to government).
Information security: authentication verifies identity, authorization grants access rights, encryption protects confidentiality in transit and at rest, and phishing exploits human trust rather than technical flaws.
File management and digital citizenship: back up data redundantly, use version control for documents, and respect acceptable-use policies and licensing terms when using software and media.
Business and Marketing
Career and technical education alignment: business programs map to pathways such as finance, marketing, management, and entrepreneurship, and to industry certifications and work-based learning.
Instructional design: write measurable objectives using observable verbs (identify, compute, prepare) tied to Bloom's levels; assess exactly what the objective states.
Assessment types: formative (ongoing, feedback-oriented) versus summative (end-of-unit, evaluative); performance assessments use rubrics with explicit criteria and proficiency levels.
Cooperative learning structures (e.g., think-pair-share, jigsaw) require individual accountability and positive interdependence to be effective.
Differentiation adjusts content, process, or product based on readiness, interest, and learning profile; it does not change the standard, only the route to it.
Student organizations such as DECA and FBLA integrate leadership, competition, and community service into business coursework and are co-curricular, not extracurricular substitutes for instruction.
Work-based learning: internships, job shadowing, and school-based enterprises connect classroom content to authentic tasks and require supervision, safety, and legal compliance (e.g., child labor rules).
Technology integration should serve learning goals; a TPACK-style fit matches technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge rather than adopting tools for their own sake.
Professional practice: keep student records confidential under FERPA, follow district acceptable-use and safety policies, and document communication with families and employers.