Syllabus: OCR - GCSE Business
Module: 1. Business Activity
Lesson: 1.2 Business Planning

Introduction

This section of the OCR GCSE Business specification focuses on 1.2 Business Planning, a critical foundation for understanding how businesses set up and plan for sustainable growth. It’s where students learn how ideas become viable enterprises through structured planning.

The topic aligns directly with the OCR J204 specification, under Component 1: Business activity, marketing and people. It prepares students to assess risk, understand the need for planning, and recognise the importance of clear business aims and objectives. For teachers, this is where abstract concepts like opportunity cost and financial forecasting meet practical classroom discussion and case study analysis.

Key Concepts

Students studying this unit should understand the following syllabus-aligned points:

• Purpose of business planning: Why entrepreneurs need a business plan when starting or growing a business.

• Main sections of a business plan, including:

  • The business idea

  • Business aims and objectives

  • Target market

  • Forecasting revenue, costs and profit

  • Sources of finance

  • Marketing and operations strategy

• Benefits and drawbacks of business planning:

  • Helps reduce risk and secure finance

  • May limit flexibility or underestimate uncertainty

• Use of a business plan by stakeholders, particularly:

  • Lenders/investors assessing business viability

  • Owners/managers using it for internal strategy and review

This content supports both core business understanding and quantitative skills development, such as interpreting financial forecasts or estimating break-even.

Real-World Relevance

Business planning is not just an academic exercise. It’s a daily reality for start-ups, SMEs, and even departments within large organisations. For example:

• Start-up case study: Gymshark began as a school project and grew through strategic business planning into a global fitness brand. Its early business plan focused on e-commerce, niche targeting, and influencer marketing — all directly relatable to classroom discussion.

• Local relevance: Invite students to explore a local business or family-run shop and investigate what kind of plan (formal or informal) they followed at launch.

Using Enterprise Skills’ Business Simulations, students can “run” their own virtual start-up, making choices about pricing, staffing, and promotion — helping them learn by doing, not just reading.

How It’s Assessed

In the OCR GCSE Business exam, 1.2 Business Planning typically appears in Component 1. Assessment styles include:

• Short-answer questions: Define or identify sections of a business plan.

• Application questions: Apply planning concepts to a case study or business scenario.

• ‘Explain’, ‘Analyse’ and ‘Evaluate’ command words:

  • Explain = define or describe a concept clearly with context.

  • Analyse = explore relationships, often using chains of reasoning.

  • Evaluate = consider pros and cons, then make a justified judgement.

• Quantitative elements: Questions involving profit forecasts, break-even, or cost analysis may also be included.

Students should be prepared to interpret business plans or produce simple versions themselves, particularly in response to scenario-based questions.

Enterprise Skills Integration

This module is an ideal point to embed key enterprise capabilities:

• Decision-making: Choosing how to allocate resources and manage risk.

• Problem-solving: Identifying flaws in a plan and proposing alternatives.

• Strategic thinking: Linking aims and objectives to action plans and finances.

• Communication: Justifying choices through written or verbal arguments, mirroring real-world pitch decks or executive summaries.

Enterprise Skills’ simulations reinforce these through interactive business challenges that give students immediate feedback on decisions. It’s a safe, structured environment where they can learn from mistakes without real-world consequences — but with real learning impact.

Careers Links

This topic is rich with career relevance and aligns with Gatsby Benchmarks 4, 5, and 6:

• Careers in entrepreneurship: Students gain insight into the mindset and skills needed to start a business.

• Finance and accounting: Understanding costs, revenues, and forecasts links directly to roles in business finance.

• Marketing and operations: Strategic decisions explored here introduce functions that are core to modern business roles.

• Employability skills: Planning, critical thinking, and communication are transferable across sectors.

Invite local entrepreneurs, bank reps, or enterprise advisors to share their experience of writing or assessing business plans — an ideal Benchmark 5 activity.

Teaching Notes

Common pitfalls to address:

• Students often confuse aims (broad goals) with objectives (measurable steps).

• They may oversimplify financial forecasts or ignore market research in planning tasks.

Suggested strategies:

• Use scaffolded templates to help students build business plans in stages.

• Run a ‘Pitch Your Plan’ activity where students present their ideas to peers or mock investors.

• Bring in Skills Hub tools to simulate financial outcomes or forecast impact based on decisions.

Differentiation tips:

• Lower-ability students: Focus on matching key terms to definitions and simple plan elements.

• Higher-ability students: Stretch with evaluation questions or by challenging them to critique and improve flawed business plans.

Extension ideas:

• Link to current affairs: How are businesses planning in response to economic uncertainty?

• Cross-curricular links: Tie into maths (forecasting, percentages) and citizenship (roles of enterprise in society).