002 Why do we need businesses

👩‍🏫 Teacher’s Guide

Objective
Students will describe how businesses meet needs and wants and support communities.

Teaching Notes

• Connect businesses to meeting needs (food, shelter) and wants (games, treats).
• Introduce community benefits: jobs, convenience, innovation.
• Discuss fairness: good quality, safety, honest pricing.

🧒 Student Worksheet

Concept and Helping Material

This lesson helps you understand Why do we need businesses? and how businesses work in everyday life.

Vocabulary and Definition

• — A place or group of people that sells goods or services to earn money.
• — A person who buys or uses a good or service.
• — A good (item) or service (help) that a business offers.
• — Money a business earns from sales.
• — Money a business spends to make and sell products.

Business QA

1. What two main things can businesses offer to customers?
2. Who is the customer in a business transaction?
3. Why do many businesses need employees?
4. What is one example of a service business?
5. What is one example of a goods business?
6. What is revenue?
7. What is an expense?
8. Why do businesses set prices for products?
9. What is profit in simple words?
10. What does “trade” mean in business?
11. Why do businesses need supplies or materials?
12. How can a business learn what customers want?
13. What is a “need” that businesses often help with?
14. What is a “want” that businesses often sell?
15. Why is being honest important for a business?
16. What is one way businesses advertise?
17. How do businesses help a community?
18. What happens if a business sells something people don't want?
19. What does it mean when a business “serves” customers well?
20. What is an entrepreneur?

Hands-On Experiment or Activities

What You Need: index cards, markers, a small box or basket, coins or paper “money.”
What You Do: 1) Write 6 simple products/services on cards (e.g., lemonade, pencils, dog-walking). 2) Choose prices. 3) Classmates “shop” and you record each sale. 4) Count revenue and list expenses (cards, cups, time).
Think and Talk: What changed? What stayed the same?

Reflection

• What is one business you used this week, and what did it provide?
• If you were a customer, what would you care about most: price, quality, or service? Why?
• How can a business show it respects customers?
• What is one expense a business might have?
• In your own words, what is profit?