Business A to Z

Every trade has words it uses without explaining. In business the cost of not knowing one is real: some of them are ordinary jargon and some of them are a decision that can take a house.

Please note: This page explains what a term means. It is general information, not legal, financial, tax or investment advice, and it does not know anything about your business. Before you sign, file or commit to anything, check it with an accountant, a solicitor, or the official guidance we link to.

Studying business? We write GCSE revision songs, and there is one for business studies. Listen to the revision playlist.

28 terms filed under E, showing 1–10 (page 1 of 3).

E

Earn-out

Part of a sale price paid later, conditional on performance.

EBITDA

Also called Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation

Profit before the effects of how a business is financed and how it accounts for its assets. Useful for comparison, easy to hide behind.

Ecommerce

Selling online, and the consumer law that applies the moment you do.

Email list building

Collecting permission to email people. The asset nobody can take away.

Email marketing

Also called Mailing list, Newsletter, PECR

The channel you own, and the one with the clearest legal rules.

EMI share options

Also called Enterprise Management Incentive, Share options, Option pool

A tax-advantaged way to give employees a stake in the future without giving them shares today.

Employee benefits

What you give people beyond salary, and the tax that follows.

Employee engagement

How committed people are to the work. Measurable, and it moves other numbers.

Employee handbook

Your policies in one place. Deliberately not part of the contract.

Employee ownership

Selling a business to its own employees, often through a trust.

Something missing?

If there is a word you have been nodding along to, tell us and we will write it up. This library exists because of the questions people were too polite to ask.

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