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.

500 terms, showing 121–130 (page 13 of 50).

C

CQC registration

Registering with the Care Quality Commission. Mandatory for regulated activities in England.

Credit control

The unglamorous discipline of making sure the money you have earned actually arrives.

Credit note

A document reducing or cancelling an invoice. Not a refund.

Crisis communications

What you say when something has gone badly wrong.

CRM

Also called Customer relationship management

The system holding who your customers are and what has been said to them. Its value is entirely in whether people use it.

Crowdfunding

Raising money from many people. Four different things go by the name.

Customer acquisition cost

Also called CAC, Cost per acquisition, CPA

What it costs, all in, to get one new customer.

Customer feedback loops

Systematically collecting what customers think and acting on it.

Customer journey

Every step from first hearing about you to buying again.

Customer segmentation in practice

Grouping your actual customers by how they behave and what they are worth.

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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