# What business is

"Business" comes from the root word "busy", and represents everything normally necessary to [make money](jobs-1_why.md) that doesn't use a direct [specialized](jobs-specialization.md), [in-demand](economics.md) skill.

- Someone's business may be [poultry farming](agriculture.md) or [custodial work](home-housekeeping.md), but they still must do the same of some things as [distributed internet hosting providers](computers-distsys.md) or [taxi drivers](autos.md).
- Often, their business can *be* one of those things that everyone needs.

Every person who [freelances](entrepreneur-4_freelancing.md), even slightly, is engaging in business skills, to some degree.

- However, many of those domains are an entire discipline of their own.
- In the course of their work, an **[entrepreneur](entrepreneur-1_why.md)** will perform *all* the skills in some capacity, and eventually must delegate [if they scale](entrepreneur-6_scaling.md).

While the only constant in business is [change](people-trends.md), the abstractions express the same way.

## Core components

**[Marketing](marketing.md)** is conveying value, which applies [influence](power-influence.md) to make people [psychologically bias](mind-bias.md) to want your product (which also frequently requires **sales**).

**[Accounting](money-accounting.md)** is [keeping track](math.md) of value, starting with assets and liabilities and inferring financial value from it (typically for **taxes**).

**[Legal](legal-safety.md)** resolves civil disputes and tracks whether activities comply with a region's [rules](people-rules.md).

## Eventual needs

**[Information Technology (IT)](computers.md)** keeps the computers running, which is inevitable if the business ever requires any degree of automation.

**[Management](mgmt-1_why.md)** is directing people to do things and manage projects, which comes once an [organization](groups-small.md) surpasses about 3-4 people, even if they're [volunteers](mgmt-npo.md).

**[Logistics](logistics.md)** must have drivers and dispatchers.

## Larger-scale needs

**Human Resources (HR)** manages a wide variety of miscellaneous tasks loosely connected to [risk management](safety-riskmgmt.md) and employee retention, since they can become time-intensive once an organization grows larger:

- Data entry and submission for [payroll](money-accounting.md).
- Manage distributions to [retirement plans](money-investing.md).
- Resolving employee [disputes](people-5_conflicts.md).
- Running [background checks](image-modern.md) for possible hires.
- Managing the processes for new hires (onboarding) and terminations (offboarding), including ergonomic/ADA issues.
- Serving as a loss control manager to prevent and manage [insurance claims](money-insurance.md) (especially regarding workers' comp insurance).
- Archiving employee records and performance reviews.
- Managing organization-wide activities.
- Managing various other employee benefits (paid time off, company [vehicles](autos.md), etc.).
- Conducting periodic audits about the [balance of power](power-types.md) and [responsibilities](meaning.md) in an organization.

**Public Relations (PR)** directly manages the public [reputation](image.md) of the organization, and serves to [conform the organization's appearance](image-distortion.md) to offset scandalous events.