LO1 — Describe what makes a business successfulOpen your Topic 1 Workbook alongside · keep saving across lessons
Stimulus — watch together
5 min
Workbook check: Open the Topic 1 Pair Workbook you have been using since Lesson 1. Today is Sue Baker's case study; your group answers and your own-business analysis go in the Lesson 4 section. Save the file at the end.
No video today. Instead, we read Sue Baker's full café case study — a real first-year story with real numbers. Then in Stage 2 we analyse what worked, what didn't, and what we'd do differently.
Teacher notes — Stage 1
Before reading
Read the case study aloud as a class, or have pairs read it silently. Either way: 5 minutes maximum.
Tell students to mark up three things as they read: a number, a risk Sue took, and a moment something went wrong.
Timing cue
Around 5 minutes for the read. Don't try to teach during the read — the analysis is in Stage 2.
Whole-class discussion
15 min
The four-question group exercise. In your pair first, then briefly with the table next to you. Record your answers in your workbook.
The four case-study questions
1. Why is Sue's café a business and not just a hobby? Give two specific reasons from the case study.
2. What risks did Sue take to open the café? What could have gone wrong, and what actually did?
3. How would you measure whether her café is successful after one year? Give two measures — at least one non-financial.
4. What makes Sue's café stand out from a chain café like Costa? (We'll come back to this idea — USP — in Lesson 5.)
In your Topic 1 Workbook, go to
Lesson 4 — Stage 2 — Group answers
Write your group answer under each of the four questions. Pull specific facts and numbers from the case study where you can — generic answers won't get full credit.
Teacher notes — Stage 2
Running the discussion
Q1 (business vs hobby): the answer they need is "she took financial risk (loan + redundancy), signed a lease, hired staff, intends ongoing revenue." A hobby would have none of these.
Q2 (risks): redundancy money + loan = all-in financial bet. Lease + staff = ongoing fixed costs even with no customers. Push them to name specific risks, not "she could lose money."
Q3 (success): if students only give financial measures, push for non-financial — Google rating, return-customer rate, staff retention, reputation.
Q4 (stand out): plant the seed for Lesson 5. Don't give them the term USP yet; let them describe the difference in their own words.
Pair task — {}
12 min
Now apply Sue's situation to your own business. What two risks are your business taking? How will you measure success in year 1? Two short paragraphs, one for each.
Worked example
Island Eats — risks & success measures
"Two biggest risks: (1) weather — bike delivery in a Jersey winter is unpredictable; we may need a backup plan; (2) supplier reliability — if our local Jersey food supplier can't deliver fresh stock daily, the brand promise breaks."
Year-1 success — financial
Hit £20,000 monthly revenue by month 6 (covers our rent + bike loan repayments).
Year-1 success — non-financial
Repeat customer rate of 40% by month 9 (orders from people who have ordered before). Tells us we're loved, not just discovered.
In your Topic 1 Workbook, go to
Lesson 4 — Stage 3 — Pair task
Write two specific risks for your business and two year-1 success measures (one financial, one non-financial). Be concrete — generic risks like "we might lose money" don't count.
Teacher notes — Stage 3
Circulation priorities
Pairs writing generic risks ("we might fail," "no customers") — push for risks specific to their business idea.
Pairs whose success measures are all financial — challenge with: "How would you know if customers actually loved you?"
Stretch: "If you saw both risks coming true in month 3, what would you do differently in month 4?"
Self-check — Sue Baker case
8 min
Four questions about Sue's café. Pick the best answer for each. Click to answer — you'll get immediate feedback. No writing in your workbook for this stage.
Answer all four to see your score.
Teacher notes — Stage 4
Common wrong answers and what they tell you
Loss → "open a second location": students confuse growth with recovery. A business losing money does not fix that by spending more.
Sole trader risk → "no access to bank loans": Sue did get a bank loan as a sole trader; this is a common myth.
Success measure → "social media followers": followers ≠ buyers. Push the distinction.
After the quiz
Reinforce: every business decision involves a trade-off, and Sue's case shows several of them in real numbers.
Class discussion — what would you have done differently?
Q. If you were Sue at the end of year 1, looking at a £20,000 loss, would you keep going, change something major, or close? Discuss in pairs. There is no single right answer — but you must defend your choice with evidence from the case.
Real founders face this decision often. The point of the case study is not to give you Sue's "answer" but to show what the data looks like when the decision has to be made.
Peer critique — swap and review
10 min
Swap laptops with the pair next to you. Read their locked-in business idea in their workbook. Then give them structured feedback by writing in your own workbook.
How the swap works
Physical swap. Pick up your laptop, take it to the pair you've been assigned (your teacher will direct). Read their idea from their workbook on screen. Come back to your own laptop to write feedback in your own workbook. Then do it in reverse — they'll critique yours.
In your Topic 1 Workbook, go to
Lesson 4 — Stage 5 — Feedback we gave
Answer the three critique questions below for the pair you were assigned. Then, when they critique you, you'll record what they wrote under Feedback we received.
The three critique questions
Q1. Are their two risks specific to their business, or could they apply to any business? (Generic risks aren't useful — every business "might lose money.")
Q2. Do their year-1 success measures actually predict whether the business will survive? Pick the weakest one and say why. (Tests whether the measure is leading or vanity.)
Q3. If both their risks happened, would their success measures still be hit? (Forces them to think about the link between risk and success.)
Teacher notes — Stage 5
Pair assignment
Quickest method: pair 1 ↔ pair 2, pair 3 ↔ pair 4, etc. No one pair critiques alone. If odd number, one trio swaps in a triangle.
What to watch for
Students writing "nice idea" or "good" — that's not critique. Push for specific observations.
Students unable to answer Q1 in one sentence — that's useful diagnostic information about their partner's clarity, not a failure.
Iterate — rewrite with feedback
10 min
Now use what your peer pair told you. Rewrite your business idea so it's sharper. Both versions stay in your workbook — that's the evidence of thinking, not an admission of getting it wrong the first time.
Worked example — Island Eats risk v1 → v2
v1"We might lose money in year 1 if customers don't come."
v2"If our average daily orders fall below 30 for two consecutive weeks in months 1–3, we will not cover bike loan repayments and will need to switch to weekly bulk-prep to cut costs."
Why we changed it: peer pair flagged v1 as too vague — every business has that risk. Naming the threshold (30 orders/day) and the response (bulk-prep to cut costs) turns a worry into a plan.
In your Topic 1 Workbook, go to
Lesson 4 — Stage 6 — Iteration
Fill in three things: v1 (your original risk + success-measure write-up), v2 (rewritten using peer feedback), and what you changed and why.
Before you finish — save your workbook
One lesson left in Topic 1. Two quick steps before you close it:
Each of you writes a one-sentence reflection under Reflection — Student A / Student B.
Save the file. Bring it back open in Lesson 5 — the final lesson, where you will write a USP and submit the whole workbook to the Topic 1 Teams assignment.
Teacher notes — Stage 6
Plenary
Last 3 minutes: ask two pairs to read out their v1 → v2 and the "why." This makes iteration visible as a skill, not just a task. Reinforces that feedback isn't criticism, it's data.
Looking ahead — the final lesson
Lesson 5 — USP & standing out. The last piece of the business plan: what makes your business different from the competition. Anchor video: a Dragons' Den pitch (capped at 8 minutes). You'll write a USP and do the final v1→v2 iteration of your whole plan from Lessons 1–5.
Each lesson has its own Pair Workbook submitted to its own Teams assignment. The same business idea carries through all five.