For:- A.Dann Ref:- Unit 1 Business Environment
From:- Steven Reynolds Date:- 24.01.13

REPORT ON TWO CONTRASTING BUSINESSES

1.0 TERMS OF REFERENCE
On the 6th September you asked me to investigate two contrasting businesses and how the economic environment has had an impact on them.

2.0 PROCEDURE
In order to obtain the relevant information and opinions, I followed the following procedures:
2.1 Visits were conducted to the education academy at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and NHS (National Health Service)
2.2 Class hand-outs and resources were utilised.
2.3 The college library resources and e-learning resources were utilised including Athens.
2.4 Companies House was contacted in order to obtain the financial accounts of Blackpool Pleasure Resort.

3.0 FINDINGS

3.1

Blackpool pleasure beach

Blackpool pleasure beach is a theme park and resort, it is a local business which is based in the North West of England, visited by customers from throughout the UK and also by people from over sea’s. The business is based in the private sector for example owned and run by individuals from different types of businesses in the private sector. There are other types of ownerships i.e. sole traders, a sole trader is just one owner of a business and he or she can make their own decisions but on the down fall he or she will be limited for funds and will be hard to have time off or holiday because you will have to have someone to run the business while they are gone. Blackpool pleasure beach is a private limited company owned by the Thompson family, which means they have limited liability and if the business goes bankrupt they will only lose the amount that has been invested and not all their personal belongings, but the company must be registered by sending legal documents off to the registrar of companies at company’s house. Blackpool pleasure beach is at tertiary stage of business it provides its services to its customers.

The main purpose of this business is to make money, by doing that they have the theme park side of the business, allowing people to come in and use the rollercoasters, water rides family rides, attractions and a lot more. They also have hotels, restaurants, bars, game stalls and a terror house. The public can even use Blackpool pleasure beach to get married.

Recently they have added a new attraction known as Wallace and grommet land for older people to re-live their child-hood. They will be adding a lot more attractions in the future.

NHS (National Health Service)

The NHS is a national health service provided to us by the government, it is a public sector and is actually owned and funded by the public through us paying tax and National Insurance. The NHS is a national business allowing us to be able to get health care/services anywhere we go in the UK.

The purpose of the NHS is to provide us with health care from all aspects of medical profession, from dentist to doctors and nurses, mid wives and surgeons in hospitals. They also provide free tests like eye tests hearing tests and CAT scans, but you have to pay for glasses and hearing aids, you don’t have to pay for your gp’s services and you can get free prescriptions if you are in education or retired. They also have an emergency service for immediate help when needed in an emergency you can just call 999 and they will be at your destination in a matter of minutes.

In 2006 there were 1,600 NHS hospitals across England. The numbers of NHS hospitals and staff have been rising, but in the recent recession the amount of staff have been reduced by the government to save money.

3.2

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are groups of people who are affected by the failure or success of a business. In one way or another we are all classed as stakeholders from being an owner of a business to a customer of a business.

Blackpool pleasure beach

Owners: The owners of Blackpool pleasure beach are the Thompson family, they have been passed this business through the