Business development includes a number of techniques designed to grow an economic enterprise. Such techniques include, but are not limited to, assessments of marketing opportunities and target markets, intelligence gathering on customers and competitors, generating leads for possible sales, followup sales activity, formal proposal writing and business model design. Business development involves evaluating a business and then realizing its full potential, using such tools as marketing, sales, information management and customer service. For a sound company able to withstand competitors, business development never stops but is an ongoing process. Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... An organisation (or organization — see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment. ... “Next big thing” redirects here. ... A target market is the market segment which a particular product is marketed to. ... Business intelligence (BI) is a business management term, which refers to applications and technologies that are used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information about company operations. ... A customer is someone who purchases or rents something from an individual or organisation. ... Competition characterises a biochemical, ecologic, economic, political, or sporting activity whereby two or more individuals or groups strive antagonistically against one another for some reward. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Business model design refers to the activity of designing a companys business model. ...

Successful business development often requires a multi-disciplinary approach beyond just "a sale to a customer." A detailed strategy for growing the business in desirable ways is frequently necessary, which may involve financial, legal and advertising skills. Business development cannot be reduced to simple templates applicable to all or even most situations faced by real-world enterprises. Creativity in meeting new and unforeseen challenges is necessary to keep an enterprise on a path of sustainable growth. Strategic management is the process of specifying an organizations objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources so as to implement the plans. ... FINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. ... This article is about law in society. ... Advertising is nothing but just waste of money. ... Shortcut: WP:TM Part of the Style and how-to series Templates are used within articles to provide a consistent look to the messages placed into them. ... Look up Creativity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... World GDP/capita changed very little for most of human history before the industrial revolution. ...

Small to medium-sized companies often do not establish procedures for business development, instead relying on their existing contacts. Other times they assume that because they know people in high places that their business development problems are solved and that somehow new business will come to them. The ramifications of such thinking can be significant in the event they are unable to leverage those relationships, which very often are personal or weak. Then they will have no new business in the pipeline. A small business may be defined as a business with a small number of employees. ...

The pipeline refers to flow of potential clients whom the company is in the process of developing. Each potential client in the pipeline is given a percent chance of success with projected sales volumes attached. The weighted average of all the potential clients in the pipeline can be used for staffing to manage the new business when it comes in. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into human resources. ...

For larger and more well-established companies, especially in technology-related industries, business development often refers to creating and managing strategic relationships and alliances with other, third party companies. In these instances the companies will leverage one anothers' expertise, technologies or other intellectual property to expand their products, services, functionality and/or market reach without having to invest in building or acquiring these with internal resources. Revenues are typically shared in some sort of royalty arrangement. For example, a company with a successful technology will partner with a company that has an existing customer base and sales force, and together they will penetrate that market, sharing the proceeds. Expertise is the property of a person (that is, expert) or of a system which delivers a desired result such as pertinent information or skill. ... Technology (Gr. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The set of efforts for identifying, researching, analyzing and bringing to market new businesses and new products, business development focuses on implementation of the strategic business plan through equity financing, acquisition/divestiture of technologies, products, and companies, plus the establishment of strategic partnerships where appropriate.

External link

• Small Business Administration - U.S. government web page on business development
• Innovations for Business, LLC a business development firm specializing in small- and medium-sized businesses