Glossary

Twenty-seven terms, plainly.

The business vocabulary eZine assumes you know. Not exhaustive. Not jurisdiction-specific. Bookmark it.

Break-even: The volume of sales at which total revenue equals total cost. Below it you lose money; above it, every extra sale contributes to profit.
Business Progress Record: The eZine Study Desk's audit history of milestones, actions and evidence — the thing a lender or partner reads.
Cash flow: Money moving in and out of the business over time. Profit is an idea; cash flow is what pays your bills next Tuesday.
Contribution margin: Price minus variable cost, expressed as a percentage of price. What each sale contributes toward covering fixed cost and profit.
Cost of goods sold (COGS): The direct cost of producing what you sold in a period. Excludes overhead. Used to compute gross margin.
Cost per acquired customer (CAC): What it costs — money and time — to get one new customer through a channel. Compare across channels to find your real levers.
Fixed cost: Costs you pay whether you sell one unit or a hundred: rent, salaries, subscriptions. Contrast with variable cost.
Gross margin: Gross profit as a percentage of revenue. A signal of pricing discipline before overhead.
Gross profit: Revenue minus cost of goods sold. What's left to cover overhead.
Line of business: A specific way of making money — e.g. "tailoring for women's formal wear" is a line of business under Fashion. eZine's taxonomy tracks these.
Margin: Profit as a percentage of revenue. Used with a qualifier: gross margin, net margin, contribution margin.
Monthly close: A repeating routine, usually 60-120 minutes, that reconciles records against reality for the month just ended. Where problems become visible early.
Net margin: Net profit as a percentage of revenue. The number that pays you and reinvests.
Net profit: Revenue minus all costs — cost of goods, operating expenses, taxes, interest. The final number.
Operating expenses (OpEx): The costs of running the business that aren't direct product costs: rent, staff, transport, utilities, subscriptions.
Pipeline: The stages a potential customer moves through, from first touch to first purchase to repeat. Measuring the pipeline is how sales stops being a mystery.
Pricing rule: A written statement of how you set price, so decisions don't get renegotiated on every call. E.g. "cost + 40% for standard, cost + 30% for repeat, negotiate only within brackets."
Registration: Formalising the business with the state — often but not always required for a business bank account, larger customers or grants. Jurisdiction-specific; consult a licensed professional.
Repeat rate: Share of customers who come back within a defined window. Often more important than first-time acquisition.
Revenue: Money received (or invoiced, depending on how you keep books) in a period. Not the same as profit. Not the same as cash.
Runway: How many months of operating expense you have on hand before you run out. Cheap to compute; expensive to ignore.
Segment: A subgroup of customers who buy differently — different needs, different willingness to pay, different follow-up. Working out your segments is often the highest-leverage act in a service business.
Stage-gate: A criterion — usually evidence-based — you have to clear before moving to the next stage. eZine's stages unlock against evidence, not dates.
Study Desk: The authenticated eZine Trades & Business School experience — the LMS, mentor threads, business progress record, action plans, certificates.
Unit economics: The economics of a single sale — cost, price, margin, contribution. If unit economics don't work, scale can't fix them.
Variable cost: Costs that scale with each unit sold: raw materials, per-unit labour, per-order transport.
Working capital: The buffer of cash a business needs to keep operating between the moment costs are paid and the moment revenue arrives.