The World Of Business Acronyms

We've all experienced that moment where a colleague or associate has delivered an acronym with such speed and confidence that leaves us baffled as to what it means and how it fits into the conversation...

When starting your own business, it is more than likely that your stakeholders, both internal and external, will use acronyms during meetings or in text. Rather than sneaking off to the loo to Google the meaning, we've done the work for you.

B2B – Business to Business

B2C – Business to Consumer

BD – Business Development

CEO – Chief Executive Officer

CFF - Cash Flow Forecast

CFO – Chief Financial Officer

COB – Close Of Business

COGS - Costs of Goods Sold

COO – Chief Operating Officer

CPU - Cost Per Unit

CR - Credit

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility

DM – Direct Mail (can also mean Direct Message)

EOD – End Of Day (EO plus another letter is commonly used for End Of Week, End Of Play or End Of Thread )

GPM - Gross Profit Margin

HR – Human Resources

IAM – In A Meeting

FYI – For Your Information

KPI – Key Performance Indicator – a way of measuring something that is crucial to the success of the business

OOO - Out of Office

MOM – Month Over Month - refers to that month’s figures compared with the previous month’s (also QOQ or Quarter Over Quarter and YOY or Year Over Year)

PA – Performance Appraisal, or it can also stand for Personal Assistant

PDP – Personal Development Programme

P/E – Price to Earnings (refers to the market price per share divided by the actual earnings per share)

P&L – Profit and Loss (summarises the revenue, costs and expenses earned and incurred by a business)

PSB - Personal Survival Budget

ROI – Return On Investment (also used for ROA or Return On Assets and ROE or Return On Equity)

SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound - a guide used for setting an objective that can be measured

SMB – Small to Medium Business (also sometimes called SME or Small to Medium Enterprises)

TOS – Terms Of Service

YTD – Year To Date

FYI, at the EOD we hope your YTD has been successful and you’ve received ROI on your BD be that B2B or B2C. The Hub is here to support you on your PDP, and whether you are OOO today or IAM make sure you’ve hit your goals by COB!