Redimora business vocabulary
Know the words before the words cost you money.
Business jargon is only useful when it helps you see what is actually happening. These are grouped by consequence, not alphabet soup.
Know the words that move the money.
- Revenue vs. profit
- Revenue is sales before expenses. Profit is what remains after the relevant expenses. A big sales number can still belong to a broke business.
- Cash flow
- Money moving in and out over time. Timing matters: a profitable business can run out of cash before invoices are paid. Use the weekly check.
- Gross margin
- Revenue left after the direct cost of producing the product or service. It tells you how much room exists before overhead, taxes, and everything else start taking bites.
- Net margin
- The percentage of revenue left after the included expenses. Always ask what the calculation includes before comparing two businesses.
- Contribution margin
- What remains from a sale after variable costs, available to cover fixed costs and profit. Useful when a discount sounds exciting but may actually be expensive.
- Break-even point
- The sales level where included revenue and costs are equal. Crossing it does not mean all new revenue becomes spendable cash.
- COGS Cost of goods sold
- Direct costs tied to what you sell, such as ingredients or merchandise. Service businesses may track direct labor or materials differently.
- Overhead
- Operating costs that exist even when one specific sale does not happen: rent, software, insurance, admin labor, and similar expenses.
- CAC Customer acquisition cost
- The sales and marketing cost required to gain a customer. Compare the same time period and cost categories or the number becomes bullshit math.
- LTV Lifetime value
- An estimate of the value a customer may create across the relationship. It is useful for planning, but it is not money already sitting in your bank.
- Accounts receivable
- Money customers owe the business for work already billed. Revenue can look healthy while cash is still stuck waiting here.
- Working capital
- Short-term resources available to operate the business. It is the breathing room that helps payroll, inventory, fuel, supplies, and ordinary chaos get handled without a crisis.
Know the words that can cost you your business.
- Liability
- A legal or financial obligation the business may owe. The word can describe debt, responsibility for harm, or obligations created by contracts.
- Indemnification
- A contract term describing when one party may have to cover certain losses or claims involving another. This is a “read the actual agreement” word.
- Personal guarantee
- A promise that you personally will repay a business obligation if the business does not. Limited liability does not magically erase a guarantee you signed.
- Chargeback
- A payment reversal initiated through a customer’s card issuer. Keep clear records, accurate descriptions, and visible policies.
- Compliance
- Meeting laws, regulations, platform rules, contractual requirements, or industry standards that apply to the business.
- Data privacy
- How personal information is collected, used, stored, shared, and deleted. Collect only what you need and can reasonably protect.
- Data breach
- Unauthorized access, disclosure, loss, or exposure of protected information. The response can involve technical, legal, customer, insurance, and reputation consequences.
- Intellectual property
- Rights involving creations such as trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. Owning a business name online is not automatically the same as owning legal rights to it.
- Trademark
- A source identifier such as a name, logo, or slogan used to distinguish goods or services. Registration and legal rights are more nuanced than “I used it first on Instagram.”
- Contract term
- A specific promise, restriction, right, fee, deadline, renewal rule, or obligation inside an agreement. Small print can run a very expensive business meeting later.
- Auto-renewal
- A contract provision that renews unless cancellation happens in the required way and time. Calendar these dates instead of trusting future-you to remember.
- Franchise Disclosure Document FDD
- A disclosure document U.S. franchisors generally must provide to prospective franchisees under the FTC Franchise Rule. It contains 23 disclosure items covering costs, obligations, litigation, franchisees, and more. Use the starter checklist.
Know the words that can change your public standing.
- Brand
- The set of expectations, associations, experiences, and signals people connect to the business. A logo is part of it, not all of it.
- Brand consistency
- Keeping core names, visuals, offers, facts, and experience aligned across touchpoints. Consistency builds recognition; robotic sameness can kill personality.
- Social proof
- Evidence that other people have used, trusted, reviewed, recommended, or interacted with the business. It should be real, permissioned, and not manufactured.
- Reputation management
- Monitoring and responding to how the business is represented publicly. It does not mean deleting criticism or pretending mistakes never happened.
- Review velocity
- The pace at which new reviews arrive. A natural flow of recent feedback can matter more to customers than a giant pile of ancient praise.
- Sentiment
- The general positive, negative, or mixed tone in public feedback. Automated sentiment tools can miss sarcasm and context, so read the actual words.
- Trust signal
- A visible detail that helps a reasonable customer feel safer proceeding: accurate contact info, clear policies, credentials, real reviews, process explanations, or secure checkout.
- CTA Call to action
- The specific next step you ask someone to take: call, book, buy, request a quote. One clear CTA usually beats several competing ones.
- Conversion
- When a visitor completes the action you intended. A sale is a conversion, but so is a qualified booking, call, or estimate request.
- Customer journey
- The path someone takes from first awareness through research, decision, purchase, use, and possibly repeat business. Real journeys are messy; your website should not make them messier.
- Local SEO
- Efforts that help a business appear in location-relevant search results. Accurate business information, useful pages, reviews, and location context all play roles.
- Digital footprint
- The collection of public traces connected to a business: website, profiles, reviews, directories, articles, mentions, old listings, images, and more.
Know the words that change how your business scales.
- Capacity
- The amount of work the business can reliably handle with its current people, equipment, time, and systems before quality or service starts falling apart.
- Utilization
- How much of available capacity is being used. One hundred percent utilization sounds efficient until there is no room for sickness, delays, training, or a surprise rush.
- Forecast
- A best estimate of future demand, revenue, costs, or staffing based on available information. It is a planning tool, not a prophecy.
- Buffer
- Extra capacity, cash, inventory, time, or staffing reserved for uncertainty. Buffers look “inefficient” right up until reality happens.
- SOP Standard operating procedure
- A documented way to perform repeat work. Good SOPs make quality easier to repeat; bad ones preserve outdated nonsense with impressive formatting.
- KPI Key performance indicator
- A metric chosen to show whether an important part of the business is moving in the intended direction. Not every number deserves KPI status.
- Attribution
- The method used to assign credit for a lead or sale to a source. Most models simplify a messy customer journey, so compare tracked data with what customers tell you.
- CRM Customer relationship management
- A system for organizing customer and lead information, communication, follow-up, and sales activity. A spreadsheet can be a CRM before you need enterprise software.
- Automation trigger
- The event that starts an automated action—for example, a completed form starting a workflow. Test edge cases and keep a manual recovery path.
- API
- A defined way for software systems to exchange requests and information. Relevant when tools need a reliable connection beyond manual exports.
- Webhook
- An automatic message one system sends when an event happens. Often used to start a workflow immediately instead of waiting for a scheduled check.
- Human-in-the-loop
- A workflow where a person reviews, approves, corrects, or takes responsibility at a defined point instead of letting automation act alone. See where it matters.