# Business Fundamentals > Master business domain knowledge - understand business models, unit economics, revenue mechanisms, metrics, profitability, financial analysis. Use for evaluating business cases, prioritizing features by business value, and understanding financial impact. - **Type:** Skill - **Install:** `agentstack add skill-gianggiangtran-ba-skills-business-fundamentals` - **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior - **Seller:** [GiangGiangTran](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/gianggiangtran) - **Installs:** 0 - **Category:** [Data & Analytics](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/data-and-analytics) - **Latest version:** 0.1.0 - **License:** MIT - **Upstream author:** [GiangGiangTran](https://github.com/GiangGiangTran) - **Source:** https://github.com/GiangGiangTran/ba-skills/tree/main/skills/business-fundamentals ## Install ```sh agentstack add skill-gianggiangtran-ba-skills-business-fundamentals ``` Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent. ## About # Business Fundamentals for BA Every requirement has business impact. Understand the math. ## What is Business Domain Knowledge? **Definition**: Understanding how the business makes money, generates value, and measures success - the financial and operational foundations. **Why it matters**: - Bad prioritization: Build features nobody will pay for - Missed opportunities: Don't recognize high-value features - Weak business cases: Can't justify investment to executives - Wrong metrics: Measuring vanity metrics, not real impact **When to Use**: - ✅ Evaluating business case for initiative - ✅ Prioritizing features by business value - ✅ Understanding customer economics - ✅ Analyzing financial impact - ✅ Setting success metrics tied to business --- ## 3 Core Business Model Concepts ### **1. How Does the Company Make Money?** Different business models, different priorities: **Subscription/SaaS**: - Key metric: MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) - Priorities: Reduce churn, increase ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) - Customer lifetime value matters more than acquisition cost **Transactional (Marketplace)**: - Key metric: GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) - Priorities: Increase transaction volume, take rate - Liquidity (supply + demand) matters most **Freemium**: - Key metric: Conversion rate (Free → Paid) - Priorities: Maximize free user base, conversion funnel - Balance: Too aggressive → low adoption, Too passive → no revenue **Advertising**: - Key metric: CPM (Cost Per Mille), CTR (Click-Through Rate) - Priorities: Maximize time-on-site, ad placements - User experience vs ad density trade-off **See**: `references/business-models.md` --- ### **2. Unit Economics (The Math That Matters)** Every business needs this math to work: ``` For SaaS Business: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): $500 = Sales + Marketing spend / New customers Monthly Subscription Price: $100 Gross Margin: 80% = Revenue - COGS / Revenue Monthly Churn Rate: 5% = (Customers lost / Starting customers) / Month Lifetime Value (LTV): $1,600 = (Monthly Price × Gross Margin) / Monthly Churn LTV/CAC Ratio: 3.2 = $1,600 / $500 Rule of Thumb: LTV/CAC should be ≥ 3 Status: ✓ Unit economics work! ``` --- ### **3. Business Metrics vs Vanity Metrics** Not all numbers matter equally. ``` VANITY METRICS (Make you feel good, don't drive decisions): ❌ Total users (if they're inactive) ❌ Downloads (if mostly one-time) ❌ Page views (if low engagement) ❌ Revenue (if losing money) ACTIONABLE METRICS (Drive decisions and behavior): ✅ Daily active users (engagement) ✅ Customer retention rate (satisfaction) ✅ Feature adoption rate (value delivery) ✅ Customer acquisition cost (efficiency) ✅ Gross profit (sustainability) ✅ Customer lifetime value (long-term value) ``` --- ## 5 Key Business Concepts BA Must Know ### **1. Value Proposition** Why would customers choose you? **Framework**: ``` TARGET CUSTOMER: - Who specifically? (not "everyone") - What's their problem? - Why do they care? YOUR SOLUTION: - How do you solve it? - Why better than alternatives? - What's unique? ECONOMIC VALUE: - How much time/cost do you save? - How much more money do they make? - What's it worth to them? EXAMPLE: Target: Marketing managers managing 5+ campaigns Problem: Spending 20+ hours/week on manual reporting Your solution: Automated reporting dashboard Value: Saves 15 hours/week = $1,500/month (at $100/hr) ``` --- ### **2. Total Addressable Market (TAM)** How big is the opportunity? ``` TAM ESTIMATION (Top-Down): - Total market: "How many companies worldwide?" - Industry data: "Average spend on our category" - TAM = Total companies × Avg spend Example: HR Analytics - Companies worldwide: 5M - Spend on HR analytics: $10K/year average - TAM = $50 Billion Does it justify your business? - If 1% market share = $500M revenue = worth pursuing - If max is 0.01% = $5M = riskier bet ``` **See**: `references/market-sizing.md` --- ### **3. Competitive Positioning** Why would customers choose you vs competitors? ``` POSITIONING QUADRANT: PREMIUM | HIGH QUALITY | ● Us | ○ Competitor A ────────────────┼──────────────── PRICE LOW QUALITY | ○ Competitor B | BUDGET ``` **Questions**: - Where are we positioned? (High quality/price? Low quality/price?) - Is that sustainable? (Can we compete there?) - How do we differentiate? (Not just cheaper copy) --- ### **4. Customer Economics** Understanding your customer's business: ``` If customers are Enterprise Companies: ├─ What drives their revenue? (Products/Services) ├─ What are major costs? (Salaries, infrastructure) ├─ What's their profit margin? (Revenue minus costs) ├─ How do we improve their business? │ └─ Increase revenue? (Sell more) │ └─ Reduce costs? (Save money) │ └─ Reduce risk? (Avoid losses) └─ What's it worth to them? (Quantify impact) └─ "You save $100K/year" = Max price ~$30K/year ``` --- ### **5. Financial Sustainability** Can this business survive? ``` UNIT ECONOMICS MUST WORK: ├─ Gross Margin > 50% (ideally >70%) │ └─ Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold / Revenue │ └─ For SaaS: hosting, support, payment processing │ ├─ CAC Payback 3) │ └─ Customer lifetime value should be 3x acquisition cost │ └─ Ensures business is profitable │ └─ Path to profitability clear └─ How do we get from current to sustainable? └─ At what revenue/user base do we break even? ``` --- ## How BA Uses Business Knowledge **Scenario 1: Prioritizing Features** ``` Feature A: Saves users 1 hour/week Impact: Improves engagement, reduces churn 2% Business value: $100K/year (at current LTV) Effort: 2 weeks ROI: $100K / (2 weeks × engineer salary) = High Feature B: Requested by early adopters Impact: Improves engagement for 5% of users Business value: $5K/year Effort: 3 weeks ROI: $5K / (3 weeks × engineer salary) = Low Decision: Build A first, B second ``` --- **Scenario 2: Evaluating New Business** ``` Should we build premium tier at $500/month? Current: 1,000 users at $100/month = $100K MRR Projected: 10% convert to premium = 100 premium users Premium revenue: 100 × $500 = $50K MRR Premium churn: +2% higher (riskier, more demanding) Impact: $50K more revenue, but higher support cost (+$5K/month) Net: +$45K MRR Effort: 4 weeks Decision: Worth doing ``` --- ## Tools & Templates - 📋 **Business Case Template**: `assets/business-case-template.md` - 📋 **Unit Economics Calculator**: `assets/unit-economics-calculator.md` - 📋 **TAM Analysis Worksheet**: `assets/tam-analysis-worksheet.md` - 📋 **Feature Value Assessment**: `assets/feature-value-template.md` - 📋 **Financial Impact Template**: `assets/financial-impact-template.md` --- ## Usage Examples ``` /business-fundamentals "SaaS B2B" "Trying to understand why feature A matters more than B" /business-fundamentals "Marketplace" "Evaluating pricing strategy impact on GMV" /business-fundamentals "Freemium" "Should we restrict free tier to improve conversion?" ``` --- ## BA Standards & References Based on: - **Financial Analysis**: Understanding business metrics and unit economics - **Business Strategy**: Business models and competitive positioning - **Product Management**: Feature prioritization by business value - **Startup Finance**: Metrics that matter for sustainability **Detailed Frameworks**: - 📚 `references/business-models.md` - SaaS, marketplace, freemium, advertising models - 📚 `references/unit-economics.md` - CAC, LTV, gross margin, payback period - 📚 `references/market-sizing.md` - TAM, SAM, SOM calculation methods - 📚 `references/financial-impact.md` - Quantifying business impact of features - 📚 `references/competitive-positioning.md` - Differentiation and competitive strategy ## Source & license This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code. - **Author:** [GiangGiangTran](https://github.com/GiangGiangTran) - **Source:** [GiangGiangTran/ba-skills](https://github.com/GiangGiangTran/ba-skills) - **License:** MIT Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above. ## Pricing - **Free** — Free ## Security capabilities Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access: - **Network access:** no - **Filesystem access:** no - **Shell / process execution:** no - **Environment & secrets:** no - **Dynamic code execution:** no *"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.* ## Versions - **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source. ## Links - Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-gianggiangtran-ba-skills-business-fundamentals - Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/gianggiangtran - Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse --- Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.