"The most important adage and the only adage is, the customer comes first, whatever the business, the customer comes first

- Kerry Stokes

This book started as a concept paper on business finance and gradually, the compilation of materials from various authors of other business books and newspaper articles on business and finance, as well as the gathering of comments/suggestions of friends and family, creating it into a study guide for the introduction for business and finance. Fin 21 is a 3 unit course in the College of Business Administration with a description of Introduction to Business and Finance. The syllabus of the course is included in the manuscript. This book serves as a guide for business students, and would be entrepreneurs.

The first part of the book is about the external environment of the business in a Philippine setting. It includes the economic system and business environment of the country, legal forms of business and the social infrastructure of business. The second part of the book is about business operations which technically is the internal environment of the business. It includes the different perspective of management, marketing concepts, production, human resources and information systems or the technology business has to deal with presently. The third part of the book is about financing operations. It gives a background about finance particularly on the Philippine financial system and monetary system. It includes the credit management most.

Business Mathematics, sometimes called consumer math or commercial math, is mathematics used by commercial enterprises to record and manage business operations. Business mathematics is an important tool in accounting, inventory management, marketing: sales forecasting and financial analysis.

The emphasis of Business Mathematics in the tertiary curriculum is on computational skills and practical application. It also includes a review of elementary arithmetic including fraction, decimals and percentages. The practical applications typically include checking accounts, price discounts, markups and markdowns, payroll calculations, and simple and compound interest Luckily, even if mathematics is not one of the student's strengths, there are several avenues available for learning business math. The syllabus-based work text in Business Mathematics is one of them.

Although many of the skills necessary for business success are related to interpersonal savvy and marketplace knowledge, most well-rounded business people need to know basic math skills, ideal for financial reports and other vital business documentation.

Business mathematics prepares the students in making general business decisions, like whether to expand into a new branch, whether to hire another employee, or if a commodity is marketable. Knowledge of business mathematics makes calculations less tedious and time-consuming, saving the business and its customers time and money.