Into for of to for in

1 2 3 4 5 6

1) Dr Karl Cooper is in charge ______ the Production Division.

2) 395 people work ________ PMP.

3) The Commercial Division is responsible ______ advertising and promotion.

4) The market is divided ______ three regions.

5) The head of the Accounts Department reports ______ Jane Figgis.

6) Mike Saunders works ______ the HR Department.

10. Look at this company layout and say what departments are described below.

1) It's on the second floor next to the Legal Department.____________

2) It's behind Reception. _____________________________________

3) It's below Sales and Marketing. _____________________________

4) It's on the ground floor at the back of the building. ______________

5) It's in the middle of the first floor. ___________________________

6) It's between the fitness centre and the cafeteria. ________________

11. Listening 4. A member of the PR team is showing some visitors around the company.

1) Listen and say where they are.

2) Listen again and complete the gaps in the extracts below.

Visitor 1 Excuse me¹ ___________________ here?

Visitor 1 ² _______________________ at the moment?

Employee ³ ________________. We are looking for people to work in the Customer Relations Department.

Visitor 1 ⁴______________ responsible ________________?

Employee www.kazoo.com. It's easy to remember,⁵ _________?

Visitor 1 The reps spend most days visiting clients, ⁶ ________?

⁷ _____________ come here?

Visitor 2 ⁸ _________________ British?

Employee ⁹ _________________. In fact he's German.

Visitor 1 But it's a British company,¹⁰_________________?

12. Speaking. Imagine you work in the human resources department of a manufacturing company. Give a short talk to some new employees.

• Decide what the company makes, e.g. bicycles, computers.

• Prepare the talk for some new employees. Explain what each department does. Don't write every word - just make notes.

• Give your talk to some other students.

Get real

Use the Internet to find out about a large company, or visit a factory in your home town. Find out what the company makes, what departments it has and what they are called.

Unit 3

3 A GETTING STARTED IN BUSINESS

1. Before you start. How much free time do you have outside university? How do you spend it? Would you like to spend some of your free time earning money?

2. Reading. This article gives advice for someone who wants to start their own business. Match the questions (a-f) with the paragraphs (1-6).

a) How much will my business cost to run? ____

b) How do I get started? ____

c) Where will I get the money? ____

d) Can I make a profit? ____

e) How much money will I make? ____

f) How much should I charge? ____

What do Juan from Spain and Jessica from the USA have in common? They are both teenagers running successful businesses. Juan, 16, has a gardening business with 75 clients and three employees. Jessica's company cleans new houses. She started it when she was 14. If you want to start a business, good planning is important. Here are some tips.

1 Get organized. Decide what your skills are. Find out if there is a market for them in your area, e.g. ask your neighbours what they need. Babysitting, coaching for exams or sports, and computer training are all possibilities.

2 Decide how much money you need to start your business. Think about how to get the capital. You can use your own money or you can ask the bank for a loan. If you get a loan, be sure you can afford to pay the interest.

3 Calculate your costs. First, work out your fixed costs, for example, the rent on your office or the interest on a loan. Then add your variable costs, for example, equipment or tax (if you pay it).

4 Work out how much to charge for your service. Find out what other people are charging and use this to set your own prices.

5 Your revenue is the amount of money you receive from selling your service. You need to calculate this very carefully. Your revenue is the number of hours worked multiplied by (x) the price per hour.

6 Your business will make a profit if your revenue for a year is more than your costs. If your costs are higher than the revenue, you'll make a loss. Work out carefully the number of hours you need to work.

3. Vocabulary. Match the words in bold in the text with the definitions (1-7). Write them in your language.

1) an amount of money you need to start a business __________________

2) the money you receive from selling a product or service ____________

3) what you make if your revenue is more than your costs _____________

4) what you make if your revenue is less than your costs ______________

5) an amount of money that someone, e.g. the bank, lends you __________

6) money you pay for things and services to run your business __________

7) an amount you pay for borrowing money, e.g. from the bank ____________

4. Speaking. Work in pairs. Look at this summary of two companies' profit and loss accounts for next year. For each company, calculate:

1) Pre-tax profit (= revenue minus costs)

2) Profit after tax (= pre-tax profit minus tax).

Which company will be more profitable?

	Company A (€s)	Company B (€s)
Revenue	17,575	18,850
Costs	14,940	16,625
Pre-tax profit
Tax	790	670
Profit after tax

5. Work in pairs or small groups. You have decided to start a small business to earn extra money outside university. Discuss these questions.

• What service are you going to sell?

• How much capital do you need to start it?

• What are your fixed and variable costs?

• What price will you charge?

• How many hours' work will cover your costs?

• How much profit will you make?

6. Write a profit and loss account to show your plan. Use the table in Exercise 4 to help you. Present your plan to the class.

Get real

Talk to someone who has their own business. Find out how they started it. Was it easy or difficult? Is their company profitable?

3 B SETTING UP A BUSINESS (Listening 5)

Setting up a business is a risk. Twenty per cent of new businesses fail within twelve months; fifty per cent go out of business in three years. It may be because of poor quality services or goods, or one of these common mistakes:

• inadequate market research

Spotlight: Prefixes OVER- and UNDER-

As prefixes, over- usually means too much and under- means too little. He overcharged us. (He made us pay too much.) Companies often overestimate sales figures. (Companies think that sales figures will be larger than they are.) oppunderestimate. With adjectives, they may be followed by a hyphen, e.g. over-ambitious.

• poor control over suppliers and customers

• being over-ambitious and over-optimistic

• poor management of stock and assets

• inadequate knowledge of rivals

• employing the wrong people

Glossary

• set up a business start a business.

• risk the possibility that sth bad may happen in the future, risky adj.

• fail (about a business) be unable to continue, syn go out of business,

• quality the good or bad condition or character of sth compared with similar things.

• goods (pi.) things that are made to be sold.

• inadequate not sufficient: not good enough, opp. adequate.

• market research the study of what people want to buy and why.

• supplier a company that provides sth for another company, supply v.

• stock everything a company has for sale at any particular time.

• asset a thing of value that a person or company owns (e.g. a factory).

• rival a person or company that competes with another, syn competitor.

• employ sb give sb a job (an employer is sb who does this; an employee is sb who works for an employer), syn take sb on inf.

1. Circle things in this list that you can own or sell.

Competitorifbusinessemployeeassetmarketrivalgoodssupplierstockquality

2. Complete the sentences. The meaning must be the same as in the sentences on the left.

► This business is risky.

1) When did she start the business?

2) Why did the business fail?

3) We are the main company that supplies them.

4) Their products aren't very good.

5) Do you still employ him?

6) When did you employ her?

This business is a ___risk_____

When did she set ___________?

Why did they go out ________?

We are their main ___________.

Their products are of poor _____.

Are you still his ___________?

When did you take __________?

3. What mistakes do businesses make? Complete the sentences using words from the box.

rivals optimistic research assets estimates employs suppliers

► The company doesn't have effective controls over its customers or its ____ suppliers _ ___

1) The company doesn't carry out adequate market _______________

2) The company is poor at managing its stock and its _____________

3) The company doesn't have a very good knowledge of its_ ________

4) The company _______________ the wrong people.

5) The company is over-____________, and it over-_____________ what it can achieve.

3 C GROWTH (Listening 6)

The first years may be a struggle, but if a company can survive this difficult period, it may develop into a successful business:

• customer numbers grow and the company gains a share of the market

• turnover increases-the company breaks even

• the brand develops a reputation

The market is the amount of buying and selling of a particular type of goods, e.g. There is a large market for these computers. It also refers to an area or group of people who buy something, e.g. the European market, the teenage market. The market leader is the company with the biggest share of a market.

• the company needs more capital and may sell shares to the public to obtain the finance

• eventually this growth may result in the company being taken over

Spotlight: MARKET

Glossary

• growth the process of increasing in size or number, grow v.

• struggle a period of action to achieve sth difficult, SYN effort, struggle v.

• survive continue to exist in a difficult situation, survival n.

• gain sth obtain sth. OPP lose sth

• share a part of sth that has been divided.

• break even not make a profit or a loss,

• brand the name under which one or more products are sold, e.g. 'Nike'.

• reputation the opinion that people have about sth (it can be good or bad).

• shares (usu pl) units of equal value that a company is divided into and which are then sold to raise money (the buyers then own part of the company).