There are a lot of idioms talking about time as if it were money

You can spend time.

• I spent 3 hours doing that.

You can waste time.

• I wasted an hour waiting for her.

Time can be a waste.

• It's not worth going. The whole exhibition is a waste of time.

You can value time.

• I value every minute I get to spend with my baby.

You can run out of time.

• I didn't get the project finished as I would have liked. I ran out of time.

You can spare time.

• Can you spare me a few minutes?

Time can be precious.

• I travel a lot so the time I spend at home is very precious to me.

You can afford time.

• We can't afford to spend any more time on this. We have a lot to cover today.

You can save time.

• I've already dug out the old files to save time today.

You can be short of time.

• We're short of the time we need to do a good job on this.

You can have plenty of time.

· We have plenty of time to worry about this later.

War Idioms

There are a lot of expressions used in business which are borrowed from the army and from war. Here are some examples:

You can 'gain ground' on your competition.

• We've gained ground in the Japanese market. We now have a 20% market share, up from just 7% last year.

You ' don't give up without a fight.'

• I don't think we should just withdraw the product because we have such a poor share of the market. Let's not give up without a fight. Let's try some other marketing strategies.

You may need to 'reinforce' your marketing position.

• Our sales team is doing badly against the competition. We may need to reinforce the team with some new recruits.

You can 'join forces' with another company.

• In China, we've decided to join forces with a local company and set up a joint venture.

If you receive a lot of enquiries, you can say you are 'bombarded' with them.

• After our last radio campaign, we were bombarded with calls to our customer lines.

If you don't want your boss to notice you, it's a good idea to 'keep your head down'.

• The boss is very angry. It would be a good idea to keep your head down for a few days.

You can 'set your sights on ' an objective.

• I've set my sights on being the next sales manager.

Often different departments of a company have a 'battle' over budgets.

• There isn't much money and Accounts and Marketing are having a big battle over the advertising budget.

Some people seem to do things which make them look bad – they are 'their own worst enemy'.

• He's always irritating the boss by being late for meetings. He's his own worst enemy.

Most companies set 'targets' for their employees.

• Our target this year is to increase sales by 10%.

You can 'capture' a larger share of a market.

• We need to capture more of the youth market.