Starting a Business of Your Own

For the right person, going self-employed or starting a business will bring experience that working for somebody else never can. Of course, you will also have to face challenges. There is no one else to put right mistakes you make, the buck stops with you. You may have to work longer hours and you may, especially in the beginning, have less financial security. But if you are the right kind of person with a good idea, sound planning and commitment you can overcome the challengesand enjoy the rewards of your own initiative.

People going self-employed or starting their own business come from all kinds of different backgrounds and have all kinds of different personalities. However, research has revealed a number of qualities which are important if you are to achieve your aims. They include the following areas.

Initiative – you need to be a “self-starter”, you won’t get very far if you usually have to be told what to do.

Determination and persistence – you are unlikely to achieve your aims if you give up easily.

Responsibility – if you tend to blame others when things go wrong, instead of sorting them out yourself, you will probably be destined for disappointment.

Imagination – the ability to see yourself, and your business, through other’s eyes. Then you can see how to give your customers what they are looking for and to adapt yourself, if necessary.

Self-sufficiency – many occupations and businesses can involve long periods of solitude. If you are only happy in company, you’d better choose something else.

Those with big ambitions need exceptional passion, will-power and energy to achieve them. They want to beat the system and they’ll give it all they have got, even if it means extremely long hours, keeping up the pace when others would be exhausted.

However, research indicates that such people are often blessed with exceptional insight into their customers’ minds – and, contrary to what you might think, are very careful about taking risks.

Notes: self-starter - ініціативна людина

the buck stops with (you, him, her etc) – рішення за (тобою, ним, нею тощо);

Exercise 1. Read the text and answer the questions.

1. What will make the right person experienced?

2. Why will you have to face challenges?

3. How is it possible to overcome challenges?

4. What qualities are important to become successful in business?

5. How is it possible to give customers what they are looking for?

Exercise 2. Match the word/phrase on the right with those on the left.

1) sole proprietor/trader	a) you are responsible for making a decision
2) challenge	b) to be intended, especially by fate
3) the buck stops with you	c) to procede as fast as you used to
4) to reveal	d) being alone
5) to be destined for	e) self-employed person
6) exhausted	f) a difficult but exciting thing to do
7) solitude	g) to be tired out
8) to keep up the pace	h) to show or allow to be seen (sth pre- viously hidden)

Exercise 3. Read the text again and decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. Setting up a business of your own means that you take respon-sibility for making a decision.
2. No one else will correct your mistakes if you work on your own.
3. Everyone starting a business of their own can enjoy the rewards of their own initiative.
4. Those who are starting their own business usually have similar personalities.
5. You shouldn’t blame others when your business goes down.
6. Running a business always means ability to adapt yourself, if necessary.

Exercise 4. Complete the sentences using the words from the box.

careful backgrounds persistence sound face different disappointed overcome

1. Businessmen often have to … challenges.

2. … planning, good ideas and commitment usually help those who start their own business to … the challenges.

3. People involved in business come from different … and have all kinds of …personalities.

4. If you give up easily it means that you don’t have ….

5. You will often be … if you prefer to blame others when something gets wrong with your business.

6. Though some people are blessed with exceptional understanding of their customers’ needs they are very … about taking risks.

 

Exercise 5. Use the appropriate form of the modal verbs can, may, have to, be to in the following sentences.

1. There are dozens of organisations which … provide help and advice on the best way to get your business going.

2. If you … succeed there are a number of qualities, which are important.

3. You … be very careful about taking risks.

4. You … have less financial security.

5. You may … work longer hours.

 

Work in pairs. Student A is a reporter, student B is going to start a business. Then give an account of the interview.

 

Text B

Dylan Wilk runs his own multimillion-pound business and could afford to retire. He draws a six-figure salary and drives a bright yellow BMW M3. Holidays are spent in California or skiing in Austria.

But Wilk is only 23 years old. He set up his company, Gameplay, at the age of 20 and in just three years it has become Britain’s second-largest mail-order supplier of computer games with 35 staff and a turnover of £7.5 million in 1997, set to double this year. He is one of the Thatchers babies – the children born or brought up since 1979 when she swept to power and started the enterprise revolution.

One in eight of all startup businesses is founded by an entrepreneur aged 16 to 24 and there is a growing number of teenage and twenty-something tycoons. They include 14-year-old Tom Hartley, who became Britain’s youngest self-made millionaire by selling Porsches.

Andrew Collins, 21, started Firemagic Fireworks, at the age of 19. He is turning over £100, 000 a year and has just taken on a new partner, his former chemistry teacher, who encouraged his interest in pyrotechnics.

In spite of some undeniable success stories, two-thirds of startups by under-25s end in failure within four years, a far higher rate than for older people. Alan Sugar, who set up his first business at 19, believes starting too young can be damaging. Sugar says: “I would not want to see many entrepreneurs straight out of school. They need to have some experience of work and real life.”

Many banks often turn young people down for a loan.Youngsters may also experience prejudice from customers and suppliers who see them as naїve and inexperienced. Victoria Goodwin started her own decorative finishes business when she was twenty. She says: “Being young can be a drawback, but it can also be an advantage because some customers believe you don’t have preconceived ideas and will do what they want.”

Richard Street, chief executive of a charity organisation says: “Business education would certainly benefit young people: not all will become entrepreneurs, but they need to be prepared because they will have flexible careers with periods in jobs and periods of self-employment.”

Notes: far higher rat e – набагато вищий показник

Exercise 1. Read the following statements about Text B and indicate whether they are true (T) or false (F).

1.	Dylan Wilk, who founded Gameplay at the age of 20, retired three years later after becoming a millionaire.
2.	Gameplay is the largest British retail chain specialising in computer games.
3.	Over ten percent of new businesses are started by people under the age of 25.
4.	Tom Hartley inherited most of his money.
5.	Andrew Collins set up his company with his chemistry teacher.
6.	Entrepreneurs in their early 20s are more likely to succeed than older people who go into business for themselves.
7.	Many banks are reluctant to provide financing to youngsters.
8.	Some customers like doing business with young entrepreneurs as they are more flexible.

 

Дати Історію успіху Gates

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Text B