Unit 4. Success. Passion into profit
Vocabulary. Bankrupt - банкрот Business plan - бизнес-план Company - компания Competition – соревнование, конкуренция Demand - спрос Distribution - распределение Entrepreneur - предприниматель Finance - финансы Loss - убытки Market share – доля рынка Profit - прибыль Start-up - компания, недавно появившаяся на рынке, пуск в эксплуатацию A start-up is a new business. Many people decide to start up their own business because they have what they think is a good business idea and they want to become entrepreneurs. But it is important to prepare a good business plan before you start. You need to know if there is a demand for the products or services you want to offer. If you can finance the operation, find customers and beat the competition, you have a good chance of making a profit. Then you can call your business a success. To begin with, of course, a successful company has to make a profit. That means that it has to keep costs as low as possible – the cost of manufacturing, for example. Secondly you need to make big sales so there has to be a demand for your products. And of course, you want to be competitive. If your competitor brings out a better product, you can lose customers. The most successful companies control the market. That means they have a bigger percentage of sales and a bigger market share than their competitors. Their product is market leader. It sells more than any other product in that sector. Another factor for success is growth. No company wants to stand still. Successful companies are always finding new markets and new opportunities to grow. Well the first step, of course, is to develop a new product idea. Many people decide to start a business because they have a good idea. But you have to remember that about 80 per cent of new business ideas fail. Usually it is because people don’t understand the market. So the second step is to conduct market research. Your business. We wanted to find a firm that could become market leader in a short time. So, our decision was to make an offer for Annie’s Kitchen. This firm had financial difficulties and its owner was ready to accept a low offer from us. Because we are a big company, we were able to deal with the company’s financial problems. We paid for a new factory and put money into improving production. So Annie’s Kitchen started to make a profit. The owner stayed on as the company’s managing director. This worked out very well. Annie’s Kitchen is now second in the market with a 32 per cent share. We hope that we will soon be number one!
Answer the questions according to the text: 1. What can companies do to make more profit? 2. What happens if a competitor brings out a better product? 3. What does it mean when you say that ‘no company wants to stay still? 4. What makes a successful company? 5. What is it important before you start up? Exercises: 1) Which location is best for each of the business activities 1-5? Choose from the list a-e. 1) bank a)at an airport 2) big supermarket b)near the sea 3) petrol station c)in a town center 4) duty-free shop d)out of town 5) ship-building e) beside a motorway
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