How to start your own business

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The best reason for starting a business is to earn money, to travel, to get more knowledge of the world, to get business experience or to be independent. If you choose a business based on your special knowledge, skills, experience or interests, your chances of success increase greatly.

There are three ways you can serve consumer needs: making a product (manufacturing), selling a product (wholesaling or retailing) or providing a service.

If you want your business to be developed successfully, you should do enough planning and minimize the risk of failure during the first years of operation. You must estimate costs or money you spend to run the business. There are four types of costs: material costs, labour costs, overheads and your own salary.

If you want to expand your business you need financing. You can borrow money from a bank. Bank managers will make you a loan if they are sure that your business is a good investment. That’s why you should provide them with your financial statements showing the financial situation in your firm.

If you want to attract customers you should keep in mind that success of your business depends on a good promotional campaign, a convenient location, good selling methods and reasonable prices.

If you want to hire an employee you can use employment agencies, consulting firms and professional societies. You can also advertise in a newspaper or in a magazine.

Language abilities would allow you to communicate more easily and increase the number of business contacts.

Active Vocabulary

(выучить – 1 балл)

оwn - собственный

to earn – зарабатывать

experience – опыт

skill – навык

to choose – выбирать

success – успех

to manufacture – производить

to wholesale – продавать оптом

to retail – продавать в розницу

to provide – обеспечивать

to develop – развивать

failure – неудача

to estimate – оценивать

costs – расходы, издержки

to run the business – управлять бизнесом

material costs – материальные издержки

labour costs – трудовые расходы

overheads – накладные расходы

salary – заработная плата

to expand a business – расширить дело

to borrow from – занимать у

loan – займ

to attract – привлекать

to depend on – зависеть от

promotional campaign – компания по продвижению товара на рынок

convenient location – удобное месторасположение

reasonable price – разумная цена

society –общество, объединение

to advertise – рекламировать

ability – способность

to allow

Tasks

Translate into English using the expressions from the previous task

(перевести и выучить – 2 балла)

Способность зарабатывать деньги

Выбирать собственный бизнес

Позволять продавать оптом

Зависеть от опыта

Оценить навыки

Рекламировать с успехом

Продавать в розницу по разумной цене

Обеспечивать компанию по продвижению товара на рынок

Производить продукцию

Общество с развитой системой производства

Неудача в управлении бизнесом

Зависеть от зарплаты

Материальные издержки для расширения бизнеса

Делать займ в банке

Привлекать удобным месторасположением

Translate into English using the expressions from the previous tasks

(перевести письменно – 2 балла)

1 Я хочу начать собственное дело, чтобы быть независимым.

2 Мой друг заработал хорошие деньги, начав собственное дело.

3 Я выбрал дело, основанное на моих навыках, знаниях и опыте.

4 Производство этого товара увеличит шансы на успех.

5 Лучше выбирать оптовую торговлю, чем розничную.

6 Риск неудачи не позволил нам развиваться успешно.

7 Главный бухгалтер оценил все издержки управления компанией.

8 Я потратил много денег на покупку сырья и оборудования.

9 На эту компанию работает много людей.

10 Накладные расходы включают деньги на рекламу.

11 Моя зарплата – это минимум, достаточный для жизни.

12 Мне нужно финансирование, чтобы расширить свой бизнес.

13 Я занял деньги в банке, и банковские менеджеры сделали мне займ.

14 Я обеспечил их всеми финансовыми документами.

15 Этот магазин привлекает клиентов хорошим расположением.

16 Наша компания предлагает разумные цены.

17 Это агентство по трудоустройству поможет вам нанять служащих.

18 Мы рекламируем свою компанию в местной газете.

19 Языковые способности помогают мне общаться с зарубежными партнерами.

20 Знание иностранного языка позволило мне увеличить число деловых контактов.

READING

I

A young entrepreneur

Jayson Meyer was sixteen when he and his younger brother Matthew started their technology company. Jayson lives in Daytona Beach, Florida, in the USA. He looks like any typical university student, buy Jayson doesn’t go to university. He doesn’t need to. He is already a successful businessman. Jayson is a co0founder and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Meyer Technologies, Inc.

At high school Jayson spent a lot of time working on computers for the school and local businesses. He didn’t have time for school work, but he could fix almost any computer problem. So when he was fifteen Jayson left school and went into business full time. With his brother he set up a shop at the local weekend market.

The business was successful and quickly went from making $ 4000 in the first year to $ 100000 per year. Soon Meyer Technologies, Inc expanded and was making over $ 500000. The company builds special computers and creates software programs for its clients. Many small businesses in Florida can’t afford in-house computer support. They rely on service companies like Meyer Technologies to maintain their computers, and the company has plenty of customers. In 2000 the sales grew to over $1 million. Not bad for a business whose CEO was not old enough to vote!

Currently Jayson is helping to grow another company called Work Smart MD, which makes special software for doctors’ offices. Jayson now employs a number of technical staff and most of them are older than their boss. Jayson himself works 80 to 100 hours a week and often sleeps at the office. He doesn’t have a lot of free time to do the things that most young people do, but he doesn’t mind. He says, ‘I’d rather be building an international business. I think about my business most of the time – it’s in my blood’.

II

Getting started in business

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 theinterest.

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).

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 revenueis 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 the price per hour.

6 Your business will make a profitif 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.

III

Geeks

Although they live hundreds miles apart, Steven Jobs and William Gates have much in common. Both were born in 1956. Both were pioneers in the personal computer industry. And both became multi-millionaires when they were still in their 20’s.

The earliest computers were highly technical machines, understandable only to scientists. Steven Jobs thought that if computers were easier to use and less expensive, the public would buy them. He was right. With $ 1300 (most of which came from the sale of his second-hand Volkswagen van), Jobs produced what he called the Apple I computer. The success of the Apple I gave him the money to finance the design of new and improved personal computers.

Bill Gates started in the computer industry when he was at school and has become the world’s youngest billionaire by the age of 31. A combination of technical brilliance and competitive business tactics quickly made him the most powerful man in Silicon Valley. He was intrigued by the success of the new personal computers coming into the market in the 1970’s. Gates realized that the success of personal computers would depend on the “user-friendly” (easy-to-use) software. In 1975 he co-founded Microsoft Corporation which designed the basic operating software for all IBM and IBM-compatible personal computers.

Today Microsoft Corporation is the largest software company. But Bill Gates wants his company Microsoft to be more than just a software house and in recent years it has diversified into many new fields.