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Business English Vocabulary
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advertising - show your products to customers through radio, television or newspapers
"What is the best way for us to advertise our product?"
- afford - able to buy, have enough money to buy
"Television is the best advertising, but the most expensive. Can we afford it?"
Part 1
- agenda - a detailed plan for a meeting.
"The first item on our agenda is advertising."
- booming - business is growing very fast
"This year business is booming, so we can start thinking about increasing our investments."
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borrow - getting money from someone else, or from a bank, which we must pay back later
"We need to borrow $100,000 to expand our business." -
brand - the name of a well-known product (McDonald's, Coca Cola, Volkswagen, etc.)
"We'll need to borrow money for advertising, then we'll build our brand awareness." - break even - when our spending equals the amount we receive from sales
"The company didn't make money nor lose money during the last quarter. They just broke even."
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bribe - secretly paying money to get special favors from a company or government official
"She was sent to prison for 30 years for trying to bribe a high official." -
budget - a detailed plan for spending money
"The second item on our agenda is the budget. We need to pay special attention to advertising, marketing and building our sales staff. Oh, and we need to significantly increase our budget for English teachers!" -
calculate - to count, add, subtract, multiply, divide numbers
"It's not hard to calculate - if we keep spending more money than we take in, we'll have to sell more!" -
cancel - to decide NOT to buy something that you had agreed to before
"Before they cancel the order, find out what the problem is and fix it!" -
capital - money
"If we had more capital to invest, we would build a new factory." -
charge for - ask money for payment
"We never charge for repairs. Making sure our products work is included in the purchase price." -
CEO - the top officer in a company, the chief executive officer
"How can we find a good CEO who knows how to run a business in today's business environment?" -
CFO - the top financial officer in a company
"The CFO will be attending today's meeting to talk about fundamental accounting principles." -
commission - a percentage of each sale that goes directly to the salesperson
"Our salespeople get 10% for each item sold, but that increases as he or she sells more." -
competition - other companies that make the same product as yours
"We face tough competition, but our product has some important advantages." -
consumption - the total amount of product bought in a market
"Although prices have fallen, overall consumption is higher, so we can still make money." -
credit - when you buy first, but pay later
"You can buy this product on credit. The payment will be due in 90 days." -
currency - the money of one country
"If you exhange currency in the airport, you'll pay a large commission. Go to a bank instead." -
deadline - the time by which some project must be finished
"We have to finish this by Friday. That's the final deadline." -
demand - the wish of customers to buy a product
"Until demand increases, we won't sell many of our most expensive products." -
discount - a lower price
"If you buy more than 100 of these, we will give you a 10% discount". -
distribution - getting the product to the final consumer, or customer
"Our distribution system needs to be improved if we are to meet increased demand." -
diversify - start many new businesses instead of doing just one
"If we diversify, we can make more money, but sales of our main product may go down." -
economics - the study of finance and money
"If you want to succeed in business, you should study economics." -
employee - a worker
"Employees today need to learn so much to be able to move up in the company." -
employer - the person who finds and pays workers
"My employer told me I have to work overtime or I'll lose my job!" -
estimate - a guess about how much something will cost
"We estimate the new factory will cost less than 20 million euros." -
export - to send goods out of a country
"As the local currency drops in value, our exports to that country also drop." -
extend - to give more, especially a loan of money
"The bank said they cannot extend the deadline. We have to pay by Friday or face the consequences."