Business I

1. Modern business techiques
_ When John left school he was desperate (adj- liều mạng; ko còn hy vọng) for a job so he took the first one he was offered in telesales (1). He thought telemarketing (2) sounded quite glamorous (adj- quyến rũ) but soon found that most of the people he phoned hated cold-calling (3) and put the phone down when he tried the hard sell (4).
_ When he realised that the company made most of its money through the rather dubious techniques of inertia (n- trì trệ) selling (5) and confusion (n- lộn xộn) marketing (4), he decided to leave and train as a hairdresser instead.

(1) selling or marketing goods and services by phone
(2) see note (1)
(3) phoning people who have not requested a call in order to try to sell them something.
(4) attempt to sell S.T by being very forceful.
(5) when a company behaves as if you agreed to buy S.T because you did not actually refuse it.
(6) selling products and services in a package, in a way that makes it very difficult to work out which company is cheapest.

2. Buying and selling
_ Supermarkets sometimes sell an iterm very cheaply just so that they attreact a lot of people into the shop where they will also buy more profitable items - the item being sold very cheaply is called a loss leader.
_ If a company finds a niche market (thị trường thích hợp), it find a specialised, small group of customers with particular interests that that company can meet.
_ People sometimes make a purchasing decision based on brand loyalty (n- lòng trung thành). (confidence in that particular make and a tendency (n- xu huong) always to choose it)
_ If you shop around, you try different companies or shops to see which offers best value.
_ If you buy something on approval, you have the right to return it if it is not satisfactory (adj- thỏa đáng, vừa ý).
_ If you have first refusal (n) on something, the seller promises that you will be asked if you would like to buy it first, and only if you do not want it will it be offered for sale to others.
_ If an item is said to come/go under the hammer, it is sold at an auction (n- cuộc đấu giá).

3. A business career:
_ Sally started her own catering business and this turned out to be very lucrative (1). However, she got increasingly irriated by all the red tape (2) involved in business and when a larger company suggested merging (3), she was interested.
_ The two companies did not agree immediately on all the details of the takeover but they managed to reach a compromise (n- sự thỏa hiệp, giàn xếp) (4) and hammer out a deal (5) without too much delay.
_ In some ways Sally was sad that her company had been swallowed up (6) but she is now quite glad to be free of the hassles (điều rắc rối, phức tạp) of entrepreneurship (7). She has used the money raised by the sale of her capital (n- vốn) assets (8) to buy a large house in the south of France.

(1) producing a lot of money
(2) bureaucracy (negative)
(3) joining together to form one new company
(4) come to an agreement in which both sides have to give in a little bit on what they would have otherwise liked.
(5) talk seriously and in detail until a business agreement is made.
(6) taken over by a larger company (slightly negative)
(7) involvement (bao hàm, bao gồm) in business and taking financial risks.
(8) buildings and machines owned by a company

Exercise:
_ A unique painting will come under the hammer in London tomorrow.
_ It's a sensible idea to shop around a bit before buying a computer.
_ Jeremy has promised me that, if he ever decides to sell his motorbike, I can have first refusal on it.
_ I don't mind trying a hard sell on a person who has already experssed an interest in our products, but I have cold-calling.
_ I wasn't sure whether the desk would fit into my office so I bought it on approval.
_ If you want to make a bid for something in an auction you first have to catch the autioneer's eye.
_ If you work in telesales you spend most of your day on the phone.
_ They produce special clothes for people who like to do yoga and have really captured this niche market.

_ As their business interests were really very similar, it did not take them very long to come to an agreement. (hammer out a deal)
_ If you want to go into the impoxt and export business, you had better be prepared for a lot of bureaucracy (n- công chức, sự quan liêu). (red tape)
_ At the moment they are discussing the possibility of their companies becoming one. (meriging)
_ Sportswear is very profitable business to be in at the moment. (lucrative adj- sinh loi)
_Only a few people have a real talent for the risk-taking of opening a new business. (entrepreneurship nha doanh nghiep)
_ A number of small companies have been taken over by that large multi-national in the last six months (swllowed up)