Part II _______________________________________________________Lesson 5

1. PHONETIC DRILL

1.1 Mind the pronunciation of the following words with the italicized letters

[k] - mechanical, technical, technology, mechanics, chemistry, architecture

- technique, 'piquet, ma'quette, ban'quette

[kw] quite, quest, equal, quiet, quantity, acquire, quote, quit, earthquake

1.2 Recollect the rule of reading the words with the letter c

science, scarlet, century, distinct, scooter, clear, civil, comprise, ancient, medicine, scale, scepter, sky-scraper, scissors, social, cake

2. Read the text

A few words about operating a business

1. After graduating from the university *many of you will have to face the problem of job seeking¹. You will have to earn your living. There are many people who earn their money by going to the office or factory five days a week - working for a salary. And for most people that’s just fine. It is not an easy thing to find an interesting and well-paid job. And it doesn’t matter too much whether it is in a state or private company or firm. Though it’s not an easy task to work for someone. But no one is born to work for a salary. The situation may change if you’ll decide to start your own business. For increasing millions in our country, earning a living means having businesses of their own, that is, doing their own thing on their own terms. You may be a manager, an accountant, an engineer, a pr specialist or a doctor; *you may be running a store², baking cakes for sale, *building furniture² or providing any of hundreds of other kinds of products or services – operating a small business provides the kind of life that has special appeals and rewards for those involved.

2. Most businesses are small businesses. In fact every business in the world once began as a small business. Those that grow and succeed are built on the owner’s ability to understand business problems and make good decisions.

3. What do you think it really takes to start and run a successful business? Experience, ability, money (your parents’ deep pocket)?

4. In fact it takes a little of all these and lots of desire for independence. Almost everyone has some experience that can be turned into a successful and thriving business. Many people who have a few jobs have the capabilities to operate a small business. Too often though, individuals start a business with experience in only one area of the total operation – as a salesman or a craftsman. But if they want their efforts to be successful they’ll have to understand and use many other aspects of business.

5. There are no secrets for business success. But there exist *proved rules and procedures³ that have resulted in success for numerous small business proprietors worldwide. Business ventures have to be planned. It is obvious. There are so many factors that *affect the health of a business⁴ that it’s necessary to plan ahead so that every element gets the attention it requires. It is easy to get so involved with day-to-day operations that you could miss the overall picture.

6. Every business must buy right, produce products or services right, and sell right in order to be successful and make good money for the owner. Any factors can have a vital impact on businessperson efforts. They can affect the costs, the supplies or services that а business buys. Proper planning must consider as the resources of the business, current operations and financial needs, so the changes that can affect the situation in the future.

7. Goals may have to be revised from time to time to take advantage of opportunities or *meet new conditions⁵. All the more reason a business plan is necessary to set objectives to work towards. A plan helps organize such factors as production with sales, and both with advertising. A good plan also helps balance credit available with money needs. Even the smallest business needs the controls a business plan provides.

8. The businessperson must be constantly aware of consumer, governmental, competition and business trends. The small business owner has also to play many parts in a day. He or she must combine to some extent the roles of financial analyst, cost accountant, marketing, production and merchandising specialists. They can hire these skills or can learn to perform these tasks themselves.

9. Nobody says that running a small business is an easy task. There are plenty of problems. But for the individual who is ready to work harder than ever before, the rewards can be great. And they can be more than financial.

10. The successful entrepreneur will know the satisfaction of meeting a community need, and of supplying products and services desired by his or her customers. As for the bottom line, there’s nothing like earning a profit, as well as a salary, for a job well done.

11. The idea of this book is to help you through studying English of your profession better understand business planning as well, and to provide you with the information that may be useful to work out the way to independent success in your own future business and life. I wish your life be a good application of knowledge you will get when working with the texts and studying English.