Goat Rental Service
Do you need a lawn mowing or to get rid of a large area of weeds? Rather than considering what kind of machine to hire, why not rent some goats? This goat rental company will come and look at your land, provide a quote and then bring along an appropriate number of peckish goats. The USP of this kind of service is that it is very eco-friendly: no need for electric mowers or for pesticides. Not only do goats apparently particularly relish eating weeds, the service is also extremely cost effective: just 38 goats can ‘mow’ 50,000 square feet of grass in a single day.
One-of-a-kind Furniture
When Saeed confided in his wife his dream of launching a business based on making furniture that many people would consider an eyesore, she thought he’d completely lost his marbles. How could that possibly be a profi t-making venture? Saeed was skilful at making furniture – that was his bread and butter. But why tell people he was creating eyesores? Confi dent in his idea nevertheless, Saeed started promoting his ugly and weird furniture online and, believe it or not, within three months, his company had a turnover of more than $10,000 a month! The ‘eyesore’ tag was obviously a bit of a sales gimmick, but it worked even though his furniture is not exactly priced as an impulse buy. Fortunately, there was not much upfront investment needed as Saeed already had all the equipment he needed. Now he’s thinking about branching out into ugly accessories.
Incredible Cake
Unimpressed by the expensive price tag of cakes on off er for her own wedding, Nada decided to make her own. As she was working in Africa, her design was a delicious work of art complete with edible trees and waterfalls from across the continent. It was only when she returned that making cakes for a living became a business concept. Initially, she worked from home as she and her husband didn’t have the capital for a bricks-and-mortar shop, relying instead on e-commerce for her start-up. However, through social media and word-of-mouth, her reputation grew and within a year she opened her first physical store with her new trade name: A piece and love. Her cakes cater to all budgets, from simple designs at bargain basement prices, to bespoke creations for the happy couple. Nada and her staff pride themselves on their customer service, working closely with each one and paying meticulous attention to detail to ensure each cake is as special as the day itself.
1 Read the texts and answer the questions about each business.
1 Why is there a need for this business?
2 Would you buy or use these goods or services? Say why.
Answers
Students’ own answers
Business-related vocabulary
2 Match the highlighted words and phrases from the texts with definitions 1–12.
1 Good value for money
2 Extremely cheap
3 Specially made for a particular person
4 The feature that makes a product diff erent from and better than anything else
5 The estimated price that will be charged for a service
6 Buildings such as houses, offices, factories
7 A new business that is risky
8 The amount of business a company does in a set period of time
9 Making a new product available to be sold
10 Extended or expanded on the work normally done
11 The amount that something costs
12 An idea for a business
Answers
1 cost-effective 2 bargain basement 3 bespoke 4 USP (Unique Selling Point) 5 quote 6 bricks and mortar 7 venture 8 turnover 9 launching 10 branching out 11 price tag 12 business concept
Compound nouns
3 Read Active Vocabulary and find examples of each in the texts on page 26.
Possible answers
as separate words: (goat) rental company, electric mower, square feet, single day, business concept, bargain basement, upfront investment, bricks-and-mortar shop ('bricks-andmortar' is hyphenated when is used as an adjective, but not when it is a noun.)
with a hyphen: start-up, e-commerce, word-of-mouth as one word: eyesore, turnover
ACTIVE VOCABULARY|Compound nouns
A compound noun is created by joining two or more words together to create a single idea. Compound nouns can be spelled
• as separate words.
• with a hyphen.
• as one word.
4 Complete the sentences with the words from the box to make compound nouns.
| buy gimmick investment up |
1 They’re giving away free toys with children’s meals as a part of a sales...........................
2 Planes are expensive to design and make, so require a lot of upfront..............................
3 My friend has just established a new start-......................which uses AI to help businesses.
4 I wasn’t planning on getting a new shirt today, it was a bit of an impulse...........................
Answers
1 gimmick 2 investment 3 up 4 buy
5 3.1 Listen to an interview with the owner of the goat business. In pairs, discuss the positive and negative aspects of the business. Use the vocabulary from the previous exercises.
Answers
Students’ own answers
Phrasal verbs
6 3.1 Replace the underlined parts of the sentences with the correct forms of the phrasal verbs from the box. Then listen again and check.
| break into build up knock (something) off pass up set up sign up win over |
1 So, what gave you the idea to start the business?
2 It seemed like it might be a good market to get involved with.
3 It was too good an opportunity to fail to take advantage of.
4 We often get new customers to commit on the spot.
5 We’d been gradually increasing customer loyalty in that area.
6 Eventually, we did manage to persuade them.
7 We had to considerably reduce the price.
Answers
1 set up 2 break into 3 pass up 4 sign … up 5 building up 6 win them over 7 knock quite a lot off the price
7 SPEAKING Think of successful small businesses in your area. Discuss the questions.
1 What is their USP?
2 What makes their business concept successful?
3 How could they branch out?
Answers
Students’ own answers
