Eight Business English Idioms to Discuss Success

The following is from a Wall Street Journal entitled How to Survive Being an Overnight Success. Getting quick success as an entrepreneur sounds great, doesn't it? But this article points out that there are some challenges with trying to grow too quickly. The words and idioms we will focus on are in blue.

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It seems like a dream scenario for a startup: Sales surge, and business takes off.

But then what?

Any number of things can turn a small business into a rapid success—from a TV appearance to great connections at a trade show to a viral online video—but sustaining that success forces an entrepreneur to make tough choices. For instance: Should the company immediately ramp up production and risk lowering product quality? Bring in more workers to help an overstressed staff, and risk destroying company culture? Try to live off the original innovation, or plow lots of cash into R&D to develop new ones that might not pan out?

How do I meet demand?

It’s the immediate problem a company must deal with when it hits the big time quickly. All of its systems are set up to handle a certain level of production and sales. And suddenly it is swamped with orders. 

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Here's our vocabulary for this article extract:

(to) surge - to increase quickly

(to) take off - to become popular; to turn successful

(to) ramp up - to increase

(to) live off - to make enough money from something

(to) plow lots of cash into - to invest a lot of money in

(to) pan out - to be successful

(to) hit the big time - to become very successful or popular

swamped (with) - to be overwhelmed with; to have more than one can manage

Business English Greetings — and News of American Greetings

When I was growing up, I loved receiving greeting cards in the mail. My favorite greeting cards had Snoopy

on them. I would save and review them for years. So when e-cards came along and people stopped sending cards in the mail, I was not very happy. I am sure the management of American Greetings, a large greeting card company, was not so happy either!

In today's Wall Street Journal, we learn that American Greetings is saying goodbye to the stock market and taking itself private. The article is entitled "Wishing You a Fond Farewell – From the Stock Market." Let's read the beginning of the article and improve our business English. Words and expressions we'll explore are highlighted in blue and defined below:

It is an industry that thrived in the days when the printed word was king and correspondence went through the mail. But like many other businesses, it was battered by the rise of lively, innovative and often free competitors online, where stamps and handwriting aren't needed.

Welcome to the greeting-card industry, where the biggest publicly traded U.S. company in the business has decided to bid adieu to the stock market, announcing plans to go private. The Weiss family—descendants of the Polish immigrant who founded American Greetings Corp. shortly after his arrival in Cleveland in 1905—on Monday said it agreed to pay $18.20 in cash per share to remove the company from the public markets.   The greetings-card business has seen better days, and American Greetings today is worth almost 65% less than it was at its peak in 1998. Like many media companies, it was hit hard by the Internet, with customers finding new ways to share old sentiments like birthday or holiday greetings. Tech companies including Apple and Facebook launched their own electronic greetings businesses, letting their customers send physical or electronic gifts and greetings on a birthday or anniversary.

(to) thrive – to do very well; to succeed; to flourish (in this case, the greeting card industry was thriving ... back in the days when people actually sent their greetings by regular mail rather than via the Internet).

correspondence – communication by letters (in other words, people writing to each other)

battered by – hurt seriously by (Note: this can be used in the financial sense, as it is here. It can also be used in the physical sense as in: Our beach house in New Jersey was battered by Hurricane Sandy).

publicly traded company – a company that trades on the stock exchange (versus a private company that is owned by one family or group of investors)

(to) go private – to remove a company from the stock exchange, so it is once again owned by private investors. This is the reverse process of "going public" in which a company lists itself on the stock exchange. 

(to) have seen better days – to be in a period of decline or slow sales (yes, American Greetings definitely has seen better days -- 15 years ago, it was worth a lot more than it is today).

(to be) hit hard by – to suffer losses due to something (in this case, American Greetings was hit hard by the rise of e-cards, with consumers sending more greetings by Internet than by regular mail, or "snail mail.")

For more business English idioms, check out the new app for iPad & iPhone, Business English Power Idioms. It's a cheap and fun way to work on your business English!

Back to School with some Business English

Whew, I can't believe summer is over and we're now in the back-to-school season! To celebrate that, I chose an article today called "Getting into B-School On Your Boss's Dime" from the Wall Street Journal. We'll learn some new business English words and expressions -- and who knows? -- maybe this post will even inspire you to go back to school. MBA anyone? Why not, if someone else is paying ...

Here we go with the part of the article we will analyze. Target vocabulary is in bold:

Getting into B-School On Your Boss's Dime

Companies are advertising a rather peculiar perk to lure top undergraduate talent: Showing them the door—to graduate school, that is.

As a means of attracting stellar young hires, an increasing number of firms in finance, consulting and technology are shepherding employees through the graduate-school admissions process by organizing and paying for test-preparation courses, inviting admissions consultants to help with applications, arranging mock interviews with senior staffers and even bringing school representatives to information sessions at the office...

It may seem counterintuitive to encourage employees to head for the exits, but firms say that assisting with the graduate-school application process leads to long-term loyalty and, with strings attached to tuition money, improves the chances that employees will return after graduation...

Such programs have been in place for a while, but have grown more popular in recent years as the recruiting process heats up.
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Here we go with explanations of the vocabulary in bold:

on one's dime - paid for by someone else (usually by one's employer). Example: We all went out for sushi today, on the company's dime.

perk - a benefit given to employees (such as bonus money, a gym membership, free tuition for school, etc).

(to) lure - to attract (note: this is one of the verbs featured in our ESL app "Business English Power Verbs" available on iTunes for iPad and iPhone - check it out here.

(to) show someone the door - to fire an employee or to encourage an employee to leave the company (in this article, this expression is used with a twist - not firing an employee but rather encouraging them to go in the door of graduate school (so here we have a play on words)

stellar - excellent; the best

staffers - people who work at a company (note: a cooler way of saying "employees")

(to) head for the exits - to leave (often employees will "head for the exits" if there is a problem with the company). Note that the verb "to head" on its own means to leave for a destination, as in: "It's 5 o'clock? I'd better head home now."

with string attached - with conditions (note: you will more often here the expression "with no strings attached" meaning an offer or deal with no hidden conditions)

(to) heat up - to become more intense or active

Want to learn more Business English? Check out the book & CD Speak Better Business English and Make More Money.

Let's Learn Some More Business Idioms!

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about Microsoft trying to catch

up with Apple and Google in the apps market. Let's use this article to learn some new American English business vocabulary ... because that's what this website is all about: helping you learn more business English expressions and idioms so that you can communicate more effectively. By the way, if you like this blog, please become a follower -- and share it with a friend. So here we go with the Wall Street Journal article extract, expressions we will focus on are in BOLD:

Microsoft Banks on Mobile Apps

Microsoft Corp., struggling to dent the dominance of Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the smartphone market, is stepping up efforts to court app makers like Hemi Weingarten.

Last fall, Microsoft aggressively recruited Mr. Weingarten to convince him to build his nutrition app Fooducate for its Windows Phone. Microsoft proposed putting a Fooducate engineer in Tel Aviv through a weeklong boot camp, and offered a new Windows-based Nokia phone for software testing.

Yet despite the enticements, Fooducate skipped the boot camp and chose not to develop a Windows Phone app.

"We decided to focus our energies on the bigger platforms" of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, said Mr. Weingarten, the 41-year-old chief executive of Fooducate. He said he plans to develop for Windows Phone eventually.

His experience highlights how Microsoft is actively trying to woo developers to the Windows Phone—as well as the hurdles the software maker faces in getting app makers on board.

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Now let's discuss the vocabulary from the article:

(to) bank on - to count on; to rely on (as a way to make money). You may hear people say, "You can bank on it!" As in this example: "Boss, do you think I'll get a promotion this year?" -- "You can bank on it!"

(to) step up efforts - to increase efforts; to try harder at something (Yes, you can be sure that Microsoft is stepping up its efforts in the app market - Apple is making a killing in this market! Make a killing means make lots and lots of money).

boot camp - an intensive training program. This expression comes from the military, where it means a training camp for military recruits. (Let's hope the participants in Microsoft's boot camp had more fun than people in a military boot camp -- at least they were probably served better food!).

(to) focus our energies on - to focus on; to devote resources to (In this case, savvy Mr. Weingarten of Fooducate has decided to "focus his energies on" developing apps for the iTunes and Android marketplaces -- and no wonder, they are huge. To tell you the truth, I didn't even know Microsoft had an apps marketplace until I read this Wall Street Journal article!).

woo - to try to win the favor of; to seek the support of. This verb has a second meaning: to gain the love of (usually a woman), for the purpose of marriage

to face hurdles - to deal with obstacles or problems (hurdles are problems you have to solve before you can do something). This handy little idiom also made the headlines of Wired Magazine recently: Google Glasses Face Serious Hurdles, Augmented-Reality Experts Say.

(to) get someone on board - to get someone to join or agree to something; to go along with something. (On board also means when you're on some form of transportation - like on board a bus, on board a train, on board a plane -- so to help you remember this, picture yourself on a plane with a group of business people, having a great talk, all of you in agreement with each other!).

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bestselling Speak Business English Like an American and Speak Better Business English and Make More Money.

LinkedIn Founder Will Teach us Some Business English: Talk Like a Successful American Entrepreneur!

Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of the company LinkedIn. As the Wall Street Journal discusses in a recent article and interview with him, he's also an investor and/or advisor to many other big tech companies. Now he's searching for the next "breakout idea". What's a breakout idea? One that is a very new idea that will form the basis of a very successful new product, service, or even entire company. Let's look at some of the Wall Street Journal's interview with Reid Hoffman, and we'll see his use of business idioms in action! Expressions we'll discuss are in bold. Today, we'll be exploring three great business expressions. At the end of this post, watch the video of Mr. Hoffman discussing his plans.

WSJ: Why is LinkedIn continuing to experience strong growth in a global recession? How long can the company keep it up?

Mr. Hoffman: In either an up or down economy, business proceeds. That is one of the reasons LinkedIn, in up and down economic circumstances, has continued to have good progress. I've been very pleased with Jeff as a CEO, the executive team has been firing on all cylinders. So far I don't see any negative indicators.

(to) fire on all cylinders - to operate as effectively as possible; to be running very well.

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WSJ: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he wants to reach 1 billion users. Do you have a similar goal for LinkedIn?

Mr. Hoffman: Ultimately the goal is to be the professional network of the world. It isn't just white-collar. It could be an executive assistant or a small-business owner. It is about improving what you are doing. Maybe that is roughly a quarter of the population of the world, and there are 7 billion people in the world

white-collar - office workers (those whose jobs do not typically involve manual labor or the wearing of uniforms - those jobs are called "blue collar"). If you work in a cubicle or nice office and the main way you get your hands dirty is the mustard you get on your hands while you eat your lunch, you are most likely a "white-collar worker" - this is for sure LinkedIn's current main audience, though we know from this interview that Reid Hoffman would like to expand beyond that

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WSJ: You've just written a book, "The Start-up of You." What's the take-away?

Mr. Hoffman: Every individual needs to think about themselves as the entrepreneur of their own life. Do you invest in yourself? How do you establish good plans and strategy? How do you take intelligent risk? How do you adapt to the future? You don't do that, you are at serious risk.

take-away - the point; the thing you are supposed to get from reading something, watching something, or hearing a lecture. This is a very popular term in MBA programs around the world. Business school students read business cases. Then they discuss the "take-aways." Sometimes after a business school lecture, business professors will discuss the take-aways from the lecture as review. This helps for students who were sleeping during the entire lecture -- if they wake up and pay attention at the end of class, they can still get their take-aways.

For more great business expressions, check out Speak Better Business English and Make More Money and Speak Business English Like an American. Also, visit the iPhone and iPad apps Speak Business English I and Speak Business English II on iTunes.

Watch the video of Reid Hoffman discussing LinkedIn and improve your English. Listen for when he says "the need to stay on top of an industry." "Stay on top" is another business idioms - it means be aware of the newest things going on or keep your knowledge fresh. What other interesting things do you hear him say?:

Think Outside the Box Is Not Just a Tired Business Idiom

Have you heard the expression think outside the box? It's a popular American

English business idiom and it means that you should think creatively about something. It also happens to be one of the business idioms I teach in my book "Speak Business English Like an American" (and I note that is now overused so you might not want to use it yourself -- but you will certainly hear it being used).

According to new research covered in a New York Times article "When Truisms are True", it really DOES help your creativity when you think outside the box. Business school professors performed an experiment on 102 students at New York University. They gave them a creative task - the students were told to think of a word that was associated with three other words (example: given the words measure, worm, and video, the students would give the answer tape). Some students were put in a 125-cubic-foot box made of plastic and cardboard to do the task. Others did the task while seated just outside the box. Guess which group performed significantly better? Those sitting OUTSIDE the box. They thought of 20% more creative solutions than the box folks. So thinking outside the box is not just a metaphor -- it can also be taken literally.

What implications does that have for those who work in cubicles? Get out of your box from time to time and do some thinking outside the box!

Two more business idioms proven to have powers by this research team: on the one hand/on the other hand. Are you familiar with this structure? Use it like this: One the one hand, I'd like to take the job in Russia. On the other hand, I'm very comfortable living and working here in the United States." When students were asked to come up with fresh ideas, the students who were told to generate ideas while using both hands (and switching between them) did better. They came up with MORE ideas than those students who only listed there ideas using one hand. Too bad the expressions aren't "On the one finger / on the other finger" - we'd have 8 more appendages to work with in generating creative ideas!

Check out the full New York Times article by clicking here.