New Business English Book Teaches Expressions You Need for Career Success

Language Success Press announces the release of Speak Better Business English and make More Money. This new book and audio CD helps non-native speakers master the expressions most often used in today's workplace. Expressions and words such as scuttlebut, golden opportunity, iron out, on the fence and 400 others are featured in this new system.

The title is written by Amy Gillett, author of the bestselling Speak English Like an American series (Speak English Like an American, More Speak English Like an American, and Speak Business English Like an American) also available from Language Success Press. Speak Better Business English and make More Money features a new set of over 400 important business expressions.

Americans don’t speak the kind of English you’ll find in textbooks or hear in most classrooms. They speak business lingo — a collection of expressions and idioms that cover marketing, finance, accounting, HR issues, strategy and other business topics. Now you can equip yourself with this powerful lingo too.

This book gets down to brass tacks so you can talk American business English with a whole new level of confidence. This book opens doors. If you seek a better job, more pay, faster promotions, and better client or customer relationships, this book is for you. Chapters include everyday conversations on topics like asking for a promotion, discussing legal issues, increasing consumer demand, and growing your business.

As Gillett explains in the book's introduction, mastery of American English can result in a bigger paycheck. Studies show that foreign-born workers in the USA who speak very good English make more money on average than those who do not — from 5 to 15 percent more.

The book comes with an audio CD featuring the voices of six native speakers. The CD will help you remember the expressions and will facilitate better American pronunciation.

Speak Better Business English and Make More Money retails for $29.95. For a limited time, the book and CD will be available for $24.95 through the Language Success Press website.

To view sample chapters of the book, click here.

Bonuses Twice a Year!

An exciting new trend is out there, according to the Wall Street Journal: companies paying bonuses semi-annually (that's twice a year). The Journal reports today that this practice is "gaining traction". That means it's become more and more popular. In an era of shrinking bonuses, surely this is something we should all encourage management to consider.

Here are two extracts from the Wall Street Journal article by Joann Lublin with the news that some industries are fattening their employees wallets twice a year, business expressions to be reviewed are in blue:

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More bosses are getting two bites at their bonus apples. A growing number of U.S. companies, mainly in the retail and high-tech industries, are replacing their annual incentive structure with bonuses earned twice a year. In addition to boosting morale at a time of salary freezes and pay cuts, semiannual bonuses help companies retain key players by dangling the carrot of two targets a year, while giving boards a chance to raise those goals quickly if economic conditions improve."

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[While many large companies, including Home Depot and Xerox have started paying bonuses two times a year, the practice has its opponents. The Wall Street Journal article includes this quote from the U.S. "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg]:

Rewarding managers for brief bursts of performance strikes certain compensation critics as a bad idea. "Earning a bonus every six months is an awful short-term vindication of worth," says Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. pay czar. People will "cut corners to get the quick fix," he warns.

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So, while some people will be getting rich off bonuses two times a year, we'll be enriching our business vocabulary! Let's review the key business vocabulary:

incentive structure - how people are paid for their work (including salary, bonuses, benefits). Given the right incentive structure, people will be more productive.

(to) boost morale - morale is the general mood in an office. Boost means to lift. So when you boost morale, you improve the mood in the office (you make workers happy!). Things that boost morale are called morale boosters. Bonuses are certainly one morale booster. A company trip to a fun location could be another.

salary freeze - when companies stop giving raises. Your pay gets stuck at a  certain level. This helps companies cut costs (but doesn't do much for morale -- see above!)

key players - the most important people in an organization. The kind of person YOU want to be. The opposite of the poor slob who gets canned (fired) at the first sign of trouble.

(to) dangle the carrot - to offer as an incentive, or something that motivates. "Dangle" means to hold something in front of someone, while "carrot" is a promise of a reward. This comes from the complete phrase "carrot and the stick." The stick, of course, is something that punishes (the opposite of the carrot).

U.S. pay czar - this person works for the U.S. government and advises on salaries. When U.S. companies received government funds as part of their rescue packages, the U.S. pay czar had the authority to determine pay levels of senior executives at these companies. The U.S. government has other czars too - including an energy czar, a drug czar, and a war czar. I wonder what Nicholas and Alexander would think of all of capitalism's Czar talk!

(to) cut corners - to save effort by finding easier ways to do things (or to save costs by finding cheaper ways to do things). Generally this is not a good thing to be accused of!

(to) get the quick fix - to get a reward quickly (to do activities and take measures that will earn one the reward, but those measures may not deliver results into the future). This expression can also mean a solution that's put together quickly and only solves the problem temporarily.

This iPhone Story Has Some Great Business Idioms!

It looks like iPhones are creating lots of opportunities for small businesses. It is also creating an opportunity for us to review some great business English expressions. And speaking of using phones to learn English, has anybody out there found any useful apps (applications) for learning English through their mobile phone or smartphone? If so, please post a comment!

The following is the beginning of an article from a Wall Street Journal article entitled "Seeking Fame in Apple's Sea of Apps." Phrases to be discussed are in blue. Reminder to check out the bestselling book & audio CD set "Speak Business English Like an American" for more useful business English expressions.

Apple Inc.'s App Store has spawned a cottage industry of software developers trying to profit from games and other applications that people can download onto their iPhones.

But with more than 65,000 free and paid applications in the online store, success has hinged on an app's ability to stand out. So developers are increasingly coming up with various strategies to make a splash, employing everything from temporary discounts to guerilla marketing tactics.

cottage industry - a small-scale industry; a market in which the competitors are individual or very small companies and often operation out of their homes (hence the "cottage")

profit from - make money from

hinged on - depended on

stand out - rise above or grab more attention than the competition

make a splash - become an immediate success; make a big impact

guerilla marketing - marketing tactics that do not require much money but do require time and imagination; unconventional or unusual ways to market a product or service (often used by small companies because they cannot afford large advertising budgets)

Start-up Success - a Great Source of American English Expressions!

At least some part of the American economy is improving! Once again, we are hearing of small technology companies - or "start-ups" becoming successful. It is not quite the "dot-com boom" of the late 90's, but perhaps we'll get there. At the very least, this should inspire a few of the thousands if young Americans sitting around this summer complaining that they can't get a job (or working at something beneath them).

By the way, if you're spending part of your summer trying to do something productive - such as improving your business English sign up as a follower of this blog so that you get notice whenever there's a new posting. Feel free to post a comment too if you see an interesting business idiom or expression you'd like to discuss.

The following is from an article in the New York Times entitled "We Rent Movies, So Why Not Textbooks?" by Miguel Helft. The phrases we'll be studying are in blue.

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Success in Silicon Valley often emerges through trial and error. Willingness to buck popular trends can help, too. Just ask Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra, the co-founders of Chegg.com, a company that rents textbooks to college students.

When the two entrepreneurs started Chegg, then called CheggPost, in 2003, they envisioned a sort of Craigslist for college campuses, a network of university-based Web sites where students would buy and sell everything from used mattresses to textbooks. Like most Internet start-ups of that time, the plan was to make money from advertising.

It didn’t turn out that way. CheggPost gained some traction on a handful of campuses but didn’t take off. Still, the experience offered a few valuable lessons...

...So, in 2007, Mr. Rashid and Mr. Phumbhra went back to the drawing board and came up with the idea of renting books.
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Vocabulary:

trial and error - the process of trying something again and again until you succeed. You don't know exactly what you're doing when you get started, but you figure it out in the process.

(to) buck popular trends - to go against the trend (what everybody else is doing); to do things differently than what everybody else is doing

(to) gain traction - to become popular

(to) take off - to start selling well; to gain in popularity

(to) go back to the drawing board - to start again because the last attempt(s) failed

Learn Some Useful English through the Swine Flu News!

Just when you thought the financial crisis may be under control and the world was setting down again...swine flu mania has struck! Instead of sitting and worrying about it, take action. Practice your English with this swine flu news:

Here is part of an article from the Wall Street Journal. Words and expressions to be discussed are in blue:

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As fears of swine flu spread, companies ranging from soap and hand-sanitizer manufacturers to makers of designer face masks are ramping up their marketing efforts, mostly pitching prevention messages starring their products.

Dial...is stepping up its advertising for Dial Complete foaming hand wash, rapidly assembling a push that includes national print and online ads and in-store displays...Johnson & Johnson, which makes Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer, is updating its Purell.com Web site and evaluating how best to offer hygiene information to the public. Lysol...is increasing production of its disinfectant spray to meet an uptick in demand and mounting a public-relations push to educate consumers about protecting their families from germs. HandClens, an upstart hand sanitizer made by Woodward Laboratories...says it is more than doubling its ad budget and promotional efforts and distributing its "ABC: Always Be Clean" hand-hygiene teaching program to school districts across the country....

But the marketers have to walk a fine line as they hawk their products during a public-health emergency.
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Vocabulary:

(to) ramp up one's (marketing) efforts - to increase an activity; when a company ramps up their marketing efforts, they are going to be spending more money on various promotional and advertising campaigns

(to) step up - to increase; to start focusing on something

uptick in demand - an increase in demand; what every company wants to see in order to sell more products and make more money!

upstart - a new company; a company that was recently started; sometimes called a "start-up," especially when it deals in technology

(to) walk a fine line - to act with sensitivity; to act according to how delicate the situation is -- in the case of this swine flu virus, companies don't want to appear to be piggish(!) in their desire to benefit from the problem by selling more cleaning products that people need to prevent illness

(to) hawk one's products - to sell a product (usually in a pushy way); the verb "hawk" here suggests that the selling is not 100% in good taste. In other words, the company is aggressively pushing a product to make some quick money

Business English - Talking about Sports & Advertising

Well here we are in December and the economic picture hasn't gotten any prettier! Time to talk more about the language of spending, saving, and cost cutting. If there is one thing big American companies love to spend money on, it's buying advertisements in the Super Bowl - the big football game that takes place every winter (this year the 43rd annual game will take place on February 1). Why do companies love to advertise during the Super Bowl game? Because millions of people watch the game and because the commercials end up getting tons of analysis and attention -- shown afterwards by other TV shows, posted on the Internet, and discussed in newspapers. Also, companies advertise on the Super Bowl to show that they're in a good financial position (they can afford to spend big money on the ad).

But this year -- the year of our great millenial Depression -- demand for Super Bowl ads is lower than usual. Surprise! Here's the start of a November 11 article in the Wall Street Journal, with the business expressions we'll focus on highlighed in blue:

With advertising rates for the Super Bowl running as high as $3 million for a 30-second spot, some marketers are wondering whether during these tough economic times they can afford the big game.

FedEx, a loyal Super Bowl advertiser, still hasn't decided if it will buy in. FedEx is concerned that shelling out big bucks -- at a time when it's "asking employees to do more with less" -- will look "wrong," says a person close to the company.

"Companies have to be mindful that jumping into the game can open them up to criticism," this person says.

The Memphis, Tenn., package-delivery giant is holding out to see if it can get a bargain.

FedEx's hesitation is raising eyebrows on Madison Avenue because it has advertised in 12 of the past National Football League championship games.

Vocabulary:

30-second spot - a 30-second commercial. Typically commercials are either 15 seconds or 30 seconds in length.

shelling out - to pay a lot of money for something; to pay more than you would like for something

big bucks - a lot of money

(to) hold out for - to wait to buy something to see if one can get a lower price

raising eyebrows - creating alarm; stirring fears, worry or suspicion

Madison Avenue - where New York's major advertising agencies are located - so "Madison Avenue" is now often used to refer to the advertising industry in general

Business English in Today's Advertising World

If there's one thing English-speaking market folks love to talk about, it's cutting through the clutter. What exactly does this mean? It means: finding a way to get one's message through to the customer. The "clutter" refers to all the other stuff out there that gets in your way. In other words, just as you're trying to reach your potential customer with YOUR very important message, there are thousands of others out there also trying to talk to your customer. Their advertisments and their marketing messages are creating this "clutter."

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled "Notice me: Cutting Through the Marketing Clutter." Let's take a look at the first paragraph, with a focus on the business expressions in blue:

Even as customers are constantly bombarded with advertising messages, they are getting progressively better at tuning out the endless stream of come-ons. Companies then typically up the ante and try to out-shout their competitors to draw attention. All of which just leads to more shouting, and everybody is drowned out.

Vocabulary:

bombarded - like many business English terms, this one comes to us from the military. In war, bombarding a town means destroying it by firing heavily on it. Here, the expression means firing lots of advertisements at customers (advertising heavily to them). Just as today's consumer is bombarded by advertisements, he or she is also bombarded by SPAM, or unwanted emails.

to tune out - to ignore; to stop listening to

come-ons - offers, often misleading ones (the kind that promise you a free trip somewhere sunny or a free iPOD for doing just one little thing...).

up the ante - to do more than before; to take further action to try to achieve something; to do more than one's competitors

out-shout - to get your message across by advertising more aggressively - literally, to speak louder than one's competitors. This is a fun expression because it rhymes.

drowned out - not being heard because too many people (or companies) are talking at the same time. This is what happens when everybody is yelling at the same time - or when all companies are barking at you that you must buy their product. At some point, all the messages just become a lot of noise!