Lesson 4 BUSINESS PLANNING (600 essential words for the TOEIC)

Lesson 4

BUSINESS PLANNING

(600 essential words for the TOEIC)

Study the following definitions and examples.

1	address n., a formal speech; v., to direct to the attention of
	a	The article praised her address to the steering committee.
	b	Marco’s business plan addresses the needs of small business owners.
2	avoid v., to stay clear of; to keep from happening
	a	To avoid going out of business, owners should prepare a proper business plan
	b	Lloyd’s errors in accounting could have been avoided by a business consultation with his banker.
3	demonstrate v., to show clearly and deliberately; to present by example.
	a	Alban’s business plan demonstrated that he had put a lot of thought into making his dream a reality.
	b	The professor demonstrated through a case study that a business plan can impress a lender.
4	develop v., to expand, progress, or improve
	a	Lily developed her ideas into a business plan by taking a class at the community college.
	b	The restaurant Wand opened ten years ago has developed into a national chain.
5	evaluate v., to determine the value impact of
	a	It’s important to evaluate your competition when making a business plan.
	b	The lenders evaluated our creditability and decided to loan us money.
6	gather v., to accumulate, to conclude.
	a	We gathered information for our plan from many sources.
	b	I gather that interest rates for small businesses will soon change.
7	offer n., a proposal; v., to propose, to present in order to meet a need or satisfy a requirement.
	a	Devon accepted our offer to write the business plan.
	b	Jackie must offer her banker new statistics in order to encourage the bank to lend her money toward her start-up business.
8	primarily adv., first, most importantly.
	a	We are primarily concerned with convincing the board of directors to apply for the second loan.
	b	The developers are thinking primarily of how to enter the South American market.
9	risk n., the chance of loss or damage.
	a	The primary risk for most start-up businesses is insufficient capital.
	b	Expanding into a new market is a big risk.
10	strategy n., a plan of action.
	a	A business plan is a strategy for running a business and avoiding problems.
	b	Let’s develop a strategy for promoting our ice cream parlor.
11	strong adj., powerful, economically or financially sound.
	a	The professor made a strong argument for the value of a good business plan.
	b	Even in a strong economic climate many businesses fall, so do your planning carefully.
12	substitution n., replacement
	a	Your substitution of take names for real ones makes the document seem insincere.
	b	There is no substitution for hard work and perseverance.

WORDS IN CONTEXT

Read the following passage and write the words in the blanks below.

address avoid demonstrate

develop evaluation gathering

offered primary risks

strategy strength substitute

Every business must 1 ____________ a business plan. The business plan’s 2 ____________ purpose is to improve the entrepreneur’s control over the business and to help him 3 ____________ common mistakes. It is not an overstatement to say that a business will fail or succeed on the 4 ____________ of its business plan, so there is no 5 ____________ for a well-prepared plan. The business plan documents the 6 ____________ for growing the business. Think of the business plan as a road map that describes in which direction the company is going, what its goals are, and how it is going to get there. In developing the plan, the entrepreneur will conduct research to determine a systematic and realistic 7 ____________ of the company’s chances for success in the marketplace. In creating the plan, the entrepreneur must research the company’s target market and define its potential. The entrepreneur must be able to prove through research that customers in the market  need the good or service that is 8 ____________ and that a sufficient number of potential customers exists to support the business. A business plan also looks at the 9 ____________ the business faces. Chief among these is competitors. The business plan must analyse the company’s competition by 10 ____________ information on competitors’ market share, product, and strategies. The plan should 11 ____________ what distinguishes the entrepreneur’s products or services from others already in the market. It is also common for businesses to fail because the owner fails to invest or seek sufficient capital to run the business. A good business plan should 12 ____________ the issue as well.

WORD FAMILIES

verb	avoid	It is best to avoid get-rich-quick schemes.
noun	avoidance	Your avoidance of these issues will not make them go away.
adjective	avoided	The avoided question became more important over time.

verb	demonstrate	Let me demonstrate how this computer program works.
noun	demonstration	After the lecture, there was a demonstration of new marketing techniques.
adjective	demonstrative	The densely encoded programming was demonstrative of the computer language of the era.

verb	develop	Our assignment is to develop a cogent business plan.
noun	development	The plan was under development and would not be ready for months.
noun	developer	The job developer was kept busy trying to place the recent college graduates.

verb	evaluate	Please review these articles and evaluate their usefulness for our plan.
noun	evaluation	Yoko feared the professor’s evaluation of her business plan.
noun	evaluator	The independent evaluator reviewed our business plan and gave us good feedback.

verb	strategize	Instead of going into a panic, let’s strategize the best way to meet the deadline.
noun	strategy	The business plan lays out a strategy for future growth.
adjective	strategic	The handout outlined the strategic points to cover in a business plan.

verb	substitution	The substitution of gasses is not so easy in this experiment.
noun	substitute	Don’t try to substitute intuition for good planning.
adjective	substituted	Customers complain whenever the substituted product is of lesser value, even though we don’t change them for it.