Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 920, Leasing Business Equipment.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 920.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, become a member of ESL Podcast, and download a learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue about renting or paying to use temporarily equipment for your business.
Let's get started.
We need to keep pace with changing technology, but how are we going to raise capital to upgrade our equipment?
I'm not sure.
Maybe we can find a supplier who will extend credit to us.
We can pay in installments.
That'll be hard to do.
I know what my brother did when his company needed new equipment.
What?
Leasing equipment?
I've never considered it.
I don't want to end up paying more for the equipment over time than it's worth and still not own the equipment at the end of the contract.
The flip side is that you won't be settled with outdated equipment that's hard to offload.
My brother says that there are other advantages to leasing.
You can have the maintenance included in your contract, so you won't have to worry about high repair bills.
Okay.
And my brother also told me that he was able to negotiate a purchase option.
You can do the same if you really want to own the equipment.
Your brother really seems to know what he's talking about.
Why isn't he working for me?
You have someone even better.
You have an employee who listens and steals the competitor's good ideas.
Olena begins by saying to Joel, We need to keep pace with changing technology.
To keep pace P-A-C-E with something means to do as well as this other thing is doing, or to move as quickly as
Or we might use another phrasal verb to keep up with something else.
In this case, Alina is talking about keeping pace with changing technology.
The idea here is that as technology changes, so we too must change.
We have to adapt to this new technology.
Alina says, how are we going to raise capital to upgrade our equipment?
To raise capital, C-A-P-I-T-A-L, means to get money to do something for a business.
When you want to start a large new project, you might need to raise capital.
You might need to go to a bank or to investors and have them give you money so that you can do this new project.
You can also raise capital for other things that are not part of a business, but the idea is that it's for a large project.
Alina wants to raise capital to upgrade their equipment.
To upgrade U-P-G-R-A-D-E means to get a newer version of something.
We can talk about upgrading our software on our computers.
We get the latest version, the newest version, and there's always a newer version, right?
Equipment refers to machines that we use for a particular purpose.
It's a very general term.
It could refer to a computer.
It might also refer in sports, for example, to a ball or a hockey stick.
That's sporting equipment.
Here we're talking about business equipment, things you would use in your business.
It might be a computer.
It might be a fax machine.
It might be some machine that makes something.
Joel says, I'm not sure.
I'm not sure how we're going to raise capital.
Maybe we can find a supplier who will extend credit to us.
A supplier.
S-U-P-P-L-I-E-R is a company that sells to other companies, sells typically equipment to other companies.
To extend E-X-T-E-N-D credit means to allow someone to get something they're buying from you before they give you any money.
If you're buying a car from me, I might say okay, here's the car and pay me back in the next two months.
I'm extending credit to you.
I'm saying you can use this and pay me later.
That's what Joel wants to do to get this new business equipment.
He says we can pay in installments.
To pay in installments is to pay a little bit over a long period of time.
So if you owe someone $10,000, you may pay them $1,000 a month for 10 months.
That would be paying in installments. course, that would be without interest.
You might have to pay more with interest.
Olena says, that'll be hard to do.
That will be difficult.
No one wants to extend credit these days.
These days means nowadays or currently in this time period that we're in now.
Joel says, I know what my brother did when his company needed new equipment.
Alina says, what?
What did your brother do?
Joel says, he leased it instead of buying it.
To lease L-E-A-S-E means to use something for a short period of time and pay someone to use it for that period of time.
When that period of time is over it might be a month, it might be a year, it might be five years then you have to give whatever you are leasing back.
You have to give whatever you were using back to the person who you got it from and who you were paying.
Lease is very similar to another word, rent.
We can talk about leasing or renting.
We often use the two words interchangeably, one for the other.
When we're talking about equipment however, especially in a business situation, we would probably use the word lease.
Rent might be used for, for example, renting a car or...
Renting a house, although you can also lease a house, just depends on the situation.
In this case, though, lease is probably more common for business purposes.
Lena says, leasing equipment, I never considered it.
I never thought about it.
I don't want to end up paying more for the equipment over time than it's worth.
To end up is a two word phrasal verb that's very common in English.
It means to have to do something at the end of a certain period of time or to be in a certain kind of situation at some point in the future.
For example...
I don't want to end up having to pay a lot of money for a house, so I'm going to buy it right now, before the prices go up.
In the dialogue.
Olena does not want to end up paying more for the equipment that she's leasing than she would if she bought the equipment.
To end up here then, means to be in the situation where, in this case, she had to pay more money for the equipment than it's worth, than you could buy it for.
She said she doesn't want to do that and still not own the equipment at the end of the contract.
A contract is just a legal, usually written agreement between two people or two companies.
Remember, when you lease something, you have to give it back to the person from whom you were leasing it.
And Olena is worried that they'll be paying more for the piece of equipment that they're leasing than it's worth.
They could just buy it rather than lease it.
But Joel says the flip side is that you won't be saddled with outdated equipment that's hard to offload.
The flip side is the other side of something, the other aspect of something.
Literally we talk about the flip side of a coin, a small piece of metal money that To flip a coin means to put it on your fingers and use your thumb, typically to make it go around in circles.
The flip side of something is the other side of something.
Joel is saying that the other side of this situation, the situation of leasing, is that you won't be saddled with outdated equipment.
To be saddled, S-A-D-D-L-E-D, means to have to do something that is difficult.
We might also use the expression to be burdened with something.
Joel is saying that you won't have this problem, and the problem you won't have is having outdated equipment.
Something that is outdated is something that is very old, something that is no longer used.
If you have an old RadioShack TRS-80 computer, that is very outdated.
That was my first computer back then. many, many years ago.
Joel says, you won't have this outdated equipment that will be hard or difficult to offload.
To offload means to get rid of something that you no longer want.
Joel says, my brother says that there are other advantages, other positive things to leasing.
You can have the maintenance included in your contract, so you won't have to worry about high repair bills.
Maintenance refers to taking care of a piece of equipment so that it continues to work properly.
Olena says, I don't know.
Joel says, and my brother also told me that he was able to negotiate a purchase option.
A purchase option is when you lease something but if you decide to buy it, the owner will use some of the money you paid to lease it as part of the purchase option price, as part of what he'll accept as payment for the item.
So if you lease to own, which is the common expression in this situation, you are paying money now to use it.
And then if you decide to buy it, to purchase it, you have that option.
You have that choice in the future.
Joel is telling Alina that she will have that choice if she wants to in the future.
He says you can do the same, the same thing, if you really want to own the equipment.
Alina says your brother really seems to know what he's talking about.
Why isn't he working for me?
Joel says you have someone even better.
You have an employee who listens and steals the competitor's good ideas.
Olena is sort of joking here.
She's saying, well, why doesn't your brother work for me if he's so smart?
And Joel says, well, you have something better here.
You have someone, meaning Joel... who listens and steals or takes the competitor's good ideas.
Your competitor, C-O-M-P-E-T-I-T-O-R, is a business that sells the same kind of thing that you sell.
A competitor can also be someone who With whom you are playing a game and you're trying to defeat.
You're trying to win over the other person.
You're trying to win the game instead of them.
That's also your competitor.
What Joel is really saying then is that.
Olena doesn't have to have Joel's brother working for her, because Joel is going to take all of his brother's good ideas and give them to Olena anyway.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
We need to keep pace with changing technology, but how are we going to raise capital to upgrade our equipment?
I'm not sure.
Maybe we can find a supplier who will extend credit to us.
We can pay in installments.
That'll be hard to do.
No one wants to extend credit these days.
I know what my brother did when his company needed new equipment.
What?
He leased it instead of buying it.
Leasing equipment?
I've never considered it.
I don't want to end up paying more for the equipment over time than it's worth and still not own the equipment at the end of the contract.
The flip side is that you won't be saddled with outdated equipment that's hard to offload.
My brother says that there are other advantages to leasing You can have the maintenance included in your contract, so you won't have to worry about high repair bills.
I don't know, And my brother also told me that he was able to negotiate a purchase option.
You can do the same if you really want to own the equipment.
You have someone even better.
You have an employee who listens and steals the competitor's good ideas.
There's nothing outdated about our dialogues here on ESL Podcast.
That's because they're written by the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
