Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,088, Selling a Business.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,088.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to our website at eslpod.com.
Take a look at our ESL podcast store with additional courses in business and daily English courses you can download immediately, right in the comfort of your own home.
In this episode, we have a dialogue between Andy and Robin about selling a business.
Let's get started.
I can't believe you're really selling up.
Business has been slow for three years running and I can't count on things to pick up any time soon.
I'm selling this business now before it's completely worthless.
You should get a good price with all that equipment and inventory.
I'm hoping that my valuation is in line with what buyers want to pay.
I plan to sweeten the pot by offering my consulting services as part of the deal.
I'll introduce the new owners to my suppliers and clients, go over the books with them and help them set up daily operations.
That should give them a jump start.
With all that knowledge you could start a new business on the other side of town and hope that business is better there.
I guess.
What are you going to do now?
I'm not sure yet.
With the proceeds of the sale, I might try my hand at something entirely different.
How different?
I always wanted to own an ice cream shop.
An ice cream shop in Alaska?
You might want to rethink that business plan.
Andy begins our dialogue by saying to Robin, I can't believe you're really selling up.
To sell up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to sell most of what you own with the plan of moving to another city or another place.
Usually, we use this phrasal verb in talking about a business that is selling its assets, what it owns, in order to move to a new place, or perhaps simply to go out of business.
And he says, I thought you'd stick it out for another year.
The expression to stick S-T-I-C-K it out O-U-T means to continue doing something even though it is very difficult, even though there are a lot of challenges and problems.
To stick it out means to persist, to continue working on something or doing something, even when it is difficult.
Robin says, business has been slow for three years running.
When we say business has been slow, we mean that we haven't been making very much money.
The business is not doing very well.
Now, oddly enough, if a business is doing well, we don't say business has been running fast.
We only say business has been running slow if the business has been unsuccessful.
If a business is successful, we'd probably say something like it's been going great.
Robin says that business has been slow for three years running, meaning three years in a row consecutively, one after the other.
She says, I can't count on things to pick up anytime soon.
To count on something means to depend on something, to rely on something.
To pick up here as a phrasal verb means to increase in speed or pace.
In this case, it means to be making more money.
If business is picking up, you're getting more business.
Robin says I'm selling this business now before it's completely worthless.
If something is worthless, W-O-R-T-H-L-E-S-S, it means it has no value.
It is not worth any money.
Andy says you should get a good price with all that equipment and inventory.
Andy says Robin should get a good price, meaning that she'll get a lot of money for her business.
She has equipment and inventory.
I-N-V-E-N-T-O-R-Y.
Inventory refers to all of the things, the goods, the products that a company has made or owns but hasn't sold yet.
So if you sell I don't know t-shirts and you have a hundred t-shirts in your house that you are selling, let's say online,
Your inventory of t-shirts is 100.
You have 100 t-shirts in your inventory.
Usually we use the word inventory only for physical products, not for services or digital products like downloads, for example.
Robin says, I'm hoping that my valuation is is in line with what buyers want to pay.
The valuation, V-A-L-U-A-T-I-O-N, of something is how much something is worth.
If you are going to sell your business, usually you have to have someone evaluate it, tell you how much it is worth.
That would give you a valuation.
The expression in line L-I-N-E with means similar to or in accordance with, not significantly different than.
It's used when we're comparing two different concepts.
In this case, we're comparing the valuation what Robin thinks or what an expert thinks her business is worth.
I plan to sweeten the pot by offering my consulting services as part of the deal.
To sweeten S-W-E-E-T-E-N.
The pot P-O-T means to make something more attractive to buyers, especially by adding something free.
So, for example, when you go to buy a new car, The salesman or saleswoman might say well, if you buy the car today, I'll give you the air conditioning system for free, or I'll give you a new CD player.
The salesperson is trying to sweeten the pot, trying to make the deal more enticing, more interesting to you, so that you will go ahead and buy it.
Robin wants to sweeten the pot in selling her business by offering her consulting services.
Consulting C-O-N-S-U-L-T-I-N-G here means giving advice, giving help to someone, especially another business.
When you have a consultant, a person who consults, That person gives you help or advice with your business.
Robin says I'll introduce the new owners to my suppliers and clients.
Go over the books with them and help them set up daily operations.
A business's suppliers.
S-U-P-P-L-I-E-R-S are the suppliers, companies and people that the business buys things from.
So if you're a restaurant, your suppliers would include people who sell you food that you then prepare to sell in your restaurant.
To go over the books B-O-O-K-S means to review the accounting records and financial statements for a business.
The books refers to the accounting system or accounting information that used to be kept in a single book.
Nowadays, of course, it's in a computer program for most businesses.
Robin is going to introduce the new owners to her suppliers and clients, that is, customers.
Go over the books with them and help them set up or establish daily operations.
Andy says that should give them a jump start.
A jump start is an early beginning, an opportunity to start something more quickly than you might otherwise be able to do.
Andy says, with all that knowledge you could start a new business on the other side of town and hope that business is better there.
But Robin says, I couldn't do that.
Meaning she couldn't start up a similar business in another part of the same city.
She says, the sales contract, the agreement to sell the business, has a non-compete clause.
A clause C-L-A-U-S-E in a contract is a section or part of a contract or agreement that To compete C-O-M-P-E-T-E means to go up against someone for the same clients or the same customers.
If you have a non-compete clause, that's an agreement where you say you will not start a similar business or try to take business away from the person you are selling your business to.
So if I own a donut shop and I sell the donut shop to someone with a non-compete clause in the contract, I am agreeing not to open up another donut shop a mile away.
That would then take business away from the original donut shop.
That's making me hungry talking about donuts, frankly.
Robin says that's only fair, meaning that would be the fair and just way to do it.
Andy says, I guess, meaning, okay, I agree.
What are you going to do now?
Robin says, I'm not sure yet.
With the proceeds of the sale, I might try my hand at something entirely different.
The proceeds, P-R-O-C-E-E-D-S, of a sale are the profits.
The money that you get from selling something.
If you sell your car for $1,000, the proceeds of the sale are $1,000.
To try your hand H-A-N-D at something means to attempt to do something for the first time, not knowing whether you will be successful or not.
If you have never played tennis and you say I'm going to try my hand at tennis, you mean you are going to play tennis for the first time.
Robin wants to try her hand at something entirely or completely different.
Andy says, how different?
Robin says, I've always wanted to own an ice cream shop.
That is a store that sells ice cream.
And he says, an ice cream shop in Alaska?
You might want to rethink that business plan.
So we learned that Robin is going to be living in Alaska, which of course is a very cold state in the United States.
And it's not a place where you would expect a lot of people to be wanting to buy ice cream, since ice cream is usually more popular in hot places.
That's why Andy says he thinks that Robin should rethink, or think about again, Her business plan.
Your business plan is your written document including the plans that you have for starting a new business or opening a new business.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I can't believe you're really selling up.
Business has been slow for three years running, and I can't count on things to pick up anytime soon.
I'm selling this business now before it's completely worthless.
You should get a good price with all that equipment and inventory.
I'm hoping that my valuation is in line with what buyers want to pay.
I plan to sweeten the pot by offering my consulting services as part of the deal.
I'll introduce the new owners to my suppliers and clients, go over the books with them and help them set up daily operations.
That should give them a jump start.
With all that knowledge you could start a new business on the other side of town and hope that business is better there.
I couldn't do that.
The sales contract has a non-compete clause.
That's only fair.
I guess.
What are you going to do now?
I'm not sure yet.
With the proceeds of the sale, I might try my hand at something entirely different.
How different?
I've always wanted to own an ice cream shop.
An ice cream shop in Alaska?
You might want to rethink that business plan.
Our dialogues written by our wonderful script writer are the opposite of worthless.
They're very valuable in helping you improve your English.
So thank you to our script writer, 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 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
