Business English Essential Glossary

Vocabulary flashcards covering all core business terminology, definitions, and concepts presented across the four lecture transcript sources.

Accountability

Being responsible for what is doing and being able to give a sattsftory reason for it.

Accounts

Annual financial statements that businesses are obligated to produce, with stock-exchange-listed companies also required to show half-year profits six months into the financial year.

Administration

Refers to either (1) the organisation and running of a business, or (2) a business going bankrupt where its creditors can get in touch to try and claim any money owed.

Assets

Property that has value owned by a company.

Audit

An official inspection of a company's, or individual's, accounts.

Balance Sheet

A 'snapshot' of a company's assets, liabilities and capital at a particular point in time.

Benchmarking

Checking your company's standards by comparing them with certain criteria, e.g. a competitor's activities.

Bid

To offer to pay a particular price for something.

Bond

An agreement made when money is borrowed from an investor at a set rate of interest, repaid over a set period of time, and rated from the safest (AAA) to the riskiest (D).

Brand

A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. Its legal term is trademark (or trade name if used for the firm as a whole).

Break-Even Point

The point in time when you will have paid back all your debts, or when revenues exactly match expenses.

Business

Specifies the present and/or prospective scope of a strategic business unit's activities in terms of the boundaries of the arena in which the business elects to compete, serving to direct attention to how it meets target customer needs.

Business Cycle

The tendency for economies to experience peaks and troughs following a cyclical pattern known colloquially as 'boom and bust'.

Capital

Money invested into a company or project by its owners.

Cash Flow

The movement of cash into and out of a business.

Commodity

Any item which can be freely bought and sold, such as gold, food products and coffee beans.

Copyright

The exclusive legal right, owned by the individual or group who created a work, or assigned by the originator, to use certain material and to allow others the right to use the material.

Corporate Social Responsibility

A form of self-regulation where companies integrate social, environmental and ethical policies into their overall business strategy.

Creditor

A person or firm that has lent your business money or to whom you owe money.

Debtor

A person or firm that owes money to you or your business.

Deflation

The process of a currency becoming more valuable due to a tight production schedule.

Depreciation

The reduction in value of assets over time, usually due to weak and tear.

Diversification

When new products, services, customers or markets are added to your company's portfolio, usually occurring as a risk reduction strategy.

Dividend

Money paid regularly by a company to its shareholders.

Dumping

The activity of selling products in an export market cheaper than in the home market, or cheaper than they cost to make, usually in order to increase market share.

Earnings

Relates to after tax net income, meaning a company's profit.

Economic Growth

Term used to describe an increase in the amount of goods and services produced by the country, known as gross domestic product (GDP).

Economies of Scale

The cost advantages obtained by a business when buying an item in bulk, where the price of an item usually decreases as the amount bought increases.

Entrepreneur

An individual who creates an enterprise that becomes a new entry to a market.

Entrepreneurship

The process of creating a business enterprise capable of entering new or established markets by deploying resources and people in a unique way to develop a new organization.

Employee

Worker recruited to work by an employer firm or company under a job contract.

Ethical Trade

An umbrella term for any business practices that promote socially and/or environmentally responsible trading.

Export

Selling your goods or services overseas.

Fairtrade

An organised movement enabling producers in developing countries to receive a fair price for the items they produce.

Financial Management

Analysing, monitoring, organising, planning, reviewing and controlling an organisation's monetary resources.

Freelance/Self Employed

A person working for oneself as a free lance or the owner of a business rather than for an employer.

Golden Share

A share in a company that is able to outvote all other shares in a specified circumstance.

Gross

The total amount of money you have earned in a period of time before deductions such as taxes.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The sum of all goods and services produced in the country's economy.

Gross National Product (GNP)

GDP plus the profits, interest and dividends received from residents abroad and minus those profits, interest and dividends paid from the UK to overseas residents.