Business vocabulary 112

Business people

a businessman or a businesswoman
a person who works in their own business or is a manager in a company or organisation She's a very successful businesswomen who runs her own company.

...He was a successful businessman before becoming a writer.

an entrepreneur: (noun)a person who starts his or her own business. "someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves risks"

...He's a real entrepreneur. As soon as he's set up one business successfully, he's looking for his next challenge.
...He was one of the entrepreneurs of the eighties who made their money in property.
...She'll make money - she's got that entrepreneurial spirit
...He's an entrepreneur who made his money in computer software


a self-made man or a self-made woman:
a person who is rich and successful because of his or her own work."rich and successful as a result of your own work and not because of family wealth":

...He came from quite a poor background. But he's a self-made man and is now incredibly wealthy.
...a self-made man/millionaire

a magnate, a mogul, a tycoon or a baron:
a person who is in charge of a big business or who owns a lot of businesses. Here are some of the industries and business which collocate (go with) with these words:

...a movie/media/industry mogul (an important person who has great wealth or power)
...a business/property/shipping tycoon
...a press/media/drugs baron (an extremely powerful person in a particular area of business:)
...a real estate/media magnate
...a well-known shipping magnate (a person who is very rich and successful in business or industry)
...movie/media/industry moguls

self-employed: (noun)
work for yourself, not for someone else

...She hated working for her last boss so she decided to start her own business and loves being self-employed now.
...a self-employed builder
...Do you pay less tax if you're self-employed?
...They run an advice centre for the self-employed.(plural noun)
...self-employment (noun)

Business places

an office:
a room or part of a building in which people work, especially sitting at tables with computers, telephones, etc.

He doesn't like working in an office all day. He'd rather be out and about meeting people.

an open-plan office:
an office which has few or no walls inside, so it is not divided into smaller rooms. An office where a lot of people all work together. "describes a room or building which has few or no walls inside, so it is not divided into smaller rooms"

...We work in a huge open-plan office so it's difficult to have any privacy.

head quarters (HQ):
the main offices of an organization or a business."the main offices of an organization such as the army, police or a business company"

...Microsoft's HQ is in Washington in the USA.
...The company's headquarters is/are in Amsterdam.
...We've just received instructions from HQ.

Types of work and ways of working

a full-time job: work that you do for the whole of the normal working week.

...She's got two kids but still manages to hold down a full-time job
...Most children in the UK remain in full-time education until they are at least 16 years old.
...She went back to work full-time when her youngest child went to school.
...Keeping a garden tidy is a full-time job [an activity which uses a lot of your time]

a part-time job:
work that you do for only part of the normal working week

...He has a part-time job in a shop and spends the other two days a week working on his art projects.
...part-timer

a permanent job:
work that doesn't finish after a fixed period of time.

...She was lucky to get a permanent job in teaching. Now she has a job for life, if she wants.


a temporary job or a fixed-term contract:
work that finishes after a fixed period of time.

...I've got a temporary job for 4 weeks with the Post Office over the busy Christmas period.
...The ceasefire will only provide a temporary solution to the crisis.
...temporary staff

flexible working or flexi-working:
when you are allowed to choose what time you start and finish your work and how many hours you do each day (as long as you do the required numbers of hours in a week)

...They let me do flexi-working so I can come in late some mornings and just work a bit later in the afternoon. It's really handy when I have to drop the kids off at school.
...My schedule is quite flexible - I could arrange to meet with you any day next week.
...The advantage of this system is its flexibility.(noun)

Vocabulary

retiring :
stopping work because you are a certain age (65 years old in Britain, for example

...The match ended in disappointment for the retiring captain, Viv Richards

heading off to the sun :
going to a country with a warm climate

...What time are you heading off? (to start a journey or leave a place)
...I tried to head the dog off by running towards it.[to force someone or something to change direction]

to take over the reins
to take responsibility for, or control of, something from someone else. "to begin controlling an organization or a country"

...She offered good advice to the new Speaker as he took over the reins of leadership in the House of Representatives.