Getting to grips with the language of business and making sure you sound the part is one way to get on the ladder of success in terms of helping to make acquaintances and contacts recognise your potential. Being able to hold one’s own in a group conversation helps the others in the group to think you are serious about the subject of business and making money. Particular phrases crop up more often than others for a period covering certain world events that affect the financial markets. It depends on the commentator too, and which radio station. If I want to know what’s happening in the world, I turn to the BBC and in that amazing world of broadcasting, they offer financial information, business ideas, farming programmes, weather related issues. Just about every scenario is played out in some way or other. There are many programmes on the serious Radio 4 which is all news, financial affairs, world documentaries and everything in-between. The presenters often have some form of law or fiscal background if they are on the consumer and lifestyle investigative end of things. Then there are properly geared up programmes that concentrate on money issues in all their ramifications. Knowing the lingo is a sure-fire way to get in with the boys!
Let’s look at SME for example. This means Small or Medium sized enterprise and for any business to be classed as that means they will have met 2 out of 3 of these criteria: they have a turnover of less than £25m; they employ below the 250 employee marker and has gross assets totalling below £12.5m. The Turnover being the total amount of sales that a company or business achieves in a specified period One phrase that seems to throw the unfamiliar is Gross – this is simply the total sums of money a company has earned during a set period of time before any deductions i.e. taxes, insurances etc. Whereas Net is the absolute opposite i.e. it is the amount of profit left after all the deductions for taxes, insurances etc have been made. Negative equity is one of those phrases we usually associate with mortgage payments. When there are particularly poor trading conditions there can be sever slumps in the housing market which means houses lose value and if they drop below the value of the mortgage amount taken out, this then become negative equity. It’s the same for other businesses, i.e. the value of any asset that becomes lower than the price initially paid for it.
