Q What conditions are important for people starting new businesses?

Choose
the three most important from this list. Can you think of any others?
low taxes good transport links
skilled staff training courses
low interest rates high unemployment
cheap rents a strong currency
stable economy government grants

J Many economies contain a mix of public- and private-sector businesses.

Think of companies you know in the areas below. Which are public-sector
companies and which are private-sector companies?
post office rail
TV/newspapers water
energy telecoms
cars airlines
M . . d n your
, any c~mpan,es '" the UK have been privatised. What are the tren 5 1
country. Talk about the business sectors in Exercise B.
 Spirit of enterprise
1 Work with a partner. Student A reads text A and Student Breads text B. C
chart below with information from your text .

A blackcircles.com B Dreams
First job of founder ffr U ,1rf...t J
1
1'11 d ~'/'lr,!tft',

Age when he start ed the f lt' "'"L'35.

company

First business premises

Main product

Distribution network

Customer services

Recent developments

2 Ask your partner question s to complete the table for the company you di
read about.

3 Read the other text. Underline the examples of the Present Perfect in bo

blackcircles.com
Don't explain how were
going to make money today.
Tell me how were going to
make it infive years'time.
Amancio Ortega - Founder of
Inditex

How important do you

think it is in business to
look ahead and think
about the future?
Mich el Welch left school at 16 and started work in a garag e as a ca r
tyre fitter. He quickly learnt about the car tyre business and decided
to set up his own mail-order company. He advertised in m ot o rin g
magazines and sold high performance specialist tyres. He knew very
little about running a business, so he took a colleg e cou rse to study
aspects like financial management.

His next st ep was t o g et a job with t he tyre company Kwik-Fit, where he

g ot som e experi ence and w as able to study his futu re competit io n. A fter
a ye ar t he re and still on ly 20, he decided it was t ime to go it alo ne .

We lch set up a company call ed blackcircles.com, w hich allows

customers to order tyres o n the Internet and get t hem fitted w it hin
a day at o ne o f its 1,300 affili ated garages. He st arted in an offi ce
with furn iture fro m a ru b bish ti p . His first p ri o rity was to fi nd re liab le
independent garages t o f it the tyres and at the beg inning he spent a lot
of h is tim e approaching and checking fitters across the country. A fter six
months, he t ook on h is first employee to help and the business began
to grow, despite some problems with his investing partners.

Since those early days, b lackcircles.com has built up a network of over

900 franchises. The company clearly thinks that it is successful partly
because it listens to its customers, and the website encourages t hem
to give feedback on the service by emailing Welch directly. As it says,
'Since 2001 we have supplied and fitted tyres for thousands of satisfied
customers, many of whom have bought tyres from blackcircles.com
again and again.'
After a year of negotiations and discussions, the company's impressive
track record led to the recent launch of tesco-tyres.com, in partnersh ip
with Britain's leading retailer. This joint venture has meant access
to Tesco's massive nationwide customer base - including 13 m illi on
Clubcard holders. As a result of the Tesco Tyres deal, the company has
achieved an estimated annual turnover of around 30 m illion.
When Mike Clare left school at 18 with
a basic business diploma, he started
working in the beds department of a
furniture shop. He became a manager,
but when he was 35, after 12 years
working for someone else, he decided
it was time to start his own business.
He got a small loan, sold his car to raise
some money, and found a small shop,
which was in a bad state but was cheap.
He started the Sofabed Company in 1985
and within two years he had three stores.
After a while he decided to concentrate
on beds because they take up less space
and are easy to store. He also found that
people are less concerned about the look
of a bed than a sofa, so beds are easier
to sell. He then changed the name of the
company to Dreams.
Dreams has built its business on four
main selling points: Choice, Price,
Delivery and Comfort. Distribution has
been the company's biggest challenge
and it now has a fleet of over 100 vans.
Dreams has also given a lot of special
attention to customer service. When a
Dreams driver delivers a bed he puts on
a special pair of slippers to avoid making
a mess. 'The slippers cost us virtually
nothing, but after a delivery it's all the
customers can talk about,' explains Clare.
The company has grown very quickly and
in 2008 opened the 200th store -
doubling its size in just five years. These
days Dreams is still the UK's fastest
growing retailer and it has branched out
into the international market through
franchising. In the last couple of years,
with the increasing importance of social
media in marketing strategies, it has
launched a Dreams YouTube
channel and is on
Facebook.
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