35 Terms To Enhance Your Business English Vocabulary

12/2/2020 35 Terms to Enhance Your Business English Vocabulary
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35 Terms to Enhance Your Business English

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Articles
13 Sep 2014
If you’re learning English in order to better your job prospects, the chances are
that at some point you’re going to need to understand and employ a more
specialised vocabulary.
Working in a business environment will expose you to a raft of new words that don’t tend to
be covered by standard English as a Foreign Language courses. In this introductory guide,
we explain some of the words and

phrases you can expect to hear in an of ce, including both 14 Common Grammatical Mistakes
of cial terms and the so-called “of ce jargon” that has in English (/articles/15-common-
crept into use in the 21st century workplace. grammar-gripes-avoid.html) 11 Top Translation
Tips for EFL Learners (/articles/english-
Basic business terms translation-tips-e .html)

Let’s start by looking at a few very basic business terms that you might hear or need to use
when you gain full- time employment (or even set up a business of your own).
(/tag/e )
1. Business plan
A business plan is, as the name suggests, a document used to outline plans for a business,
setting out growth goals for the next three to ve years, and identifying information needed to
achieve those goals, such as target market, unique selling points, marketing goals, and so
on. It might also outline strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (also known by
the abbreviation “SWOT”). Business plans are essential for those setting up or developing a
business, and will be needed in order to secure funding from banks, the Government or
investors.
2. Balance sheet
A balance sheet details the company accounts at a certain point in time (often the end of
the nancial year). It lists the values of the company’s assets (things belonging to it),
liabilities (what it owes) and ownership equity (what’s left after liabilities). It’s intended to
provide a snapshot of how the company is doing nancially, which can then be compared
with goals outlined in the business plan.
3. Start-up
The term “start-up” is used to describe a brand new business, typically in its rst few months
or years of trading. The term has connotations of entrepreneurship, and the implication is
often that the company will grow signi cantly in size. It’s often associated with the tech
industry, because the term was used extensively during the Start-ups 
dot com are boom, typically but thought it can apply of as to forward-thinking,
any new business.
often with a relaxed atmosphere in unconventional
Business plans don’t always go idea –> ???? –> pro t.
of ces. Because start-ups are in their infancy, they have
Start-ups can offer a more relaxed working a small number of employees and often no strict
environment. hierarchy, making them attractive places to work.
4. Forecast
Just as a weather forecast predicts what the weather’s going to be doing, so a business
forecast predicts various aspects of a business’s future movement based on its current
situation, external factors, new products, plans for marketing and such like. The timeframes
are usually somewhat longer than those involved in a weather forecast – three to ve year
forecasts are common. Types of business forecast include sales, pro t and loss, and cash
ow; the latter helps business owners predict whether they’re likely to run out of money.
5. Marketing
Marketing refers to the promotion of a product or service. It can take numerous forms,
including advertising, emailing customers, sending out lea ets or brochures, engaging with
potential customers via social media, and so on.
6. USP
A “USP” is the “Unique Selling Proposition” of a company, product or service – in other
words, what makes it different from similar offerings. USPs are considered
“Our USP is repetition.” when a company is set up or a new product or service is launched,
and they’re also at the forefront of marketers’ minds, because it’s the unique aspects that
enable those charged with marketing to succeed, by highlighting reasons why customers
should choose them rather than another company.
7. HR
The abbreviation “HR” stands for “Human Resources”, and it’s the part of a company that
deals with matters relating to its employees. The goal of someone who specialises in HR is
to ensure that employees are happy and productive, reducing turnover of employees (that
is, reducing the frequency with which employees leave and new ones are hired) and
maximising the cost-effectiveness of the company’s investment in its workforce. HR
oversees employee training and development, enforces company regulations and deals
with payroll (everything to do with the payment of employees). HR is also there to handle
disciplinary matters, and to deal impartially with problems arising between employees, and
between employees and their managers.
8. Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of hiring new employees. Companies exist whose sole purpose
is to match employers with potential employees; these are known as recruitment agencies.

9. Brand https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/business-english-vocabulary.html#aId=641241ea-e653-47cc-bd75-
7a3fc67616c5 3/19
“Brand” is the term given to a company’s name and gives

the it this “brand identity”.
recognisable attributes that go with that company, which
de ne its unique identity. The company’s tone of voice
10. Public Relations
and design of of cial communications are part of what
There’s lots of branding on display here.
Public Relations, or PR, is the role within a business devoted to communicating with the press, and
ensuring favourable media coverage of a company, product or service.
11. Minutes
The “minutes” of a meeting are notes taken during the meeting to record what was said, what was
agreed, and to assign actions to individuals whose responsibility it will be to complete them.
12. Cold call

This is a phone call, usually from a sales representative of a company, to a potential customer or
client who is not expecting the call and with whom there has been no previous contact, with the aim
of trying to sell them something. Cold calls have a bad reputation, and are often referred to by
customers as “nuisance” calls.
Of ce jargon
A particular category of business-related vocabulary is known in English as “of ce jargon”, and it’s a
widely derided language all of its own. Also known as “management speak”, these are the self-
aggrandising terms that many people in business use in order to make themselves sound clever and
important; at least, that’s what they think. In reality, most people loathe of ce jargon, and those who
use it lose the respect of those around them. We introduce you to a few such terms here, so that you
know what they mean if you hear them yourself (and so that you know what to avoid saying in a
business environment!).
13. Going forward

This is usually used to mean “from now on”. Some may consider it to have connotations of moving on
positively from something negative that may have occurred: “we’ll adopt a different approach going
forward”.
14. Thinking outside the box

A favourite of ‘quirky’ creative agencies, the phrase Thinking outside the box can conjure up
“thinking outside the box” means to think creatively, some ridiculous images.
abandoning all preconceptions.

15. Blue sky thinking https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/business-english-vocabulary.html#aId=641241ea-e653-
47cc-bd75-7a3fc67616c5 4/19
The archetypal piece of of ce jargon, the term “blue sky thinking” is another way of
expressing the idea of “thinking outside the box”.
16. Action
You’ll know the word “action” from its normal contexts, such as action movies, or simply
describing something being done (“taking action”). However, in the business environment
this one of many examples of a noun being turned into a verb. “Can you action that?” might
be a request you’d hear in an of ce, meaning simply “Can you do that?”
17. Stakeholders
This word is used to refer to anyone who’s involved in a particular project. If someone has a
say in the outcome of a piece of work, they are a “stakeholder”.
18. Buy-in
This term refers to the idea of gaining acceptance for something. If someone agrees to
subscribe to a particular way of doing things, for example, they are “buying in” to the idea.
You might see a phrase like “seek buy-in from employees” in an HR document discussing
the implementation of a new set of rules, for example.
19. Leverage
Though “leverage” is another word that’s meant to be a noun – meaning the use of a lever
to apply force – it’s often heard in a business context being used as a verb, meaning to
utilise something to the business’s advantage – “leverage our contacts to spread the word”,
for example.
20. Touch base
This is surely one of the most cringe-worthy pieces of of ce jargon, and it’s ltered its way
through from the pitches of American baseball into the of ces of the UK. All it means in the
of ce environment is “to make contact”. You might hear “let’s touch base”, meaning “let’s
talk”.
21. On the same page
In the world of of ce jargon, it’s apparently acceptable to take a well-known idiom – in this
case “singing from the same hymn sheet” – and dumb it down for use in the boardroom. If
you’re “on the same page” as someone, you’re approaching something from the same point
of view as them, with the same agreed assumptions in mind.
22. Feedback

Not that sort of stakeholder...
“All singing from the same hymn sheet” has a much more elegant quality to it.
Yet another example of a noun becoming a verb for the purposes of awful of ce jargon is the word
“feedback”, which should be used as a noun to describe constructive comments on something (as in
essay feedback). However, in an of ce environment it’s not unusual to hear it used as a verb – “We’re
waiting for him to feed back on the ideas” – or even, horri cally, in the past tense: “He’s fed back to us
that he doesn’t like it”.
23. Price point

For some reason, some business types like to talk about “price points” instead of just “prices”. This
is one of many examples of using more complicated language in lieu of a simpler word or phrase.
24. End of play

This irritating term refers to the end of the working to
day.
me by close of play today?”
“Close of play” is a variant, as in “Can you get this over
25. Drill down Do you need to pretend you’re a footballer to
motivate yourself at work?
You might hear this term used to describe something that deserves closer inspection: “we need to drill
down to the ner details”.
26. Best practice

You might hear colleagues referring to industry “best practice”, which describes a generally
acknowledged ‘best way of doing things’ in order to achieve optimum results.
27. Core competency

This bewildering phrase refers to the strengths of a person or company. The word “competent” doesn’t
even refer to strength – it means the ability to do something to a satisfactory standard.
28. Scalable
If something is “scalable”, this means that it’s an idea
29. Skill set
that will work easily on a larger scale to the one it
This isn’t what they mean by
currently works on. For example, a “scalable” business
‘scalable’.
model is one that’s easy to replicate in order to expand
the business.
This refers to someone’s range of skills. It’s jargon because it’s an unnecessary way of describing
what could easily be referred to simply as “skills”.
30.  Vertical https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/business-english-vocabulary.html#aId=641241ea-e653-47cc-bd75-

7a3fc67616c5 6/19
You’d have thought that the word “vertical” is simply the opposite to “horizontal”, but not in a business
context. In the world of business jargon, it refers to an area of expertise. Rather than saying “we cater
for the logistics industry”, some business types might say “we cater for the logistics vertical”.
31. Get the ball rolling
This is simply a way of saying “start”. You might hear it at the beginning of a meeting, when the
person organising the meeting might say “let’s get the ball rolling” to mean “let’s begin the meeting”.
32. Annual leave

Many business people now write in their out-of-of ce 33. Low-hanging fruit
emails that they’re on “annual leave”. This simply
Robert, from Accounts, taking his annual
means that they are on holiday. “Annual leave” is really
leave.
a term used by the military, and it’s unclear how it
became adopted into the world of civilian business.
Imagine picking fruit from a tree: you’d go for the ones hanging low rst, as they’re easiest to get. In
business, the phrase “low-hanging fruit” is used to describe the tasks or opportunities that are easiest
to tackle.
34. Quick wins

This horrible phrase refers to the same sort of thing as “low-hanging fruit” – the things that are
easiest to achieve.
35. Helicopter view

Believe it or not, this means “a quick overview”. Why anybody felt that describing it in this way was
necessary is anybody’s guess; but the same could be said of any of the examples on this list of of ce
jargon, so you’re best off avoiding these terms if you want to be taken seriously in an of ce
environment.
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12 Feb 2020
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12/2/2020 35 Terms to Enhance Your Business English Vocabulary

35 Terms to Enhance Your Business English

You should also read...

Basic business terms translation-tips-e .html)

“Brand” is the term given to a company’s name and gives

12. Cold call

13. Going forward

14. Thinking outside the box

23. Price point

24. End of play

26. Best practice

27. Core competency

30.  Vertical https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/business-english-vocabulary.html#aId=641241ea-e653-47cc-bd75-

32. Annual leave

34. Quick wins

35. Helicopter view

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start-up (https://www. ickr.com/photos/vannispen/7221856056); parrot (https://www. ickr.com/photos/ericabreetoe/5743925348); branding

12/2/2020 35 Terms to Enhance Your Business English Vocabulary

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