Question

Read the following text and answer the questions below:


Many people enter businesses they know little or nothing about. I did it once myself. I opened a car tune-up shop. I knew a good deal about running a small business, had a personality well suited for it and could borrow enough money to begin. The end of what turned out to be a very sad story is that it took me two years and $30,000 to get rid of the business. Why?  Because in my hurry to make a profit, I overlooked several crucial facts. The most important of these was that I knew virtually nothing about cars, and I didn’t really want to learn. Not only was I unable to roll up my sleeves and pitch in when it was needed, I didn’t even know enough to properly hire and supervise mechanics. In short, I made a classic mistake that I started a business in a “hot” field because someone was foolish enough to lend me the money.

How can you apply my lesson to your situation? Let’s say you’ve heard pasta shops make lots of money and you want to start one. First, if possible, get a job working in one, even if you work for free. Learn everything you can about of the business. After a few months, you should be an expert in every aspect of pasta making, from mixing eggs and flour, flattening the dough and slicing it into strips. Ask yourself whether you enjoy the work and whether you are good at it. If you answer “yes,” go on to the second important question: Is the business a potential money maker? You should have a pretty good answer to this question after working in the field for a few months. 

 If you’re unable to find employment in the pasta business, make a tour of delicatessens and shops that make their own pasta. Interview the owners. To get reliable answers, it’s best to do this in a different area from the one in which you plan to locate. Small business owners are often quite willing to share their knowledge once they are sure you will not compete with them.

In short, don’t start your small venture until you know it from the ground up. I mean this literally. I remember reading a management philosophy that said that a good manager doesn’t have to know every job, only how to get other people to do them. That approach may work well in a large corporation but for a small business, it’s dangerously naive.


1. Write a suitable title for the text.

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2. The writer said, “Not only was I unable to roll up my sleeves and pitch in when it was needed”. What does the writer mean by the underlined phrase?


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3. What was the writer’s mistake when he started his business?


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4. In paragraph 1, the writer said, “I knew a good deal about running a small business”. What is   the word you can use to replace the word “running” here?

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5. How did the writer get the money to start his business?


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6. Find a word in the text that means idealistic/ ignorant.


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7. When are the small business owners ready to share information about business?


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8. What do the underlined words refer to?


    “these” (paragraph 1): …………………………………

    “one” (paragraph 2): ……………………………………

    “their” (paragraph 3): ……………………………….…


 9. Which piece of advice from the text above would you recommend if your friend wanted to start  a small business?


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10. If you had the money, what kind of small business would you start? Why?


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Answer 1

Answer:

1)- Business and ways to extend it.