Business English Vocabulary

'Turnover' is the total amount of money a business earns from sales, before any costs are subtracted: 'The company had a turnover of five million pounds.' 'Profit' is what remains after all expenses — wages, rent, materials — have been deducted from that turnover. A company can have high turnover but low or even negative profit if its costs are too high.

KPI stands for 'key performance indicator' — a specific, measurable value that shows whether a business or team is achieving its goals. Common KPIs include sales growth, customer satisfaction scores, and website traffic. KPIs are used because they turn broad goals like 'improve customer service' into concrete numbers that can be tracked and compared over time.

An 'entrepreneur' starts and builds a business, often aiming to grow it, hire staff, and scale it over time, accepting significant financial risk. A 'freelancer' is self-employed but typically works alone, providing a service (such as writing, design, or consulting) to multiple clients without necessarily building a larger company. Many freelancers eventually become entrepreneurs if they grow their work into a registered business with employees.

Outsourcing means paying an external company or individual to handle a business task instead of doing it in-house, such as customer support, payroll, or manufacturing. Companies outsource to reduce costs, access specialist expertise they do not have internally, and focus their own staff on core business activities. Common examples include outsourcing IT support or call centre operations to another country.

Onboarding is the process of introducing, training, and integrating a new employee into a company. It typically includes paperwork, introductions to colleagues, training on company systems, and an explanation of the employee's role and responsibilities. Good onboarding helps new staff become productive faster and reduces the chance they will leave the company soon after joining.

'Remote work' means an employee works entirely from a location outside the traditional office, often from home, without regularly commuting to a workplace. 'Hybrid work' combines both: employees split their time between working remotely and working in the office on set days. Since the pandemic, hybrid work has become the most common arrangement at many companies, balancing flexibility with in-person collaboration.

Market share is the percentage of total sales within an industry that one company controls. A company with 30% market share sells 30% of all the products sold in that market. It is a key indicator of a company's competitive position: rising market share suggests a company is winning customers from its rivals, while falling market share suggests it is losing ground.

An appraisal (also called a performance review) is a formal meeting, usually annual, in which a manager evaluates an employee's work and discusses goals for the future. To prepare, employees should keep a record of their achievements throughout the year, be ready to discuss areas for improvement honestly, and come with clear questions about career development or promotion opportunities.

Useful interview vocabulary includes: 'strengths and weaknesses', 'previous experience', 'responsibilities', 'achievements', 'career goals', and 'salary expectations'. Being able to describe your work using precise business vocabulary — such as 'I improved efficiency by outsourcing routine tasks' or 'I helped increase our market share' — demonstrates both fluency and professional competence to interviewers.

Start with Flash Cards to memorise the words and their meanings, then use the Quiz exercise to test your understanding in context. Reading business news articles from sources like the BBC or the Financial Times and noting unfamiliar terms is an excellent way to see this vocabulary used naturally. Try writing a short paragraph describing a real or imaginary company using at least five of these words.