IELTS Speaking for Success - 🏪 Small businesses (Part 1) + Transcript

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Do you prefer buying things from big companies or small businesses? Do you know many small businesses where you live? Have you ever thought about starting your own business? Have you ever worked in small businesses? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/s12e18 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, sampling our range of vintage wines from the largest selection in the skies, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the host of the AIL Speaking for Success podcast, the official Band 9 podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills. along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high-iled score. Your bad nine score. Oh, that's a nice necklace, Rory. Wow, beautiful. Oh, thanks. I bought it at this small business. It's actually quite close to my home. How interesting. Today we're going to talk about small businesses. Nice. Nice.

Do you prefer buying things from big companies or small businesses? I don't have a preference, really. It sort of depends on what I need to get. I feel like it's better to get something unique or personal from a small business these days. So if it's someone's birthday, I'll head there. But if I'm in a rush or it's just something run-of-the-mill like groceries, then big companies have these great discounts. So that can be quite useful. Do you know many small businesses where you live?

Yeah, there's a whole strip of them just up the road from where I live. live. It's the sort of bushy, studenty part of time. So it kind of lends itself to that sort of thing. Have you ever thought about starting your own business? I mean, I have, and that I did. It's funny because I never used to think about going into business for myself, and here I am, and it's all panning out

rather nicely for me. Have you ever worked in a small business? Not that I can recall. It's always been major corporations or public bodies that I've worked for, apart from my own one that I work in now. Not that I have anything against working in something like a small business, I've just never had the opportunity. And I work in one now, but I'm also managing it.

So I don't know if that counts as the same thing. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free, and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. Yay, small businesses, the listener.

Small businesses are these like little, little companies with, I don't know, two people working in a company. Or maybe it's a small family business. Like not Google, yeah, not Apple. And usually we talk about local small businesses, like cafes, some souvenir shops. And a small business is independently owned and has a limited number of employees and revenue. So, all, like, profits that they're making.

I don't have a preference, really. So if you don't prefer this or that, you say, I don't have a preference. Just I'm okay, you know, with both of them. If I need to get something unique, I get it from a small business. So a unique souvenir or a unique necklace. or bracelets, something handmade. I usually go to a small business. But if I'm in a rush, I don't have much time,

I go to a big company, to a grocery store, like to buy groceries. Groceries, like the food that we usually buy at a grocery store. And here, Rory tells us that if it's just something run-of-the-mill, run-of-the-mill, my usual stuff, you know, run-of-the-mill groceries. like ordinary, not special. And big companies usually have great discounts. Oh, like 20% off.

But a small business may not give you a nice discount. Or a big company could have a membership scheme. I didn't think about mentioning that, but I should have. Like, you usually have a membership card, and they have a membership scheme. You get discounts if you are a regular visitor. There are lots of small businesses. where I live, or you can say there's a whole strip of them, strip of them, like lots of them,

up the road where I live, or down the road where I live, or all of the place where I live. And then, Rory, you use this word that starts with B. Boulangerie. Bougé. So you speak French now. No, bourgeois is a word that is French in origin, but we use it in English all the time to describe this. kind of middle class sort of lifestyle. How do you say it?

Bougie. Bougie. Bougie. It sounds like Bougie, but it's Bougie. It's to do with the concept of having a lot of luxuries and comforts in a sort of fancy lifestyle. How else can you describe small businesses, like cute shops?

Small stores, small, we already said small businesses. Family-owned stores, usually. usually. Start your own business or set up your own business. And you can say that I've never thought of going into business for myself. So I've never thought of doing something. Go into business. Set up my own business or start my own business. Or you can say like, I used to think that I would never start my own business. But here I am and Rory and this podcast. Yay, it's our business. So it's all panning out nicely for me. A super phrase of verb, dear listener, pan out.

But that just means, well, it's just used to talk about the results of something, really, isn't it? Yeah, something develops in a particular way or successful way. So it panned out well in the end. Or I wanted to start my own business, but it didn't pan out. like it didn't happen, right? Or I thought I'd never start up my own business, but it panned out well. I've never worked in a small business. I've always worked in large companies, so present perfect.

And when the examiner asks you, have you ever? You say, yes, I have, no, I haven't. And then give more details. Or I've never worked for any small business. I've worked for large companies, corporations. I have nothing against working in a small business, so I'm okay working for a small business. I've just never had the opportunity.

So Rory has always worked for large companies. Well, until I worked for a small company that I work for now. Me. And you? Yeah, we are a small company. And Rory, if you want to choose, where would you work? work. Let's go. Anywhere quiet.

So, Rory, you have to choose large companies. So you'd work for Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Google, or, no, that's enough. Okay. Or Tesla. There you go. Elon Musk. So, or NASA. Yeah, which company would you work for?

Well, NASA's not a company, is it? No, it's a company according to Google. Isn't it? Wow. Okay. I thought NASA was a branch of the American government, so I wouldn't be able to work for them anyway. I'd probably rather work for Google, frankly. I think Apple would be not really up my street.

I'm not terribly fashionable, like the people that work for Apple. NASA, I have no skills to offer them whatsoever, and Tesla, as near as I'm aware, isn't doing so well right now, whereas Google seems to be persisting. How about you? Where would you rather work? Yeah, I'd work for Google. Nice. You should tell that. Dear Google. Yeah, together with McDonald's.

McDonald's people, if you're listening, just, you know, like, just drop us a line, you know, say hello. And here we are with the joke. The listener, are you ready for a joke? Oh, wow, okay. Yes, and we need some teaching first. So, Rory will teach you some words and then the joke, okay? So, Rory, what's a recession? If we talk about business, recession.

It's when the economy declines or the economic growth declines and reverses in a country. Inflation. Is when the value of money goes up. That's a very simple way of putting it. But that's it basically. It's when prices increase, actually. And then we talk about our hair. Hair that we have on our head.

So what's a hair line? line, my hair line. That's the, well, it's just where your hair meets your forehead. So it's the part of your forehead where there is no hair and the part of your head where there is hair. It's this line. Okay, so here's the joke de Lisztam. A very serious joke. Okay.

I'm a working economy, you know? How so? My hairline is in recession. My stomach is always in inflation, and these two together bring me into a deep depression. That's not a joke. That's awful. Well, you're kind of a joke, you know, like a pun with words. So I'm a working economy. Economy is like the economy of a country. Like how I am an economy.

My hairline is in recession, meaning I'm losing my hair. My stomach is in inflation. What does it mean? It means your stomach is getting bigger. And there's something wrong with the stomach, and this brings me into a deep depression. And in the business world, we also use the word depression. Yes, that's when it's not when the economic growth is retarded.

It's when the economy starts to collapse, basically. No longer about a lack of growth. It's more about no growth whatsoever. It's like the opposite. Yeah, for example, like an economic depression, right? Or like the Great Depression, we had it like from 1929 to 1939. Like there was a severe global economic downturn crisis. Right, you listen.

How are you doing? Are you okay? Yay. Have you survived this episode on businesses? Thank you very much for listening. We're sending you hugs and joy and love. Okay? Bye.

Bye. Bye. Do you prefer buying things from big? companies or small businesses. I don't have a preference, really. It sort of depends on what I need to get. I feel like it's better to get something unique or personal from a small business these days.

So if it's someone's birthday, I'll head there. But if I'm in a rush or it's just something run-of-the-mill, like groceries, then big companies have these great discounts. So that can be quite useful. Do you know many small businesses where you live? Yeah, there's a whole strip of them, just up the road from where I live. It's the sort of bushy, studenty part of time.

So it kind of lends itself to that sort of thing. Have you ever thought about starting your own business? I mean, I have, and that I did. It's funny because I never used to think about going into business for myself, and here I am, and it's all panning out rather nicely for me. Have you ever worked in a small business? Not that I can recall. It's always been major corporations or public bodies that I've worked for,

apart from my own one that I work in now. Not that I have anything against working in something like a small business, I've just never had the opportunity, and I work in one now, but I'm also managing it. So I don't know if that counts as the same thing.