1. Dramatize the dialogue and make up your own conversation on analogy.

The person has just made a decision to become an entrepreneur. He has come to the consultant business law company to clear up all questions he has. Entrepreneur Lots of people are starting up their own businesses, but only a small

number of them seem to succeed. Why is it so? Lawyer Well, there are several reasons.

Entrepreneur I think I can guess. These are because of the difficult times. Lawyer You are absolutely right. There has been a pretty general recession

and the question of labour relations. Entrepreneur True. True. I am used to hearing all kinds of horror stories about the activities of wicked trade unions, about excessive wage demand and about different strikes. Lawyer I am sure there is no doubt that these factors do contribute to the

rapid disappearance of many little businesses. But it is more than

likely in my opinion, that what really accounts for most of the

failures is quite simply bad management. Entrepreneur In which ways may a business be badly managed? And can we

learn some lessons about good management? Lawyer Our first lesson: never attempt to start a new venture if you haven’t

got enough capital to see it through. Entrepreneur I definitely have enough money to start. I doubt of a right place and

suitable premises for my new business. Lawyer The question is quite important. Don’t be too much of a hurry to

settle on premises if you aren’t sure they are right. Some businesses

operate inefficiently because they haven’t got enough room to plan

properly or to expand if they need to.

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Entrepreneur How much of my capital can I spend on presenting a company image, on fitting and office furniture. To be successful a glossy image is very important. Am I right?

Lawyer So that’s our third lesson: get your priorities right and don’t spend too much of your capital on non-productive items. Think it over a bit. Next time I’ll teach you the fourth lesson about how to research the market and a lot of other factors to be taken into account.

Entrepreneur It is not difficult to predict knowing the fundamentals of business. The talk will probably be about installing the right equipment, hiring a suitable workforce, controlling production and the storage of stock, keeping a close check on prices and customer credit.

Lawyer You are not so ignorant that it seems to be. But above all remember today’s golden rule. Plan every step of the way before you start… Any other time is too late.