Bus. Eng: Vocabulary & Listening- Dragons' Den

"You've entered the Dragons' Den, where brave entrepreneurs get that once in a lifetime chance to strike it rich. First, they must win over Canada's savviest investors."

 

A show originating from Japan, Dragons' Den is a series that features aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists. The Canadian version of this show has run for 6 seasons and airs on CBC television. http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/ 

Today we'll be watching two entrepreneurs face the demanding panel. Today's listening exercise will mainly focus on use of financial vocabulary mixed with phrasal verbs, slang and conversational expressions. Before you watch, look up the following expressions.  Make sure you can explain each expression clearly to someone else in one or two sentences.


GROUP A:  Dougie Dog




"The hot dog is actually a recession food, it is a comfort food." (2:27)
"And we've opened up British Columbia's first hot dog restaurant." (2:53)
"But the hot dogs aren't cheap. At $7 a piece, they're more than double what you'd pay for street meat." (3:40)
"$700,000 to break even." (4:15)
"If you had $700,000 in sales and you could convince me you could get to a million by tweaking the menu or the prices, I'd buy into it." (5:20)
"Here's what I'll tell you on the positive side. Great branding. Well done. Whoever helped you with your graphics, the concept behind it, the store design, then you know what, then even more kudos to you." (6:11)
"As an investment, I'm out. But as an entrepreneur, you rock." (6:32)
"So the numbers don't add up." (6:44)
"You lost 10 grand." (7:47)

 GROUB B:  Fabulous Furballs



"You know, I bet that cat has no friends now." (10:29)
"Krista, that cat is freaking me right out. Even the dog is freaked out by the cat" (10:38)
"And this is your franchisee over here?" (11:10)
"We have an average profit margin of 330-450%" (11:41)
"Krista, did you do something funky to the chihuahua (11:47)
"We know we need to beef up our infrastructure to be able to support more franchises (12:10)
"Have you come across anyone in Canada that you're impressed with as a competitor?" (12:17)
"Boy, did you ever dodge a bullet." (12:39)
"I actually cashed out my 401K to start the company, about a month before my company went under." so I really lucked out." (12:45)

    

 Go check out Dougie Dog on Granville Street! http://dougiedog.com/

 and Fabulous Furballs: http://www.fabulousfurballs.com/about_us.html