I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential.
Read, subscribe to my newsletter, enjoy!Tash
Just breathe
Breath: the process of taking in air to get oxygen into the lungs; the air taken in or pushed out during breathing; small amount of air or wind
Taking a deep breath, she gave her manuscript to the printer
Breathe: the act of taking air into or out of the lungs. Also refers to letting air through a material (e.g. letting red wine breathe or choosing a fabric that can breathe)
It can be harder to breathe at high altitudes.
What is profit?
I have seen a lot of businesses recently offering a proportion of sales or profits to the bushfire appeal, and seen/heard various discussions about this. What thing that has stood out to me is that not everyone understands what a profit actually is, so I think it’s time to discuss it!
The concise Oxford dictionary gives the following definition…
profit: 1. advantage, benefit 2. pecuniary gain, excess of returns over outlay.
Or as a verb, it defines it as bringing or being of advantage.
Profit is different to proceeds or turnover which is the total amount of money coming into your business from customers. If you sell 10 items at $50 each, your turnover is $500 but your profit could be a lot less.
Simply put, profit is the money left over once you have paid all your business expenses. Or you can view it as profit = turnover – expenses.
So continuing from the above example, if each item costs you $20 to make and your overheads are $10 per item, your expenses are $30 and you will make $20 profit on each item. So from a turnover of $500 you will make $200 profit.
Expenses are everything your business spends money on to conduct business. As well as obvious costs such as materials and equipment to make products or products from a supplier, it includes what are known as overheads – the cost of electricity, marketing and promotions, staff, office/shop space, insurance, registrations, legal fees and so on.
Getting back to making donations as a business, ‘100% of profits’ would mean a $200 donation from the sale of 10 items whereas a ‘100% of proceeds’ would mean a $500 donation.
Be wary, you’ll get weary
Wary: to be cautious and aware, on guard
I am wary of links in emails from people I don’t know.
Weary: exhausted or very tired. It can be physically tired or an exhaustion of energy, tolerance and spirit.
The weary CFA volunteers were grateful for a cold drink.
Thinking “if you were in a war, you would need to be wary of your environment” may help you tell these two definitions apart.
Bought or brought?
In speech it isn’t always clear whether someone says brought or bought, but I really hate seeing them written in the wrong context so here are definitions to help people get them right…
bought: to have purchased something. It is the past tense of the word buy.
They bought their car from a registered dealer
brought: to have carried or taken something/someone with you. It is the past tense of the word bring.
She brought a friend with her to the conference.
‘After you bring something you’ve brought it’ is a handy reminder of which is which as many people get confused over these two words.
If you are not confident you are getting words like bought and brought in the correct places, get a second opinion before you make your writing public. Ask a friend to read your work for you (not just to catch a brought/bought error) or get a professional to edit your work for you, especially if it is something important like your website content or product manual.
Is your office stationary?
These two can be very tricky to get right…
stationery: office and writing supplies, including paper, envelopes, pens, pencils and folders.
The pencil case was full of new stationery
stationary: to be still and not moving.
All the cars in the car park were stationary
Stationery includes envelopes is the best reminder I can think of for this pair of words – do you have a better way of remembering which is which?
Ants or -ance?
Assistants: two or more people who are helping
His assistants were busy preparing the report.
Assistance: the help being provided
I really appreciated your assistance yesterday.
The use of -ants and -ance is often confused because they sound exactly the same despite the very different spelling. The easiest way to remember which is which is to think of ants (yes, the insects!) as doers and use that ending when you are writing about people doing something.
Click to join the clique
Although spelt very differently, click and clique are pronounced the same.
click: a sharp sound.
We could hear her coming by the click of her shoes on the wooden floor
clique: a tight group of people.
A clique is often hard to join as they are fairly exclusive.
Remember you only need a queue to join a clique, not to click your fingers!
Set your sights to the details
Although we may use the word sight a lot more often than site or cite, it is worth knowing the difference between them!
Cite: to mention or quote a document or legal result.
He cited Judge Brown’s findings from case 32.
Site: a relevant place or piece of ground. It includes a construction site (where building works are taking place), a sacred site (a place of significant meaning to some people) and a crime site (the area where an activity took place, in this case an illegal activity).
They chose the best site for their sleeping tent.
Sight: the ability to see and what is seen.
Sight is one of the five senses.
It was a magnificent sight from the lookout.
Site is easy to remember if you think of a site being a place where you can sit.
Take my advice…
There are many pairs of words that sound or look very similar, but they can mean very different things. There is no easy way around these words, you have to learn them as you can’t rely on spell checkers and the like to pick them up every time.
One such pair of words is advice/advise.
Advice: Opinion given or offered as to action, counsel; information given. (noun)
As a business coach, I sometimes give advice to my clients.
Advise: Offer advice; recommend. (verb)
I advise you to wear a hat when walking in the desert.
So I advise you to take care with words. And my advice is to learn the correct use of each word.
How can you remember which is which?
“I give you advice and I give you ice” will help you remember which word is the noun.
* Definitions from the Concise Oxford Dictionary
Copping some flak?
Next time you are complaining about the stirring of your mates or the complaints of your Boss, you can say you are copping some flak and feel like you are being shot at! But be careful you don’t write you are copping some flack as that may be wildly misinterpreted!
Flack: (noun) press agent or publicist
The movie star relied on her flack to manage the press conference.
Flack: (verb) to act as a PR or press agent
Flak: (noun) anti-aircraft artillery or bursting of shells fired from anti-aircraft artillery;over the top and/or aggressive criticism; opposition, disagreement. {Flak is derived from the German name of aircraft defence gun – Flieger Abwehr Kanone}
The politician was copping some flak over voting against his party on the carbon tax issue.
Simply remember that a PR agent always adds a little extra – like the letter c in flack!
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