Business Idioms

“We showed the president 20 ideas for new products, but she didn’t like any of them – so we had to go back to the drawing board.”

• ask other people for advice

• start again from the beginning

• reuse a good idea from the past

“Our sales estimates were way off the mark. We’d projected sales of $15M, but the actual numbers were closer to $9M.”

• too optimistic

• higher than average

• very wrong/inaccurate

“The text for the article is almost perfect. I just want to tweak one or two sentences.”

• remove

• make small adjustments

• make longer

“I need to submit a weekly report on this project, so please keep me in the loop.”

• informed / updated

• working hard

• in the office

“Three people from my department are on vacation, so I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment.”

• I have a lot of responsibilities

• I wish I was on vacation, too

• I have nothing to do

“The rule of thumb is to reinvest no more than 30%, but it’s OK if you go over that number occasionally.”

• minimum amount

• strict limit

• general practice

“Bob said I missed the deadline, but I want to set the record straight – I submitted my work on time, but he didn’t check his e-mail.”

• correct a mistake and say the truth

• express a different opinion

• get permission

"We have until December to prepare these documents, so let’s put them on the back burner for now. We have other, more urgent projects.”

• send them back to their origin

• give them low priority

• finish them quickly

“That program never produced any significant results, so the director finally decided to pull the plug.”

• get personally involved

• improve the technology

• stop, discontinue

“Yesterday’s meeting lasted four hours… but in a nutshell, we decided to close our office in India and open a branch in China.”

• in an argument

• in the end

• in summary