Expanding your business

 
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7.3 Reading – GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS. 
PRE-READING ACTIVITY 
  What do you think the good news is? 
  What could in your opinion the bad news be? Think of a few possibilities. 
WHILE-READING ACTIVITY 
Read the letter and pay attention to its layout. Certain basic layout features of the letter are not 
applied here. Correct them. 
To: Mrs. Mia 
 
Hello. We are writing to thank you for your inquiry of renting the premises in our hotel and to 
inform you of our decision regarding this matter. 
The management has considered your application and we are happy to inform you that we have 
decided to let you run a beauty salon in our hotel. After a consultation with the director of the hotel, 
we believe it is most suitable to let you rent 6 rooms within the spa centre. They are located in the 
right wing of the Hotel............................... on the ground floor. We believe this location will be the 
most suitable. 
However, we have two conditions under which we are to accept your offer. Firstly, renting the 
premises in the spa centre presents additional costs, as the rooms are already appropriately decorated 
with the furniture and have basic equipment. We hope this will not represent a problem for you, as 
we are convinced this location is most suitable for you as well as for your potential clients. 
Secondly, we wish to offer our clients the best quality service possible. Additionally to having 
beauty therapies, we feel it is very convenient for the beauty salon to offer massages. These proved 
to be most popular alongside with other services Therefore, we would definitely want you to include 
them in your offer. Although we believe you are very skilled in the field of cosmetology, we are 
concerned about additional services, such as massages and similar therapies, which you have not 
been offering so far.  
We would kindly ask you to consider the above mentioned conditions carefully and hope we will 
hear from you soon. For any additional information, feel free to contact us via telephone or email 
address.  
Best wishes, Thomas Evans, the manager 
POST-READING ACTIVITY 
To sum up, the meeting with the manager of the hotel ............................... went great. Mia obviously 
managed to persuade him with the excellent presentation you had prepared. The letter she got today 
proves that, as the management of the hotel approves of her having a salon in their hotel. The bad 

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news is that the hotel, however, has certain demands regarding the rent and services the salon will 
offer. 
  After having read the letter, do you think the news is generally good or bad? 
  In pairs, discuss what the most reasonable response to this letter would be? What advice do 
you have for Mia?  
  Do you believe it is a good idea to expand services and start offering massages? 
  Write down at least 5 possible advantages and disadvantages such a change might bring. 
7.5 Vocabulary – HELP NEEDED! 
Now that Mia has finally reached an agreement with the manager and has already signed the 
contract with the hotel, all is set to start opening a new salon. 
Since the rooms are already furnished and fully decorated, all she needs are new staff members and 
beauty products, so the new salon will be completely ready and fully functioning. 
She is not so worried about where she will find a receptionist or a cosmetologist. The thing that is on 
her mind right now is how to find a good masseur with a lot of experience. In order to make the 
salon operating as quickly as possible, she has decided to put an advertisement on the Internet 
website for unemployed people or people looking for better job opportunities. In this way, she is 
surely to find somebody with the proper knowledge and the needed experience in no time. 
Read her advertisement and help her finish it. Fill in the gaps with the most appropriate forms of the 
words in brackets. 
JOB OPPORTUNITY! 
 
The beauty salon ...............................  is looking for a skilled .................................. (MASSAGE) 
with a lot of experience. 
 
Qualification 
The candidate must have appropriate .................................. (EDUCATE) and be a 
.................................. (PROFFESION) in this field. It is also required to have a certificate in being a 
.................................. (QUALIFY) expert in at least three .................................. (ADD) techniques of 
massages, preferably Thai massage, sports massage and .................................. (REFLEX). 
 
Experience 
In addition to having the above mentioned certificates, you are also required to have at 
.................................. (LESS) 5 years of experience in this profession. 
 
Age 
Between 25 and 45 years in excellent health. 

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Working environment 
The post requires working in a team with other .................................. (COSMETOLOGY) and 
members of staff. The salon is .................................. (LOCATION) in the hotel ...............................  
and provides excellent .................................. (WORK) conditions. Since we provide services in a 
hotel, you will be required to work also in the .................................. (NOON) as well as on 
.................................. (WEEK).  
At the .................................. (BEGIN) the salary will be around 1000€ including extra 
.................................. (PAY) for lunch and .................................. (TRANSPORT) to work. After a 
year’s time, the salary may be .................................. (NEGOTIATE). 
 
Other skills 
We are looking for a candidate with great .................................. (PERSON) and somebody who is 
full of .................................. (OPTIMIST), .................................. (MOTIVE) and 
.................................. (CREATE) ideas. You also have to have good .................................. 
(SOCIETY) skills to be able to work with clients and other staff members, as well as to be 
.................................. (CUSTOM) to working in a team. 
 
We are looking forward to hearing from you. 
The beauty salon ...............................  
7.5 Listening – A JOB INTERVIEW. 
It looks like your job advertisement in the salon was worth trying, as there were five applications. 
Having read them, Mia has decided to call one candidate for an interview. The other four candidates 
do not have the obligatory certificates as proof of their skills and did not meet the required 
conditions. 
PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITY 
  If you were to assess the candidate, which questions would you set him/her?  
  Make a list of at least 5 questions you would ask if you were the interviewer. 
The candidate Mia has chosen is Lisa Arnold. Today she is coming for the job interview. She is 
from Austria, but has been living in Slovenia for 3 years now.  
WHILE-READING ACTIVITY 
Unfortunately you weren’t able to be there and listen to the interview, so Mia recorded it for you. 
While listening to what they are talking about, pay attention to the answers to the previously set 
questions from the task above. 
POST-READING ACTIVITY 

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