Lesson 5 – A business proposition

Warm-up

1. With your partner, describe your home neighborhoods to each other
2. Are there schools, restaurants, parks, etc.?
3. Discuss what facilities would improve your neighborhood and why. Mention the examples of your ideas.

Main Activity

1. Read this anecdote.
   There is a story by Somerset Maugham (an English novelist about a young man who visits a small town and wants to buy some cigarettes. He walks nearly a mile (about 1.5 km) before he finds a shop, so he goes back to the place where he started from and says, I’ll open a tobacconist here. He does and it is a great success. For the next 20 years, the man walked the streets of England looking for cigarettes. When he had to walk too far, he opened another shop. He was a millionaire by the time he was 35.
2. You are going to start a business as the man in the story did.
3. Makes groups of four
4. Look at the image down below.
5. Evaluate the three different neighborhoods and decide which one site would be the best to open a shop or start a business in. You must decide what type of shop or business you think would be successful and choose the best area for it. E.G. an internet café, gym/health club, late-night convenience store: (A late-night convenience store is usually open until about 11:00 pm It sells newspapers, cigarettes, basic groceries, and often alcohol. It also stocks other simple necessities like pens, notebooks, aspirins, etc.)
6. After discussion, one student from each group gives your group’s decision and reasons to the class. There is not one obvious, best location.

Imagine that you are business people who are going to open a shop or start a business together. There are three possible shops available that you could rent, shown in the maps below. Discuss the alternatives. Decide what type of shop or business would be successful and choose the best neighborhood for it.

Follow up

• Watch this video below:
  
• Do you think your business idea would be successful in your town or the immediate neighborhood around the school, and why/why not?
• Think about the best shop or business proposition for their town or the immediate neighborhood around the school, and where exactly to put it. Think of a good name for your shop or business.
• After discussion, one student from each group explains their group’s idea and reasons to the class.