Every business requires formal and professional attitude for success. English language connects you to global clients and lets you expand your business in the right direction.  Therefore, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the language, both written and spoken communication.

If you work in an English-speaking environment, you might have come across these business phrasal verbs in meetings or conferences.

10 Business Phrasal Verbs

1. Lay off

Meaning- If an employee is laid off, he/she loses her job; the company terminates their employment.
Examples
- Infosys laid off 10,000 employees last month.
- Next week, a couple of employees are going to be laid off.

2. To turn (something) down

Meaning- To reject an offer
Examples
- XYZ company turned down the proposal.
- Kareena turned down the offer to work with Shahid.

3. Draw up

Meaning – To draw up an agreement, a contract, a list, etc., means to compose the document and put it in written form.
Examples
- Our legal advisor will draw up a contract and send it to you for  review.
- Sheena asked her executive to draw up a contract and send it to the manager.

4. Burn out

Meaning – To burn out means to work too hard, to become stressed and exhausted.
Examples
- If you work for 12 hour a day, you’ll burn out within a month.
- There is no use in burning out for the company if it’s not rewarding you for your efforts.

5. Zero in on

Meaning – To zero in (on something or someone) means to focus closely on it.
Examples
- I think we need to zero in  to check what will actually work.
- Kavita just zeroed in on us to get some more ideas for our promotion.

6. Run by/past

Meaning – To run something by/past someone means to show an idea or proposal to that person and ask for their approval or feedback.
Examples
- The ideas are fantastic, why don’t you run them by boss and ask for his approval.
- I think we must run it through Deepa before executing it.

7. Close down

Meaning – If a company, program, factory, etc., closes down, it means it stops operating.
Examples
-The company was closed down due to high cost for maintenance.
- Looking at the company’s current balance sheet, I think it will be closed down soon.

8. Pencil in

Meaning – To pencil in an appointment means to set the appointment, but not confirm it as final.
Examples
- Lets pencil in a meeting for next Monday if there are no other meetings scheduled.
- We can pencil in a lunch for next week.

9. Get ahead

Meaning – To get ahead means to be successful in your career or life; to make more progress than others:
Examples
- Make enough connections to get ahead in media industry.

10. To cut back on

Meaning- To consume less
Examples
- Meena can you send me the list of unwanted expenses that we incur so that I can cut back on.

You will understand the above business phrases only with improved English skills. You can join a Spoken English course to learn English.

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