5. Recruitment. The letter of application. Cv.

When a company needs to recruit or employ new people, it may decide to advertise the job or position in the appointing page of newspaper. People who are interested can then apply for the job by sending in a letter of application and CV containing details of their education experience. The company will then draw up a list of candidates, who are invited to attend an interview.

The letter of application normally contains three or more paragraphs in which you should: a)confirm that you wish to apply where you learned about the job; b)say why you are interested in this position; c)show what you can contribute to the job by highlighting your most relevant skills and experience; d)indicate your willingness to attend an interview.

CV should consist of these paragraphs: personal details, education, professional experience, interests, additional skills and references if there are any.

6. Markets and monopolies. Markets. Competition. Monopoly.

Whenever people who are willing to sell a commodity contact people willing to buy it, a market for that commodity is created. Buyers and sellers meet in person, or they may communicate by letter, by phone or through their agents. In a perfect market communication are easy, buyers and sellers are numerous and competition is completely free. There can be only one price for a given commodity: the lowest price which sellers will accept and the highest which consumers will pay. But there are no really perfect markets.

In a market systems, competition answers the basic economic questions. Competition among producers is for the highest profit. Competition among consumers is for the best goods and services at the lowest price. Obtaining the highest profits and the best goods at the lowest price are the only motives the market system considers.

In some markets there may be only one seller or a very limited number of sellers. Such a situation is called a “monopoly”. There are some kinds of monopolies: natural monopoly, legal monopoly and the sole trading opportunities.

7. Pricing policies.

Everybody, who wants to start his own business, must know, that it’s very important to attract the customers. There are many ways to do it. For example, to introduce new items of goods.

Economists say that the most important thing for sellers is to charge the appropriate price for goods. There are two types of pricing policy: price emphasis and price de-emphasis.

Price emphasis policy emphasizes low prices. And this encourages sales. We must know that it has a weak point, because this policy doesn’t provide extra services. But it let sellers get more money, because this price determines a big number of sales.

A good example of price emphasis is “loss leader” pricing. It means that a seller chooses one item and sells it at very low price. There is also off-even pricing or “odd-pricing”.

Businessman must start with specially low prices in order to compete with well-known goods. He can raise the price when his customers get accustomed to a new brand, and they will continue to buy it.

Next type of pricing policy (price de-emphasis) concerns high quality expensive items. Seller doesn’t call attention to the price at all. Sometimes when the price rises, it convince some customers that the product must be of high quality, or will soon become very hard to get. And this may increase sales.