What a short company profile includes
A meeting profile is not a brochure. Four parts are enough: the company, how it sells, the decision and how you will check it. In this fictional example, the market fact leads to the decision.
- Company: “Alder Works, a 34-person Bristol manufacturer of modular shop displays.”
- Market: “It sells through two regional agents; repeat customers provide 61 per cent of orders.”
- Decision: “Lina Perez will test a repair service with ten repeat customers.”
- Measure: “Record take-up, repair time and customer feedback after eight weeks.”
Numbers before nouns: “a 34-person company”
When a number and a noun describe another noun, add a hyphen and keep the noun singular. After a verb, the plural returns: “The company has 34 people.” “Eight” starts with a vowel sound, so say “an eight-week trial”.
- “a 34-person company” – a company with 34 people
- “a ten-customer trial” – a trial with ten customers
- “an eight-week trial” – a trial that lasts eight weeks
- “a one-minute talk” – a talk that lasts one minute
Percentages: 61 per cent of what?
“Repeat customers provide 61 per cent of orders” is about orders, not customers: a few loyal shops can place most of the orders. Always say the noun.
The verb agrees with the noun after “of”: “61 per cent of orders come …”, but “40 per cent of our turnover comes …”. “Per cent” never takes -s; without a number, say “percentage”.
- “Repeat customers account for 61 per cent of our orders.”
- “Over half of our orders come from repeat customers.”
From the key fact to the next step
Agree on the fact first, then the action. “Should” makes a recommendation. Once the team agrees, the profile records the decision with “will”: “Lina Perez will test a repair service.” Both take the base verb: “should test”, not “should tests”.
Maya Which fact should guide our company profile?
Owen Repeat customers produced sixty-one per cent of orders.
Maya What should we do next?
Owen Lina Perez should test a repair service with ten repeat customers and review the results after eight weeks.
Owner, review date and measures
A decision needs one named owner, a review date and two or three measures. “Take-up” is how many people use a new service. “Feedback” is uncountable: never “feedbacks”.
“After eight weeks” means when eight weeks have passed; “within eight weeks” means at any time before they end.
- Owner: “Lina Perez, our managing director, will run the trial.”
- Review date: “We will review the results after eight weeks.”
- Measures: “We will record take-up, repair time and customer feedback.”
Facts, expectations and a one-minute talk
Use the past simple for last year’s figures (“61 per cent of orders came from repeat customers”) and “expect” for hopes (“We expect most of the ten customers to try it”). Say “The figures suggest”, not “prove”: repeat orders show trust, not a need for repairs. A model to adapt:
- “Alder Works is a 34-person manufacturer in Bristol. We make display stands for independent shops.”
- “Last year, repeat customers produced 61 per cent of our orders.”
- “So Lina Perez will test a repair service with ten of them, and we will review the results after eight weeks.”
- Why? “They already use our stands, so they are the most likely to need repairs.”
Common mistakes
These weaken a profile:
- “a 34-persons company” No plural before a noun: “a 34-person company”.
- “61 percents of orders” No -s: “61 per cent of orders”.
- “61 per cent of our customers” Wrong if your figure counts orders: “61 per cent of our orders”.
- “Lina should tests the service.” Base verb after “should”: “Lina should test the service.”
- “We will collect feedbacks.” “Feedback” has no plural: “We will collect feedback.”
A 10-minute daily practice routine
Goal: a one-minute spoken profile with one proposal.
- 2 minutes: describe your company with three numbers before nouns (“a 50-person team”).
- 2 minutes: say three percentages from your work, each with its noun.
- 3 minutes: repeat the conversation above, then answer its two questions for your company.
- 3 minutes: record your one-minute profile and check: one fact, one owner, one date, two or three measures.
- Weekly: discuss which fact best supports a change you want, and what result would stop it.
What comes next
Next, apply the same pattern of fact, owner and time to visits: an English visitor schedule with three hosts. At B1, a shared-workspace agreement balances two teams’ needs and sets a review date.