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Describe A Small Business You Want To Start: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What business would it be?
  • When do you want to start it?
  • Why have you not started it yet?
Show all 33 answers

Cue 1:What business would it be?

  • Begin by clearly stating the type of small business you want to start, such as a café, online store, or tutoring service.
  • Explain what makes this business unique or appealing to you, and how it relates to your interests or skills.

Example

I would like to start a small café that specializes in serving traditional Indian snacks and beverages. I have always been passionate about cooking and sharing my family recipes, and I believe that a cozy café would be a great way to connect with my community while promoting our rich culinary heritage.


Cue 2:When do you want to start it?

  • Mention a specific timeline for when you plan to launch the business, such as in the next few months or after completing your studies.
  • Discuss any preparations or steps you need to take before starting, which can help clarify your timeline.

Example

I hope to start my café within the next six months. I am currently working on developing a business plan and saving some money to invest in the initial setup. I also want to take a short course on business management to ensure I have the necessary skills to run it successfully.


Cue 3:Why have you not started it yet?

  • Be honest about the reasons for the delay, such as financial constraints, lack of experience, or personal commitments.
  • Emphasize your determination to overcome these challenges and your commitment to starting the business in the future.

Example

I haven't started my café yet mainly due to financial constraints. I want to ensure I have enough funds to create a welcoming environment and offer quality products. Additionally, I am currently focused on my studies, which takes up a lot of my time. However, I am determined to overcome these challenges and make my dream a reality.


Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, starting a small café is a dream of mine that I am passionate about. While I face some challenges, I am committed to preparing myself and taking the necessary steps to launch it in the near future. I believe that with hard work and dedication, I can turn this dream into a successful business.


    Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.


    Tips to answer this Cue Card

    1: Vague Business Ideas

    Being unclear about the business idea can confuse the listener. It's important to provide specific details about what the business is and how it operates.

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    Tip

    Clearly outline the business concept, including its purpose and target market, to make your answer more engaging and informative.


    2: Lack of Timeline

    Not mentioning when you plan to start the business can make your response seem incomplete. A timeline adds depth to your answer.

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    Tip

    Include a specific timeframe for when you want to start the business, and explain any steps you plan to take to reach that goal.


    Ignoring Challenges

    Failing to address why you haven't started the business yet can make your answer seem unrealistic. Acknowledging challenges shows thoughtfulness.

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    Tip

    Discuss any obstacles you face and how you plan to overcome them, which demonstrates your commitment and planning skills.


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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

    Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

    Answer

    I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.

    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

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    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

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    The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.

    Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

    Answer

    As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.

    Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

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    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

    Answer

    When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.

    Describe a book you recently read
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

    Answer

    It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 6

    When I am older, I would really wish to start a makeup business, simply because I am really fond of makeup. I have seen the founder of Nykaa and many other celebrities like Rihanna, Kylie, starting their own makeup brands and that has inspired me a lot. I haven't yet started it because I don't have enough resources, funds, and I don't think I have the appropriate knowledge to put into the business. I don't have the management skills as of now, so yeah, once I have them, I have enough resources, I earn that much, I will definitely start my own business in makeup. I really wish to start, I would like to make it a hundred billion company.

    Band 6

    A small business that I would like to start is a cloud kitchen in our own sweet home. I would like to start a small business that I would like to start is a cloud kitchen in our own sweet home. I would like to start a small business that I would like to start is a cloud kitchen in our own sweet home. A small business that I would like to start soon is a cloud kitchen. Cloud kitchens are included in the food industry and they are new in trend. With the growing industry of food and food items, it is a good decision on my part, I think. I would like to open this kitchen in my own house in a separate kitchen apart from our own when we make our own food. I plan to get help from my mother and my brother for this endeavour. This is going to start in the middle part of next year, the first half. I have not started it yet because I do not have enough funds and time to spend on this new business. The food items that I would include in this cloud kitchen are parathas and rice with Indo-Chinese cuisine. Italian pasta and pizzas that are made at home and taste like home as well. I plan to provide good quality food that is like home to my customers and register my cloud kitchen on Swiggy and Zomato that are food delivering apps which can help me send food to my customers as well.

    Band 6

    I would have to say I've been really interested in clothing ever since I was a child, so the company I would like to start is a clothing based company. As soon as I'm able to get enough money and have enough time, I would like to start a clothing company. I'm really interested in it as I wanted to create a specific clothing brand, like it's very minimalist, so like there isn't many flashy logos or flashy designs, just a plain back shirt and maybe the behind could have certain logos, so it looks cool from the back view and it's really minimalistic, so it doesn't stand out much but it doesn't make you look bad. It's like a clean aesthetic, so it makes you look good but isn't too flashy or too nonchalant but it still looks good. In the future I would like to add more SKUs as well, like shoes, shorts, even more apparel like bands etc. All would be really interesting to me. I would also like to collaborate with other brands, like certain anime brands, so I could use their characters or their art style to put it on the back to look nice or to keep it on the sleeves to have certain designs, like there's a certain anime called Naruto, it has certain cloud patterns for the villains that would look really cool, I know they already have that but I could put my own twist to it to make it look better, make it feel better and make it more popular than it already is, but I think I would like to include my style into that so I could bring it up and make it better. In the future also I would like to collaborate with other clothing companies so I could put my clothes in their stores so they could be more popular and they could be widespread around the world, so I think that would be a really good addition to the clothing brand.

    Band 6

    I want to start a nursery full of plants of different breeds and different types. I really like nature very much. What is more beautiful than seeing a seed growing into a plant? This is the idea I got and I didn't implement this idea till now because I need still money to make this come true. What I believe is people should grow plants more because oxygen is getting decreased in the villages. By planting so many trees, oxygen will be increased and carbon dioxide can also be increased so that both oxygen and carbon dioxide get balanced. My parents are very supportive to the idea of nursery to be established in my hometown. They also said they will provide some help. I didn't expect that help from them.

    Band 6

    A business that I would like to start is a business of Airbnb which is quite trending nowadays as many people are setting a business of Airbnb which does not require much thing just you need to have a small house or some middle-class house in which you decorate it aesthetically and people come to stay over there so nowadays people travel a lot with friends with families alone so they need a place to stay a beautiful place to stay so that this business is quite trending nowadays because in today's generation people loves to travel so why not that and I want to start this like in the next year as right now I'm working as a designer so I'm just earning right now I'm just saving my all the money

    Band 6

    I want to start a road infrastructure company I have not started it because lacking in some experience first I have to gain some experience in it and more over reason behind it not starting the company yet is that I want that is funding problem currently saving money for this business ideas and I'm also looking for investors who can invest in my business I have experience of around two to three year two to two and five years in the road infrastructure companies and I want to start my own company and for that I needed a big budget and experience and a connection with the authorities to get the new projects furthermore I need big machineries experienced workers site engineer which can help me in building the road and a trustworthy hard-working staff in the help of all these this I'm going to start the company soon once I get the full experience of managing the funding and I want to start a small software company manufacturing company software building software development company I want to start a software development company which is helpful in generating AI based web application or mobile applications and I have done my start a software development company which makes AI based softwares web application and mobile applications I want to start this project after my company after completing my master's first of all I want to gain some experience in AI generation actually I have experience in mobile development web development but gain more I want to gain more experience in AI that is artificial intelligence furthermore I have not started this company that I'm financially not strong as much as I have needed to be start a company I'm saving money for that and I also need some techies techies means I need some technical advanced persons who can help me in building the softwares the web applications two of my friends are ready to start the company with me and I need some more persons who can handle the background that is financial and financial or some land areas and networking so I need some other other experts in the other areas actually I am in good in web development and app development my friend is good in AI and another is good in AI also but I need some persons who are good at networking accounting marketing so we need a proper team to start this project and after completing my master's that is after two and half year I will definitely going to start this company

    Band 6

    A small business that I would like to start is packaged cooking essentials. Cooking essentials in the sense I am mentioning the ingredients that we use to cook like the masalas, all the Indian cooking ingredients. This thought of starting this business came in me because my mom used to prepare all these things from home. She stopped buying it from outside from the packaged ones and there are people preferring to use homemade items these days. I haven't started it yet because I require some proper guidance on how to do it and also some investment of money is required. The one thing I want to do is I want to do it properly like getting his government registered, getting it certified and also the packaging should be neat and I want to give it a quality one to the public. So I am waiting to start this one. Maybe by next year I would like to start this to help support my mom's interest. I will need to do a lot of research on what should be printed on the packaging like the ingredients and the estimation amount while comparing it to the public outside. The amount should not be very cheap but also it should be comparatively easily accessible by

    Band 6

    One business that I wanted to start since many years, I am thinking of starting is the business of undergarments. I feel that this is the business that I want to start is because everybody, each and every person in this world requires and it is very basic requirement to wear undergarments. So, hence it is a necessity of each and every individual from poor to the rich background. So, I think my business will grow very soon and the reason I have not started it yet is because I don't have enough funds and right now I am studying and busy in my studies. So, once I complete my studies, I will think of starting this business.

    Band 6

    I always wanted to start my own ramen shop so in the near future I do believe that my passion for food will drive me to own a ramen bowl shop where I see myself working as an entrepreneur rather than working for someone else and I always wanted to be my own boss and that's the reason why I always wanted to open this ramen bowl shop in my locality because nowadays on social media it's been visible that people are loving the taste and it's being

    Band 6

    I am planning to start an integrative farming business. It is related to the agriculture that in a small unit of area we will make more units like poultry unit, fishery unit and horticulture unit and agroforestry and so on. From there until now I have not started yet the business because still I am studying, still I am pursuing my graduation. After completion of my B.Sc. under graduation I should complete my post graduation. Then I am capable of doing the integrative farming system which I have an idea.
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