Hello everybody!
Today we are going to have a look at three idioms with chickens you can use when you speak about business.
#1 Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Imagine this situation. Joe has a lot of eggs. He is very pleased. If he has a lot of eggs, he will also have a lot of chickens, right? Joe is excited. He starts doing his math. He counts the number of chickens he’s going to have. But these chickens haven’t hatched yet. This means they are still inside the eggs. Counting the chickens and relying on their number could be risky. You never know what can happen. It’s very sad, but some might not hatch at all. Some eggs might be stolen by egg thieves. Some might be eaten by predators visiting the hen house, like foxes. You have to put up with reality. Not every single egg will give you a chicken.
When it comes to business, there is a lot of risk involved. It’s just like hatching chickens. When you sell something, you have to be realistic and expect losses. For example, when you sell goods in a store. Some goods might get damaged during transportation. Sometimes you will have to sell your goods for a lower price than you expected. You might have fewer sales than you had previously expected. Sadly, some people are thieves and steal goods, just like foxes sometimes steal eggs from hen houses. If you have some products to sell, it doesn’t mean all of them are going to be sold. If you have goods worth a certain price, it doesn’t mean you will get that specific amount of money. You shouldn’t be unnerved when it’s lower. You have to count the hatched chickens. In this case, it means the money from the sold goods.
#2 Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Now that we have discussed the risks of chicken breeding, let’s have a look at this expression. As we know, Joe has a lot of eggs and hopefully, he will get a lot of chickens as well. He wants to keep things organized. And so he puts all his eggs in one basket. But unfortunately, Joe’s cat jumps on the table and pushes down the basket with the eggs. They all break. No chickens will hatch from these eggs. Not now. Joe thinks, “I shouldn’t have put all my eggs in one basket.”
Thankfully, Joe’s hens lay more eggs. But this time Joe will be wiser. He won’t put all his eggs in one basket. He will place his eggs into multiple baskets. There will be a higher probability of the eggs surviving. If Joe’s cat causes some eggs to break, there will be more eggs to count on. There is a lower probability of Joe’s cat destroying all the eggs.
In business, things sometimes do go wrong. Some business plans don’t work, customers aren’t interested in the product, some important machinery breaks down, or there is road construction near a shop, which causes people to stop going there due to its difficult accessibility. Sometimes people don’t need the product anymore. There can be many problems and many scenarios which are bad for the business. The situation can change very quickly and dramatically. That is why it’s important to be prepared. You never know when a cat will come and knock something down. If someone has more businesses, we can say they have multiple streams of income. This way if one business doesn’t work, there will still be other businesses to help them pay the bills.
There are different opinions regarding this expression. Some experienced businessmen tell people this piece of advice, “Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket.” This means that you should focus on one thing at a time. As your business grows, it’s wise to put your eggs into more baskets. This way you can be better prepared for a crisis.
#3 Chicken and egg situation
There is a philosophical question. Which came first? The chicken, or the egg? What do you think? You need an egg so that a chicken can hatch from it. But you need a chicken, which grows up to become a hen so that it can lay the actual egg. This problem seems to have no solution.
When we discuss business, there are more chicken and egg situations. For example, getting customer reviews for your product can be a chicken and egg situation. You need to have reviews to sell your product. When a potential customer looks at your product and sees tons of good reviews, they think, “This must be a great product!” This way reviews increase sales. But to get reviews, you need to make sales first. This seems to be a chicken and egg situation right here.
We can speak about the chicken and egg situation when we discuss the job market. When you look at job advertisements, companies require experience from their potential employees. And now imagine a person who has freshly graduated from school. He doesn’t have much experience, because he has been busy studying. But to gain experience, he needs to get a job first. But how can he get a job if every potential employer requires job experience? It’s simply a chicken and egg situation.
These chicken idioms can also be used in other areas of life, not only business. I hope you find this useful.