Hi,
I was looking at the Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary for the word 'business' and it noted this among others.
N-SING
You can use business when describing a task that is unpleasant in some way.
For example, if you say that doing something is a costly business, you mean it costs a lot.
My question is why the underlined part has no article when it is told to be a singular noun and when the example that follows it seems to have an article in front of the noun?