BEC剑桥英语高级真题4 Test 1-Part 6-The

Last year, Jenny Selwyn spent several months through pondering how to expand her six-year-old business, JS Couture. More than half of her annual turnover was tied up in stock to show to prospective brides, her retail outlet-cum-workshop was situated down a back street in a tiny town, and advertising was not boosting sales up. One way to expand would have been to do more wholesaling, but this seemed inappropriate for her customised design service. The margins from wholesalers, and who might also be slow payers, were not attractive. Far better would it be to open a second retail shop with much higher margins and better cashflow, thanks in part to payment by customers of a 30% deposit. Unless there were worries about the signing a five-year lease on another retail shop, and leasing and then managing a second site, as well done as coping with the extra workload. However, with the support of her loyal four-strong workforce, Jenny took on a chance, and business growth proved not to be too much stressful. Within a year, turnover has more than doubled, and net profit improved dramatically. There is little if anything to suggest that this success is not set to continue, and the message comes from JS Couture is clear: small businesses should think big.

去年，Jenny Selwyn花了几个月去思考如何扩大她公司（JS Courture）六年的老业务.她的年营业额的一半以上都用做建库存来展示给准新娘看，她的零售店铺兼工作间位于小镇的后街上，而广告并没有能提升销售额。扩张的一种方式是做更多的批发业务，但这似乎不适合她的定制设计服务。来自批发商的利润看上去并不吸引人，他们可能付款期也很长。最好能开第二家有高利润和好的现金流的零售商店，主要的原因是客户支付30%的定金。她担心要在另一家零售商签下为期五年的租赁合同，然后租赁并管理第二商店，以及应付额外的工作量。然而，在四位忠实员工的支持下，Jenny抓住了这个机会，业务的增长使得压力并没有太大。在一年里，营业额增长了超过一倍，净利润也大幅增长。几乎没有任何迹象表明这种成功不会持续下去，JS Couture传递出的信息很明确：小企业应该大胆思考。