(单词翻译:单击)
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm honoured to have this opportunity to talk to you.
大家早上好！很高兴有机会做这次演讲。
Eight years ago, I bought my first computer, but I soon discovered that where I lived, it was difficult to find accessories for that particular make. That made me realise that other people must have the same problem.
八年前，我买了我人生的第一台电脑，但很快我就发现在我住的那个地方买不到相应的配件。这也让我意识到其他人肯定也会遇到这个问题。
Then I found that foreign magazines contained plenty of advertisements of mail order companies, so I started buying spare parts and things that way and selling them on to my friends at a small profit. That was how my company, Manshee, was born. Four years later, Manshee was making a profit and had reached a turnover of six million pounds. We had four directors - myself and three of my friends - plus a staff of seventeen. The culture was young and the working environment didn't have any structure. The company just grew and grew with its own momentum, and everything we did seemed to strike lucky. If we needed to buy some equipment or redecorate the sales office, we decided yes or no in isolation, only taking the short term - usually the cash flow for that month - into account.
后来我发现很多外国杂志上都有很多支持邮件下单的品牌的广告，所以我就开始邮件下单买一些配件什么的，然后以比较优惠的价格卖给我的朋友。就这样，我创立了我的公司Manshee。四年后，Manshee开始盈利了，营业额达到了600万英镑。我们公司有四位董事——分别是我和我的三个朋友——十七名员工。公司员工的年龄结构偏年轻，工作环境也比较轻松。我们公司就那么自发地发展壮大，好像我们做任何事情都能碰到好运气。如果需要买设备或者装修营业部，我们也是自己决定，而且也只会考虑短期的利益，一般也就是当月的周转。
However, the market became increasingly cut throat, and that led to falling margins. We realised, rather unwillingly, that the time had come to structure our future, but we didn't really have much idea how to set about it. So we went to a firm of consultants who specialise in helping small businesses, and it proved a turning point. They insisted that we four directors sit down and rank our investments in order of importance for the coming years. It seems obvious now, but we'd never realised the value of doing it before.
然而，随着市场的竞争越来越激烈，我们的利润开始缩水了。我们意识到，尽管很大程度上都是被形势所逼，是时候规划规划未来了，但当时我们并不知道具体应该怎么着手。我们便找了一个专门帮助小企业出谋划策的企业顾问，这一决策成了我们公司的转折点。顾问们坚持让我们四位董事坐下来理清接下来几年我们的投资比重。现在看来这一举措似乎是理所当然的，但当时我们并没有意识到这么做有多重要。
