创业，年少者敢博，年长者善算，常胜者爱拼。一个成功的创业者，三个因素，眼光、胸怀和实力。小编分享关于创业的英语美文，希望可以帮助大家!

关于创业的英语美文：创业离不开朋友,家人和傻瓜

Most entrepreneurs have learned that it's almost always quicker and easier to get cash fromsomeone you know, rather than angel investors or professional venture capitalists. In fact,most investors "require" that you already have some investment from friends and family beforethey will even step up to the plate.

大多数创业者都明白，比起获得天使投资人或专业风险资本家的投资，从熟人那里获得资金几乎总要更快更容易一些。事实上，大多数投资者都“要求”在他们着手研究相关项目之前，创业者已经从他的亲朋好友那里获得了一些投资资金。

You see, investors invest in people, before they invest in ideas or products. Since they don'tknow you (yet), their first integrity check on you as a person is whether your friends andfamily believe in you strongly enough to give you seed money for your new idea. If they won'tdo it, they why would I as stranger invest in you?

众所周知，投资者首先投资的是人，接下来才是创意或产品。因为投资者还不了解创业者，所以他们首先要对创业者的人品审查一番，看看他的亲朋好友是否对他有足够的信任，愿意给他启动新创意的种子资金。如果连亲朋好友都不愿意掏钱，对创业者一无所知的投资者凭什么要向其投资呢?

Friends and family will likely not expect the same level of sophistication on the business modeland financials as a professional investor, but they do expect to see certain things. Here is asummary of some key items to think about as an entrepreneur before approaching friends,family, or even fools:

朋友和家人可能不会像专业投资者那样，要求创业者出具复杂的商业模式和财务信息，但他们的确希望看到确凿的东西。以下是创业者在求助于朋友、家人，甚或是钱多人傻的笨蛋之前需要认真思考的关键环节：

1. Don't be afraid to ask, carefully. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know tooffer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. On the other hand, if youopen every conversation with "I need money," you won't have any friends or any money.Practice your "elevator pitch," and end it by asking for the order.

1. 不要怕开口，言辞需谨慎。如果一位创业者安安稳稳地等待某位熟人为他提供初创企业的启动资金，他或许得熬上相当长一段时间。另一方面，假如创业者逢人就说：“我需要钱，”他恐怕连一个朋友都交不上，更别说筹措到资金了。创业者需要好好练习一下“电梯间演讲”，把要钱的话放到最后来说。

2. Be upbeat and respectful. Nothing kills everyone's optimism and desire to help quicker thana negative or arrogant attitude. If they are going to put cash into your company, chances arethat they will expect to spend a fair amount of time together, either helping you or certainlydiscussing progress. Nobody likes a downer.

2.生气勃勃，毕恭毕敬。没有什么比消极傲慢的态度更能扼杀大伙的信心和提携的意愿。如果大伙打算把钱投入创业者的公司，他们很可能期望跟创业者呆上足够长的时间，要么为他出谋划策，要么讨论公司的进展。没有人喜欢垂头丧气的家伙。

3. Be passionate about the idea. Friends and family will quickly detect your level of sincerityand thought behind the idea. You need to convince them that you have been working on thisvision for a long time, and have done the "due diligence" on all the potential knockoffs.Daydreams and "the idea of the moment" won't get much respect.

3.对创业点子充满激情。朋友和家人很快就能察觉创业者对于创意的真挚程度和思考深度。创业者需要让他们相信自己致力于这个愿景已经有相当长的一段时间，并且对于所有潜在的风险都进行了“尽职调查”。白日梦和“灵光一现”不会得到太大的尊重。

4. Demonstrate progress and your own "skin in the game." Saying that you need money tostart is not nearly as convincing as saying that you have built a prototype on your own dime,but need more to roll it out. We all know people who can talk a good game, but never getaround to building anything.

4.展示进步和创业者“自身的资金投入”。与其说自己需要启动资金，不如说自己已经自筹资金建立了一个样板，但还需要资金将其推向市场，后者更有说服力。我们都见过这样的人，他们说得天花乱坠，但从未付诸于行动。

5. Ask for the minimum rather than the maximum. We would all love to have a million dollars offunding to "do it right" and build the company of our dreams. But your chances are minimal offinding someone who will give you that much to start. Set some milestones for three or fourmonths out, and show what you can do, then ask for more.

5.融资按部就班，不求一蹴而就。我们都想获得一百万美元的融资，“一步到位”地建造自己梦想的公司。但创业者几乎不可能找到一位愿意出这么多钱作为启动资金的人。以三四个月为期设置一些里程碑，展示取得的成果，然后再要求进一步的投资。

6. Communicate the risks, and write down the agreement. Be honest with naive familymembers and friends about the inherent risks of a startup — at least 70% fail in the first fiveyears. Don't take money from family or friends who can't afford to lose it. Think hard about theconsequences of a possible startup failure and the loss of their funding.

6. 告知风险，立字为据。一定要向天真的亲朋好友们坦率的说明创业的固有风险——至少有70%的初创企业可能会在开张前5年倒闭!不要从无力承受损失的家人或朋友那里拿钱。务必要仔细想想创业一旦失败，资金投入损失殆尽的后果。

7. Show some incremental value along the way. Look for ways to get some traction with aminimal product, while you are still developing the main event. In high technology, this is called"release early and iterate," which allows you to make corrections as you go, as well as adjustfor the market changes. It also shows progress to early backers.

7.一步一步地显示递增的价值。创业者依然在开发核心产品的时候，需要设法用外围产品获得市场的某种认同。在高科技领域，这叫做“尽早推出，查漏补缺(release early and iterate)”，这种方式可以让创业者一边开发产品，一边根据市场变化对其进行修正，这样做还可以让早期的支持者看到企业的进步。

8. Network to build investor relationships before you ask for money. Having a real project,rather than just an idea, is a strong positive when networking for angels or VCs. Now you reallyhave something to discuss, and real credibility as an entrepreneur. Build the friendship first,ask for advice on a real project, then maybe money later.

8.融资未动，人脉先行。结交天使投资人或风险资本家，建立人脉的时候，掌握一个实实在在的项目(而不仅仅是一个想法)可以带来非常积极的效果。因为，这样才能切实拥有可资讨论的东西，也才能算得上是名符其实的创业者。先跟投资人建立友谊，就手头真是的项目想他们征求意见，接下来或许就可以开口要钱了。

Overall, don't think of friends and family funding only as a last resort. There are massiveadvantages, like sharing profits with friends and family, as well as the strategic credibility thancan be gained from funding from someone you know, rather than from a professionalinvestor.

总体而言，不要仅仅只把家人和朋友仅仅视为最后的资金渠道。从熟人(而不是一位职业投资者)那里获得创业资金可以带来巨大的好处。它不仅可以让亲朋好友分享利润，还能为创业者积累起具有战略性意义的信誉度。

I hope all of these points seem like common sense to you, and you wouldn't think of handling itany other way. Yet, I'm continually amazed at how often I am approached as a professionalinvestor by strangers asking for a million dollars to fund an idea, without hitting even one ofthe above points.

我希望以上这些对有志创业的人来说都已经是常识，除此之外，别无他法。然而，作为一位专业投资人，我经常碰到一些陌生人，上述几点他们连一项都没有做到，就来向我申请高达100万美元的创业资金。这种事总是让我惊讶不已。

We can all recount horror stories of families and friendships torn apart by money lost onsomeone else's speculative dream. In these cases both the entrepreneur and the fundingpartner are the fools. Don't be one.

我们都听说过这样的悲剧，一些人因为别人的发财梦而蒙受经济损失，最终撕裂了亲情和友情。在这些故事中，充当傻瓜的不仅是创业者，还包括他们的融资伙伴。但愿你不是!

关于创业的英语美文：衰退与创业 Downturn, Start up

Downturn, start up -The effects of recessions on entrepreneurs and managers run deep

衰退与创业 ——经济衰退对企业家和经理人的影响在加剧

THE list of famous companies founded during economic downturns is long and varied. It includes General Motors, AT&T, Disney and MTV, all founded during recessions. A 2009 study found that over half of Fortune 500 companies got their start during a downturn or a bear market. A recession, it seems, may not be an entirely bad time to start a company. Indeed, busts (and booms) cast a longer shadow on the business landscape than is commonly realised, because they influence both the rate of business formation and how existing firms are run.

在经济衰退期间创办的知名企业数量很多，且各式各样的行业都有。通用汽车(General Motors)、美国电话电报公司(AT&T)、迪士尼(Disney)和音乐电视(MTV，全球两大音乐台之一)等都是在经济衰退时创建的。2009年有研究发现，超过一半的财富500强公司都是在衰退或熊市期间创设的。经济衰退时期，看起来并非完全不适合创设新公司。事实上，萧条(或繁荣)对经济的商业环境的影响远比一般人意识到的要深远，因为它们既影响新企业的设立速度又影响现有企业的运营状况。

Some argue that recessions speed up the process of productive economic churn—what Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction”. The destruction part is easy to see: downturns kill businesses, leaving boarded-up windows on the high street as their gravestones. But recessions may also spur the creation of new businesses.

有些人认为，经济衰退可以加快经济结构的调整进程——约瑟夫熊彼特称这为“创造性破坏”。破坏那部分很容易理解：经济衰退让企业倒闭，大街上剩下的那些用木板钉牢的窗户就如同他们的墓碑。然而，经济衰退也可能刺激新行业(企业)的诞生。

When people suddenly have less money to spend, clever entrepreneurs may see an opportunity to set up businesses that give them what they want more cheaply or efficiently. Downturns may also swell the ranks of potential firm creators, because many who might otherwise have sought a stable salary will reinvent themselves as entrepreneurs. A recent study by Robert Fairlie of the University of California, Santa Cruz found that the proportion of Americans who start a new business each month is on average about half as high again in metropolitan areas where unemployment is in double digits as in those where it is under 2%.

当人们的可支配的收入突然减少，敏锐的企业家可能抓住这个机会去兴办企业，生产他们需要的更便宜且更有效的商品。经济衰退也可能扩大潜在创业者的规模，因为很多原本要寻找一个稳定的工作的人，将会重塑自己为企业家。圣克鲁兹的加利福尼亚大学的罗伯特费尔利最近的一项研究发现，在失业率高达两位数的大城市，美国人的月均创业比率大约两倍于那些失业率在2%以下的地区。

A recession is a difficult time to start a company, of course. Credit is scarce. Would-be entrepreneurs are further handicapped by falling asset prices, since they might want to use their homes as collateral for a start-up loan. Whether downturns on balance help or hurt entrepreneurs depends therefore on the relative strength of these opposing sets of forces.

当然，在经济衰退期间创业总是相当艰难的。信用稀缺，且不断下降的资产价格更成为未来的企业家们创业的进一步障碍，因此他们可能以房屋为抵押，从而获得启动资金。因此，资产负债表的恶化对企业家是有利还是有害，取决于他们的相对资本实力。

Mr Fairlie finds evidence that the spur to enterprise during the most recent recession in America from a drying-up of other employment opportunities outweighed the drag on business formation from a collapsing housing market. That said, a shrinking economy also makes it hard for young firms to take root and grow. A study commissioned by the Kaufmann Foundation, an organisation devoted to entrepreneurs, suggests that young companies, typically responsible for the bulk of US job creation, added only 2.3m jobs in 2009, down from about 3m a year earlier.

费尔利在美国最近的经济衰退中发现的证据表明，其他就业机会的枯竭对创业的刺激超过了崩溃的房地产市场的阻碍。也就是说，经济萎缩也使得年轻企业难以扎根和成长。考夫曼基金会(一个致力于研究企业家的组织)资助的一项研究表明，美国大多数就业机会的增加要归功于新企业，在2009年仅增加了230万就业，而在去年这数字是300万左右。

Tough times do not suddenly prompt everyone to start a business. The vast majority of people who reach working age during a downturn still look for a job. But research also suggests that recessions have lasting effects on how executives manage businesses. John Graham of Duke University and Krishnamoorthy Narasimhan of PIMCO, a bond manager, have found that chief executives who lived through the Depression tended to run companies with lower debt levels (leverage then went up when these Depression-era bosses retired). In a new study, Antoinette Schoar and Luo Zuo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology show that companies run many years later by people who cut their teeth during bleak times, when money was tight and customers harder to find, are systematically different from those run by managers whose formative experiences date back to expansionary times, when credit and optimism were in ample supply.

艰难的日子并非突然促使每个人去创业。在衰退时期，绝大多数处于工作年龄的人仍然会去寻找工作。但是有研究表明，衰退对管理层管理企业的方式有着持续的影响。杜克大学的约翰葛拉汉和太平洋投资管理公司(PIMCO)的债券经理Krishnamoorthy Narasimhan发现萧条期间的首席执行官倾向于以更低的债务水平运营公司(在大萧条时代的老板退休以后，公司的财务杠杆将会上升)。在一项新研究中，麻省理工学院(MIT)的安托瓦内特肖尔和佐罗( Luo Zuo)发现，那些曾在黑暗时期(银根紧缩，客户难寻)创业的企业家管理多年的公司，与仅经历扩张时期(信贷充足，且对未来持乐观态度)的企业家的公司有系统性的差别。

By carefully dissecting the careers of over 5,700 bosses of companies that have been on the S&P 1500 list, Ms Schoar and Mr Zuo found that those who began their management careers during a bust were substantially more risk-averse, took on less debt and generally were more conservative managers than the rest of the sample, even many decades later. That will strike critics of the over-leveraged company as thoroughly good news, but it is hard to say whether this effect is entirely benign.

通过详细分析那些公司曾入标普1500(S&P1500)的公司的5700多名老板的职业生涯，肖尔女士和佐先生发现，那些在萧条时期开始管理生涯的人更不愿意冒险，公司的负债更少。此外，即使几十年之后，相对于样本中的其他老板，他们亦更保守。这对于那些指责公司过度负债的批评家来说，应该是彻底的好消息。然而，很难判断这样的效应是否是完全良性的。

Bosses whose careers began in a recession also tend to be so concerned about cost-effectiveness that the companies they go on to run spend less on research and development. They may thus be too conservative: firms with bosses whose professional baptism came in a weak economy have lower returns on assets than those run by other managers.

那些在衰退时期开始管理者生涯的人，倾向于过多地关注企业的成本效益，以致他们研发的投入较少。他们也可能因此变得过于保守：对于那些职业生涯受过经济低迷的严峻考验的老板，他们的企业的资产回报率相比其他老板的要低。

Why should this be? One plausible explanation is that recessions affect the way people take decisions. Management styles are surely in part the result of the kinds of problems a person has had to grapple with. Even a risk-lover may end up taking more conservative financial decisions in a weak economy. If these decisions serve him well in lean times, then he may conclude that fiscal prudence is a stance worth sticking with in years of plenty.

这是为什么呢?一个合理的解释是经济衰退影响人们的决策方式。企业家的管理风格在一定程度上取决于他们过去所应对的各种难题。即使一个风险爱好者也可能在经济不景气的时候最终选择保守的融资决策。如果那些决策在拮据时期给他带来了好处，那么他可能得出这样的结论，即使在经济繁荣的时候，审慎的投融资仍是值得我们持续坚持的立场。

Downturns also funnel people into different jobs from those they might otherwise have entered. A 2008 study by Paul Oyer of Stanford University found that Stanford MBAs disproportionately shunned Wall Street during a bear market. This may seem unsurprising—who wants a job in finance when the market is tanking? But there are reasons to believe that these choices make a difference well into the future. Those who begin their careers in a bust are less footloose than their boom-time equivalents. Ms Schoar and Mr Zuo find that the average recession-scarred chief executive is more likely to have risen through the ranks of a firm than the norm, and is less likely to have switched employers or jumped from one industry to another.

若不存在经济下滑，人们可能会选择不同的工作。2008年，斯坦福大学的保罗奥耶研究发现，斯坦福的工商管理硕士(MBA)在熊市时都或多或少地避免在华尔街就业。这看起来不足为奇——在股市大滑坡之际，又有谁愿意在金融领域工作呢?但是我们有理由相信，这些选择的影响将会波及未来。相比那些在经济繁荣期间开始工作的同行，在萧条期间开创职业生涯的人显得更稳定。肖尔女士和 佐先生发现一般经历过经济衰退的首席执行官有更大的可能是从公司的底层一步步爬上来的，也不大可能跳槽或变换所从事的行业。

The pool of candidates for top jobs in a particular industry reflects the choices that people make early on in their working lives. Yet these choices are the result not only of managers’ preferences and abilities, as you might expect, but also of the economic circumstances that prevailed at the time they began working. Whether they were set up during a boom or a bust, today’s firms are deeply affected by the economic fluctuations of the past.

某一特定行业最高职位可供选择的人才反映了他们在工作初期所做的选择。然而，这些选择不仅仅依赖经理的偏好和工作能力，正如你所预料的，也取决于他们开始工作时所处的经济环境。不管企业是在衰退又或者在繁荣时期创设的，现在的企业都深受过去经济波动的影响。

关于创业的英语美文：你是否适合创业?

Here are five questions to ask before you start your own business:

在你考虑自立门户之前，不妨问问自己以下五个问题：

1. Am I passionate about my product or service? 我对自己的产品或者服务充满热情吗?

Let's face it: the start-up phase is stressful. You will find yourself questioning whetheryou've made the right decision, especially when the hours are long and the initial profits (ifany) are lean. As the business owner, you're also chief salesperson for your company. Yourenthusiasm for your product or service— whether it's hand-knit sweaters or top-notch taxpreparation— is often the difference that hooks customers, lands deals and attracts investors.It's unwise to start down the path of entrepreneurship unless you've got a zeal that will getyou through rough patches and keep you interested long after the initial enthusiasm hasfaded.

让我们直面这样的事实：创业初期你会面临压力很大。你会发现自己在不断质疑是否做出了正确的决策，尤其是在工作时间很长、但最初的利润却很少的情况下。作为企业所有人，你还是企业的主要销售人员。你对于自己产品或者服务──无论它是手织毛衫还是一流的税务服务──的热情常常是抓住客户、取得合约以及吸引投资者的与众不同之处。除非你抱有能够帮助自己度过艰难时日并且在最初的热情逐渐消退之后的很长时间里仍能保持浓厚兴趣的热忱，否则开始创业之路将是不明智的选择。

2. What is my tolerance for risk? 我容忍风险的程度如何?

Whether it's quitting your day job or signing a lease on a new space, nothing about startinga business is for the faint of heart. Just ask Ina Garten, who bought a specialty-foods storecalled The Barefoot Contessa in East Hampton, New York, in 1978 and has since branched outinto cookbooks, television and a line of products. Garten tells aspiring entrepreneurs that youhave to 'be willing to jump off the cliff and figure out how to fly on the way down.' Even withenough passion to launch a thousand ventures, you could find any number of circumstanceshastening your failure: a location that turns out to be less than ideal, a problem with city orstate zoning boards or a kink in the supply chain that can't easily be ironed out. There's noguarantee of success, or even a steady paycheck. If you're risk-averse, entrepreneurshipprobably isn't the right path for you.

无论是辞掉平日的工作，还是签署新的租约，创业的方方面面都不是为意志薄弱的人准备的。问问艾娜 加滕(Ina Garten)就好了。她在1978年买下了纽约州东汉普敦的一家特色食品商店The Barefoot Contessa，从此一发不可收拾，扩展至烹饪书籍、电视等领域，并推出了一系列产品。加滕告诉那些满怀抱负的企业家，你必须“愿意跳下悬崖，搞清楚在下降的过程中如何飞行。”即便你有足够的热情推出一千家企业，你还是可能会发现加速失败的各种情形：不太理想的地点，与城市或者州分区有关的麻烦，无法轻易摆脱的供应链问题等等。没有成功的保证，甚至是稳定的薪水。如果你不愿冒险，创业恐怕不是适合你走的路。

3. Am I good at making decisions? 我善于做出决策吗?

No one else is going to make them for you when you own your own business. Consider howyou might handle these early decisions: Do I work from home or do I lease office space? Do Ihire employees? Do I pursue high-end clients or sell to the masses? Do I incorporate? Do Iadvertise? Do I borrow money from friends or family? Do I use my entire savings? Keep inmind that the decision-making process only gets more complicated as time goes on, once youhave employees or clients depending on you. The choices you make can lead to success ordownfall, so you must feel confident in your ability to make the right call.

当你拥有自己的企业后，别人不会为你做出决策。想想你可能会怎么应对这些早期的决策：我是在家办公，还是在外租用办公室?我要不要雇佣员工?我要争取高端客户，还是面向大众销售?我要不要组建法人公司?我要不要打广告?我要不要从朋友或者家人那里借钱?我要不要用掉自己所有的积蓄?记住，一旦你开始有员工或者客户依赖于你，决策的过程只会随着时间的推移愈加复杂。你所做出的决策可能会直接导致成功或者失败，因此你必须对自己做出正确决策的能力充满信心才行。

4. Am I willing to take on numerous responsibilities? 我愿意承担多方面的责任吗?

While a corporate employee focuses on a special skill or role within the largercorporation, a business owner must contribute everything to the business. Soloentrepreneurs in particular must be versatile and play a number of roles, from chiefsalesperson and bookkeeper to head marketer and bill collector. If juggling many rolesdoesn't suit you, entrepreneurship probably won't, either. The recent economic downturn hasmade it more important than ever for business owners to have a good working knowledge oftheir companies' finances. While you will undoubtedly learn much on this topic from getting yourhands dirty, the more knowledge you have in advance, the better prepared you'll be.

虽然企业的员工往往会关注一种特殊的技能或者角色，但是企业主必须为企业尽其所能。尤其是单打独斗的创业者必须是多面手，发挥多种作用，从销售、会计，到市场营销、收款，他要无所不能。如果在许多角色之间不断转换不适合你的话，创业可能也不会适合你。最近的经济衰退更使企业主深谙企业财务变得无比重要。虽然你无疑将会从实践中不断学习财务知识，但是你提前知道的越多，你就越有准备。.

5. Will I be able to avoid burnout? 我能够避免身心透支吗?

Working seven days a week, losing touch with friends, abandoning old hobbies andinterests and not making time for loved ones can quickly lead to burnout in the midst ofstarting up— and ultimately to business failure. That's what happened to James Zimbardi, anentrepreneur in Orlando, Florida, who says he didn't know any better when he started his firstcompany in 1997 and worked as hard as possible, for as long as possible, until his creativity,enthusiasm and energy were sapped. By 2002, he was a broken man— the business took adownturn, and so did his personal life. Now Zimbardi is at work on his second company, AllgenFinancial Services, and sticking to better habits to maintain work/life balance, such as notworking on Sundays, making time for hobbies such as sailing and salsa dancing, and buildingclose ties with other business owners through a faith-based support network.

一周七天整日忙于工作，与朋友失去联系，放弃原来的爱好和兴趣，无法为自己所爱的人抽出时间，这些都可能会很快导致创业过程中的身心透支──并且最终导致企业破产。这正是佛罗里达州奥兰多的创业者詹姆斯 辛巴迪(James Zimbardi)的经历。辛巴迪说，他在1997年成立自己第一家公司的时候懵懵懂懂，只会拼命努力工作，废寝忘食，直到他的创造力、热情和精力消失殆尽。到2002年的时候，他已经是一个散了架的人──企业陷入了低迷期，而他的个人生活也遭遇了挫折。如今，辛巴迪正在组建他的第二家公司Allgen FinancialServices，这次他坚持保持良好的习惯维持工作、生活平衡，比如说周日不工作，为帆船和风情拉丁舞等爱好留出时间，通过一个宗教信仰支持网络与其他企业主建立密切的关系等等。

Take some time to mull over these questions, do some soul-searching, and then if youthink you have what it takes, go for it.

花点时间想想这些问题，不妨进行深刻的自我反省。如果你还是认为自己具备创业所需的条件，那么就放手去干吧。