VOA标准英语2010年-Young Entrepreneurs Tackle Tough US Ec

The Greek philosopher Plato said necessity is the mother of invention.  And in tough economic times, innovation is essential for job seekers.  With 10 percent of the U.S. workforce¹ unemployed², some entrepreneurs are seizing opportunity.  For young people entering the labor³ market, creating a business can be an appealing option.

Zach Cutler is a 22-year-old recent university graduate who started a small Washington, D.C. public relations and business development firm last year.  He says finding a job out of college was tough and contributed to his decision to start his own business.

"I think in normal times I would have probably had more opportunity in corporate⁴ America.  I think because of the economy, there weren't as many openings.  It was very challenging and I decided⁵ I didn't want to look anymore.  So I created the Cutler Group," he says.

The Cutler Group works with clients to help their businesses grow through publicity⁶ and development plans.  Their clients range from health care professionals to media groups and government officials.  Although the job market influenced his career path, Cutler says that the poor economy has given him an advantage. "I think the economy has been good for my business because organizations or companies that in good times might look to hire a big PR firm or a big consulting firm, during these times, they don't have that kind of budget.  Because I'm a new company, I really offer them a great deal," he says.

For recent college graduates, the road to owning a successful business can be rocky.  Census⁷ data from 2007 and 2008 show that young people under the age of 25 make up less than three percent of America's self-employed.

Nake Kamrany, an economist⁸ at the University of Southern California, says entrepreneurs like Cutler do several things for a society.

"The entrepreneur creates a new product - it creates a new market; it creates a new source of supply; it creates new management.  And it starts a new business.  So they are the engines of economic growth throughout the world," he says.

Kamrany says entrepreneurs face two major challenges - creating an idea and securing funding for it.  An entrepreneur's product or service must sound feasible and marketable, enough to convince people to become investors⁹.

Often, an entrepreneur's ideas do not fit conventional wisdom or they seem unrealistic.  This can make it difficult to find funding.  Many entrepreneurs have to deal with a lot of initial rejection¹⁰.  And they face pressure to make money quickly, before others copy their ideas.

But Kamrany says persistence¹¹ eventually turns many start-ups into successful ventures.

"Like for instance, there was a young person who came to me some years back and he said that he wanted to start a solar energy business.  At that time, the solar energy business was such that it could not compete with oil and gas and oil.  And therefore, when he went to banks, they would not give him any loans.  And then last year when I saw him, he had a company and it was worth several million dollars," he says.

Some young entrepreneurs, like 22-year-old Andrew Hearst, say that the economy had no influence on their decision to start a business.  Hearst and his partner, Ben Gluckstern, launched a bike-sharing program called NY Cycles in 2009.  By 2012, they hope to set up a network of pick-up and drop-off locations for rented bicycles throughout New York City.

Hearst says that he and Gluckstern encounter the same difficulties all entrepreneurs face, but once or twice their youth created a small issue.  Hearst remembers startling members of a consulting firm when they met for the first time.

"And these guys were in their 30s or so, and here I am with my partner.  We're still in our senior year of college, and these guys show up and they were totally expecting someone older in suits.  But we were just in a small little office that we were borrowing from Ben's boss.  And I think they were a little disappointed.  I'm not sure if that's the right word, but they were surprised nonetheless," he says.

Hearst says that the meeting went well.  The consulting firm took them seriously when he and Gluckstern showed how much they knew about their market. 

Andrew Hearst and Zach Cutler know their ventures will take persistence, something economist Nake Kamrany says all entrepreneurs need, regardless of age.  And their success, he says, is crucial to a nation's economy.

"The point is this - the growth of a country is a function of how many entrepreneurs they have," he says.

In these tough economic times, Kamrany says the U.S. economy needs business innovation more than ever.

 

1 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

2 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

7 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

10 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

11 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。