Transmigration: Lady Chi Woos The Ice cold Professor Jun
Chapter 530: The women in business conference

Chapter 530: The women in business conference

The palace hotel in the capital was always booked and busy. As one of the biggest and loveliest hotels in the city it played host to the most extravagant weddings with couples that donned imported gowns and millions worth of jewelry, the most lavish business meetings where the most expensive wines were served to impress potential or new business partners, more than one celebrity fan meeting a month with screaming fans and proud celebrities. For the next two days, it would play host to the women in business conference held by Chi Lian and sponsored by Phoenix media in conjunction with Crown University. The university’s involvement had been arranged by Muyang that sought to teach a few of the female students in his class a thing or two about business in the real world from the female aspect but the principal of Crown University was so enamored by the idea that he opened it up to all the female students who wanted to attend.

What came as a surprise was the desire of male students who wanted to attend but were turned down by Chi Lian. A separate conference could be arranged for them, this one was for all the girls who wanted to get into business or were simply preparing to join the workforce.

One thousand seats were arranged and all of them were quickly booked the very first day the advert about the conference was run on Phoenix television. Of the one thousand, the first one hundred got the chance to spend two nights in the Palace hotel. In a large conference room next door, a few booths had been set up by women that were in business and wanted to advertise or attract investors.

As early as six o’clock in the morning, excited attendees started showing up to the hotel. Some came dressed sharply in their most expensive suits and dresses. Others came with their resumes, hoping to get a chance to pass them on to impressive representatives or business women and a few came with inventions that would turn them into business owners themselves someday. Whatever it was, excited women stood at the entrance of the hall waiting for their e-invites to be verified by the staff.

At exactly eight on the dot, Chi Lian showed up and took up on the seats on the stage. There were six other chairs and in front of each was a small table with some refreshments like water, coffee flasks, tea cups, and bottled juice. Those six chairs were occupied by other women, those who would be speaking at the conference, including a very surprising speaker, the queen dowager.

Her presence excited many of the young women and they quickly shared those pictures with their friends and family. It was soon news everywhere that the queen dowager was present at the women in business conference.

Another surprise turn up for the conference was the princess who gave the opening speech, welcoming everyone, introducing all the speakers and finally inviting the first speaker Jing Fang.

Because the speakers did not need to stand up, madam Jing Fang took the microphone from where she was and greeted the crowd.

"A few of you know who I am, right?" she asked.

"Yes," a few women replied while others simply nodded. Everyone new madam Jing Fang, she was the sole owner of Venus sweets, a company which she started from the ground and turned into a business worth hundreds of millions of yuan.

"For those who might not know me I am Jing Fang, sole owner of Venus sweets. A few of you must be wondering why I add the word sole, right?" she paused. Then she explained, "It’s not because I want to brag but I have often found that I have to explain this fact a lot, especially when I was starting out and many people doubted me. Even today, it’s not rare to meet the occasional wannabe investor who says to me, ’I want to meet the man behind the company, not his secretary or I want to meet the real owner of the company. It’s easy for people to assume that if a woman married a rich man, the rich man owns the business. So I have always had to work ten times as hard to prove that I am as capable as any man, even more at times. So when I say the words sole owner, it’s with pride.

Many rich people say that they started from scratch and in my case it was true. I have never shared this before but I didn’t start from the many factories you see today. I started by hawking my self made sweets at the university when I was studying in class and outside of the classroom. I would sit on the ground outside the university after my classes ended or during breaks and scream out loud, clapping and inviting passers by to buy my sweets. Those were some of the darkest days of my life because many of my classmates mocked me behind my back including some of my friends that were ashamed to be seen with me. I never cared much however because I had a goal.

One of the greatest challenges you will face when you begin a business is the loss of some of your friends. Some of them will discourage you, some will not understand you and others might cut you off because you will be that friend that usually needs a loan. Or the friend that can’t pay a bill at a get together, you might also be the one who is ill dressed at a function, you can’t make it to a night club or catch a flight and go for a girl’s trip abruptly. You need to know this and steel your heart if your goal is clear because the difficulties are just beginning."

As she mentioned a few of things, a few of the women on the stage and some nodded, indicating that they understood what she was saying. Some of the younger women looked at each other wondering if they were the type of people to avoid a friend that was struggling.

"Those of you who are not from financially stable families or have access to start up funds should understand that there is a mountain to scale when you decide to become a businesswoman, many sacrifices will have to be made. You will not be able to afford that pretty dress, or those shoes which are being advertised on television. You may have to give up on dating or going for blind dates because all your time has been taken up by the business. You see, starting a business is the easy part but maintaining one is difficult. It is especially harder on us as women because we are underestimated by so many in society. I was turned down for loans more times than I can tell you not because I was incapable but because I am a woman. One manager in a certain bank told me forty years ago that instead of wasting my youth making sweets I should find a husband and have some children. And then he packed away the sample of sweets I brought and said his children would enjoy them before offering me a ten yuan note."

"Boooo!" a few women in the audience called out.

"I saw that manager again fifteen years ago, he was not a bank manager anymore but the owner of a small restaurant. I thanked that man, because that day I walked out of the bank with a furious face and a broken heart, sat on the curb outside and cried my lungs out. A kind man gave me a tissue and covered my head with his coat. To my greatest luck he also gave me that loan, as it turned out, his family owned that bank. Today, that man is my husband and I only agreed to marry him the day I paid back the last cent of that loan."

An applause followed those words, to some young women, this sounded like the beginning of a sweet love story like the ones in romance dramas about the rich young master falling in love with the poor woman.