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Chapter 613 - International Expansion

Iris looked surprised and then happy for their friend. "That’s great! I hope that the plan goes through and her webtoon will have a live-action adaptation."

"Wow! Meimei is super-duper awesome! She’s a famous webtoon artist now. My fabulous self is so proud of her! Go, Twin Sis!" Dom exclaimed, his eyes and nose still red and swollen from his crying session with Clover.

They wanted to call Meimei but she should still be absorbed in working on her webtoon. Meimei had become insanely busier ever since her webtoon, "Queen of the Shadows", became one of the most popular webtoons this year. Reaching the top rankings was difficult, but maintaining it was even harder. She may have struck it rich, but she had to continue working hard on a constant basis which made her look like a zombie with each passing day.

Meimei might look like she had died and been revived numerous times from working so hard, but Iris and their other friends could see how happy she was living her dream as a webtoon artist. Although they were all concerned about her health, they couldn’t bear to stop her from doing what she loved. As long as she maintained the bare minimum of staying healthy, then they wouldn’t interfere in the career that she chose for herself.

After talking about Meimei for a few more minutes, Iris once again reminded Clover to focus on finishing her preparations for her upcoming trip to France before finally ending the phone call.

Clover was smart, skilled, and hardworking like her brother Dom. Most importantly, both siblings were loyal to Iris. Clover had grown so much in the short period of time that she came from the Philippines to work as Iris’ executive assistant at Orchidia Beauty. Iris had been thinking of promoting her and the time had come.

She decided to give Clover an important mission—to take the lead in reviving the old French perfumery, formerly known as Sang Bleu, now renamed Liberté. Clover had to stay in France for a while to learn everything about the perfumery and this particular industry. It would be challenging but Iris believed in Clover. In short, Iris appointed Clover Chua as the COO of Liberté, which would become a subsidiary company under Orchidia Beauty.

It wasn’t only Clover. Iris also gave Alona Bauer an important mission. Alona would be returning to Germany around the same time Clover would go to France in order to spearhead their plans of expanding Orchidia Beauty in Europe.

When Iris first dropped her idea, both Chen Fei and Long Jinjing tried to dissuade her, telling her that it was too early to think about expanding internationally.

"We should focus on growing here in the country first and stabilizing our position," Chen Fei said. "We’ve only just launched! And now you’re thinking about expanding in Europe? What the hell— What in the world are you thinking about? Are you crazy?! Yes, you’re crazy!"

"Little Sister—I mean, President Long. Although my financial forecast for our first year’s profits are extremely positive, I don’t recommend using that for international expansion at this time," Long Jinjing said. "Of course, I also want Orchidia Beauty to expand outside China but I don’t think this is the right time. It’s too early. I agree with Xiao Fei—I mean, with COO Chen. It’s better for us to use our profits in developing our company in our own country first for the next two to five years at the least before thinking of expanding the company internationally."

The two tried hard dissuading Iris but she was adamant in her decision.

"Don’t worry. We won’t touch our company profits. I’ll use my own money to fund the European expansion. Treat it as just another one of my investments," she assured them in a nonchalant manner.

"Rich bitch," Chen Fei muttered under her breath.

Long Jinjing shot a warning look at her best friend, silently telling her that Iris was the head of their company.

Iris didn’t mind. Chen Fei knew when to act professional. She would only use her foul mouth when they were alone and speaking as friends, not as colleagues. Besides, Iris preferred people who would say their real feelings to her face rather than talk about her behind her back. It was easier to deal with honest people than two-faced ones.

In the end, Chen Fei and Long Jinjing could only give in to Iris’ headstrong decision after being comforted by her assurance that she wouldn’t touch Orchidia Beauty’s current profits for her crazy plan. Their logic told them that Iris would just be throwing her money down the drain, but for some reason, they believed deep inside that her insanity would somehow succeed against all odds. After all, she already had history of triumphing beyond everyone else’s expectations ever since she woke up from her one-year coma.

As for Iris, she wasn’t just being impatient. There was an important reason why she felt confident in her plan of expanding Orchidia Beauty in Europe. It was because both her companies, Orchidia Beauty and Planet Monkey, had successfully been approved as members of Cross Academy’s exclusive business network recently.

Orchidia Beauty was approved almost immediately after its record-breaking launch, selling out everything in five seconds. On the other hand, it took quite some time for Planet Monkey to receive approval compared to Orchidia Beauty because it took longer for the gaming company to reach the required profit threshold. It wasn’t that Planet Monkey failed to earn immediately. On the contrary, it was raking earnings that would make many start-up gaming companies vomit blood in extreme envy, especially now that "Supreme Ascension" was taking the Chinese gaming industry by storm.

Despite the huge earnings, it was only recently that Planet Monkey managed to break even. The amount Iris and the company invested in advance technologies, like the one they bought from Iris’ fellow Cross Academy student Michael Exlorsson, was staggering. In short, Planet Monkey only started really making significant profits now.

From Iris’ perspective, the time it took for Planet Monkey to profit was long, but in actuality, it only took a few months. If other businesspeople heard her thoughts, they would curse her without a doubt. Planet Monkey’s progress was actually extremely fast. If it were any other normal start-up gaming companies, it would take them years to break even if they invested the same amount in advance technologies like what Planet Monkey did.

Now that both Orchidia Beauty and Planet Monkey were members of Cross Academy’s exclusive business network, Iris now had direct access to various benefits unimaginable to the average businesspeople. Although not a guarantee of absolute success, the academy’s exclusive business network would make it easier and lower the risks for her companies to expand internationally even at this very early stage.

In fact, she already received investment offers from a few Cross Academy alumni who were some of the world’s most successful businesspeople as soon as her companies were approved as members. Iris was in no hurry of selling shares of her companies at this time, but the interest from all those impressive businesspeople gave her the confidence to push her plans of expanding her companies internationally into motion as soon as possible.

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