Chapter Seventy-One: Drawing Cakes

  Wen Qian Chu looked at him a few times, then pulled Li Shengli to one side and asked in a low voice: "That day when the business opened, among the group of people from the agricultural machinery factory, there was a middle-aged man in his 40s who hid behind Wei Wang, with a flattering expression, and spoke very ambiguously. What's that person's name? Where does he live?"

  Li Shengli was unclear and said: "That person is called Xia Fugui, and he has a very close relationship with Wei Wang. He can be considered his confidant in the agricultural machinery factory, and his home is..."

  Wen Qian nodded and swept his eyes over the operating room, smiling: "How's business been for this half month?"

  Li Shengli immediately became spirited, took out an account book from under the cash register, and let Wen Qian flip through it. When he came across scribbled or trivial parts, he explained them on the side. Wen Qian roughly looked at it, threw away various costs, and calculated that the average daily turnover was over 400 yuan, with a net profit of around 200 yuan. This was almost as much as his monthly salary, considering that in those years, an ordinary worker's monthly wage was only about 100 yuan. Li Shengli beamed with joy: "I really didn't expect it, selling soy milk and fried dough sticks would bring such a huge profit!"

  Wen Jian slammed the account book onto the desk, shaking his head: "The profit margins of those small vendors on the street are all above 10%, our profit margin is still too low, we must think of a way to bring down costs. Li Shu, I've been thinking about the development of Qinghe lately, and my ideas have basically taken shape. When we have time, let's sit down and talk it over properly. It's hard to expand with this kind of operation, taking the franchise route is not a bad idea, but we'll have to wait, no funds means nothing can be done quickly."

  Li Shengli was itching with impatience, pulling Wen Qian to the dining table in the outer room and sitting down, saying: "Don't bother finding time anymore, tell me today first, otherwise you won't be able to sleep tonight."

  She glanced at Ning Xiaoyi, who had been quietly following her, and knew she couldn't stay silent anymore. Otherwise, this little girl would think she was deliberately avoiding her. With a hint of helplessness, she said: "This requires a detailed business plan design, which can't be explained in just a few words. Simply put, we need to rapidly expand, use our numerical advantage to reduce costs, and create massive profits. From a broader perspective, next we'll establish a company, register the Qinghe soy milk trademark, set up directly-operated stores in major cities and first-tier cities to lay a solid foundation, then open markets in second- and third-tier cities through franchising, using a point-to-face approach to connect the entire market while locking in our existing territory, firmly occupying the leading position in this industry and ultimately achieving the goal of monopolizing the high-end market.

  "What is direct operation and what is franchise?"

  She gave her a surprised look. She thought Coach Ning was just here to fool around, but it turned out he was actually listening seriously: "Direct operation means that the headquarters directly invests, operates and takes responsibility for profits and losses, while joining is when the company provides Qinghe soy milk's brand, food, store design and operational experience technology. We can collect franchise fees, royalties, contract fees, guidance fees and other funds from the joined stores." In a more vivid way, direct operation is like our own child, while joining is like adoption.

  Ning Xiaoyin was pondering the difference between the two, when suddenly her eyes widened: "Pfft, dead guy, daring to take advantage of me". Well, following after Xu Yao's silly boy and Zuo Yuxi's stinky boy, now there's another title - dead guy.

  The warm and gentle gaze was met with a bewildered stare, but after thinking for a moment, he burst out laughing: "Slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue! I meant the company, not us."

  "What else can you say?"

  Li Shengli was moved by the prospect depicted by Wen Qian, and fell into deep thought, unaware of the two people arguing. He was originally a brave person, otherwise he would not have resigned and started his own business in those years. After going through the greatest hardships and ups and downs in life, from the moment Wen Qian entered his world, he understood that following this young man might lead to some unexpected encounters.

  "These sound good, but it's really too difficult to do. Not to mention other things, just the funding is a big problem! Although we can recover some from the franchise stores, our reputation is not big now, and this model has no successful precedent, it's hard to convince others to join."

  Wen Lian nodded slightly, Li Shengli still had some insight, and said: "So I said don't rush, wait for this month to come, there should be a few thousand yuan in profit, we'll find a place to open the second store first. Have you heard of a saying? One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things, that is to say, as long as we can open the third one, ten thousand stores will be realized soon."

  Li Shengli and Ning Xiaoyin were defeated at the same time, lowering their heads in dismay. What's wrong with you? Are you going to die if you don't speak nonsense?

  Wen Qiang looked at the atmosphere of the room, which was a bit down, and suddenly said: "Actually, the franchise model has long been proven to be the most suitable shortcut for the development of the fast food industry. This type of business accounts for a certain proportion in the living consumption of developed countries, but in our country it's still less than 1%. Maybe you haven't heard, there is a company abroad that specializes in fast food called McDonald's, with annual sales of over tens of billions of dollars, and it can be predicted that in ten years it may even reach hundreds of billions of dollars. This is the model for our future." At that time, McDonald's had just opened its first store in Shenzhen, and within a few years, there were only a dozen or so stores in Beijing and other cities. In Qingzhou, there was no McDonald's, and many people didn't even know about this world-famous company that made its fortune from fried foods. Compared to the younger generation who grew up eating at McDonald's, it was like heaven and earth.

  Ning Xiaoyin said: "Ah, McDonald's I know, there is one in Wangfujing, Beijing, I've been there, business is booming, and they say it's the largest McDonald's restaurant in the world."

  Li Shengli was frightened by Wen Qian's words: "Hundreds of billions, dollars?" Wen Qian burst out laughing: "I just said that, Chinese fast food is not quite the same as Western-style, can't be done on a McDonald's scale. But if it's done well, an annual output value of over ten billion is still possible. When we set our goal, we should set a long-term one, and if we can't achieve it later, it's okay to make some concessions."

  Li Shengli finally breathed a sigh of relief, otherwise he would have thought that Wen Qian was bragging. Ning Xiaoying frowned and said: "But I think it's very difficult to imitate, McDonald's food can be preserved fresh, and anyone can eat happily at any time. We mainly operate breakfast, after noon, there are very few people. If we open many stores in the future, the taste and freshness of soy milk and fried dough sticks will not keep up."

  Wen Ze was greatly surprised, not expecting Ning Xiaocong to have such a keen insight into the crux of Chinese fast food just from hearing him say so little, especially since she hadn't systematically thought about this issue before and had only relied on her subconscious first impression.

  This little girl may have a business talent too!

  "Ah, Coach you are truly wise! Next step is up to us, Li Master. We must find a way to solve the processing problem. Through mature craftsmanship, establish a standardized and consistent system, break down complex cooking processes into simple steps, so that newcomers can quickly grasp after training. For example, our dough sticks, we process them in advance at headquarters according to strict procedures, make them semi-finished products, and then distribute them to various stores. Each store also needs to have a unified standard operating procedure, the weight of one dough stick, how it is shaped, the oil temperature, how long to flip, how many seconds to flip once, all need to be detailed. And so on, Li Uncle has been working hard in this area recently, whether we can succeed or not depends on you."

  Li Shengli was suddenly enlightened, as if he had been awakened from a dream. He felt that the obstruction in his mind was instantly cleared, and the mist that had been lingering in his brain for a long time disappeared in an instant. A golden light seemed to be shining brightly, connecting the Tianyu Gate, beckoning him with expectation. With excitement, his voice trembled: "I'll do my best... no, I must succeed!"

  Wen Ze smiled and patted his shoulder, saying: "Don't worry, if it doesn't work out, we can ask technical personnel to help us, or invest in research institutions to apply for a project. Semi-mechanized processing is not a difficult problem. What you need to do most is to establish a standardized procedure to ensure the best taste of bean milk oil strips, and leave other things to me."

  Just as he was speaking, Li Siqing pushed the door open and came in. He saw Wen Qian throw his school bag aside and rush over quickly, barely stopping in front of him. His smooth little face had a healthy pink color, and he looked even more like a beautiful young prince.

  "Brother Wen, you're here."

  It's only been a week since they last met, and Li Siqing seems to have grown taller again, standing almost at Wen Ze's chest. Her clothes were a bit thin, Wen Ze held her small hand, feeling a bit cold, and smiled warmly, turning his head to say to Li Shengli: "Uncle Li, it's so cold now, you should also remember to buy Nuan some thicker clothes..."

  Li Siqing lost her mother and suffered so much, she needs her father's care the most. Wen Xiang thought Li Shengli was careless and his tone had a few hints of blame.

  Li Shengli felt a bit awkward and didn't say anything. But Li Siqing hastily said, "Brother, I'm not cold. Just now it was the wind blowing, look, now it's warm." She quickly rubbed her hands together, put them to her mouth to blow on them, then stuffed them into her brother's warm palms. Her bright and innocent eyes sparkled like the most precious jewels in the world, shining with a moving light.

  Ning Xiaoyu's heart ached slightly, she didn't know why, but she had taken a liking to this little girl, who was lovely, well-behaved and sensible. There seemed to be a peculiar charm about her that could infect the people around her.

  "Good girl, would you like to go with Sister Ning to see a bad guy?"

  "Are those bad people the same group from yesterday?" Li Siqing was very affectionate with Ning Xiaoyi, hugging her arm and rubbing his cheek against hers.

  Ning Xiaoyi lovingly stroked her hair, smiling and saying: "Your brother Wen is so awesome! To help us get revenge, he beat up those bad guys and now they're kneeling on the other side getting slapped."

  Li Siqing exclaimed, turning to look at the little girl Wen Qian's excited face which was completely red, her admiring gaze made Wen Qian feel a bit embarrassed, she lightly coughed and said: "Don't listen to her nonsense, brother is a cultured person, not so violent."

  Rumors have it that when monthly passes go up, some people will take action.