The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chapter 119 Old Chen's Wisdom

Chen An'an changed into a white training uniform.

She stood out quite a bit in the crowd; her little fists were so powerful they could probably squeeze water out of a sponge.

They used every ounce of strength they had.
There are about twenty other elementary school students in the class, and there are two classes every afternoon.

Keep practicing.

Girls should always have some martial arts skills to protect themselves in the future.

Chen Pingsheng also assigned Chen Qi a small task. He certainly couldn't pick her up from school every day, so this important task could only be entrusted to his sister, Chen Qi.

Fortunately, she didn't have any major problems throughout the day, so she could be ordered around as she pleased.

He himself will also be studying for three days every month next month, and he's quite looking forward to it.

Time flies, and it's already late July.

After Chen Pingsheng completely upgraded and transformed Tengsheng, he also made a series of adjustments to the headquarters.

First, two separate departments were established: one for vegetables and the other for fish and meat.

In addition, a purchasing department and a market research department were established.

To put it bluntly, the price of vegetables fluctuates too much, and there is a huge potential for profit in the procurement aspect.

He'll definitely open many more and bigger stores in the future, so we have to pay close attention to this aspect.

Otherwise, a single kickback could easily amount to hundreds of thousands or even millions.

There's no need to worry about the fruit; one of the major shareholders, Lao Guo, is at the wholesale market every day.

He's fully aware of any fluctuations; he can tell if something's fishy just by looking at the purchase order.

Liu Jing and Zhang Tao are also experts in this field.

Vegetables are a completely different story. In addition to finding large suppliers for long-term cooperation, the most important thing is to prevent purchasing staff from embezzling or taking high kickbacks.

He can pay his employees extremely high salaries, but he has zero tolerance for this kind of behavior.

To this end, he specifically implemented a set of countermeasures to prevent procurement embezzlement within the company.

Very simple.

The people in charge of purchasing and the people in charge of procurement are in two separate groups.

Once someone discovers that someone is taking kickbacks or submitting inflated prices to gain profit margins on goods, it will be a problem.

As long as you report him, no matter how much he took, it's all yours.

Even if it turns out to be ten million, Chen Pingsheng will just give it to you, the one who made the whistleblower.

This might not be easy to understand.

It's simpler within the system; it's about who reports someone above them or a colleague for illegally accepting money.

Once it's found out, whatever he takes is yours.

You can sit in his seat.

In that case, who would dare to easily reach out?

If anyone around you discovers that someone is illegally accepting money, they'll not only refuse to cover it up for you, but will also immediately report it.

This means you're going to make a fortune!

To prevent problems in the procurement sector, he added more than one rule: in addition to receiving money, whistleblowers would also receive a commendation from the company.

You can upgrade after accumulating three upgrades.

In short, reporting others can lead to promotions and wealth.

He didn't believe that anyone would dare to easily reach out after this.

Once the loopholes in the procurement sector are plugged, the gross profit margin for vegetables and meats can be much higher than that for fruits.

For example, a fish that costs 2.5 yuan to buy at the market may only sell for 4 yuan per pound.

Without a doubt, they will definitely weigh seven ounces, and at most give you eight ounces.

Vegetables are even more expensive; normally, prices are increased by two to three times.

Unless the purchase price is exceptionally high.

The average is usually several times higher.

There's no way around it; the losses are frighteningly high.

Chen Pingsheng still insists on the model of small profits and quick turnover, and the gross profit of seasonal vegetables, which are the best-selling ones, shall not exceed 50%.

50% is double the purchase price.

The price of fish and meat products that are frequently sold should not exceed 30%.

The prices are much lower than at the farmers' market.

His goal is to create a truly reputable, full-category fresh food supermarket that consumers will rave about.

Therefore, he must prevent any potential massive corruption in the procurement sector.

Ten million yuan was invested in the Second Ring Road area. The renovation can be completed in half a month. With the addition of the site visit, it is expected to be open for business before mid-August.

After finishing his work here, he went to Boiling Sheep.

To date, Fei Yang Yang has invested a total of around 40 million.

The number of stores that have already opened has reached fifteen, with a total investment of thirty million.

Another ten million was invested in the Boiling Sheep Headquarters Training Academy.

With Tencent's traffic support, Fei Yang Yang became one of the earliest internet celebrity stores.

Add to that its price, and it's so low that even young people in the Second Ring Road area can't imagine it.

A family of four or five can eat very well for a little over 100 to 200 yuan.

It's a large store with such a nice environment.

Once word-of-mouth spread, business naturally boomed.

I initially thought it would be unable to make a profit due to its low pricing and high rent and labor costs.

Who knew that it would be so popular that it could make money every month?

With all fifteen stores combined, they can only earn five or six hundred thousand yuan a month.

It's far inferior to a single store in Shuiyunjian.

Chen Pingsheng was very satisfied, and for this reason, he specially raised the wages of the service staff again.

In particular, the head chefs of the major stores will receive an additional 3,000 yuan per month on top of their existing high salaries.

Others raised their salaries by five hundred to one thousand.

To be honest, he's playing a capital game this time. Since he's not making money from profits, he might as well give all the profits to the employees who have contributed to him.

Don't think that Gao Hu doesn't make money.

First of all, his personal annual salary is 1.8 million.

Secondly, the 15% of original shares he holds, if valued at the current 500 million, would be worth 75 million.

That's how the game of capital works. Unless you can't reach the final step, you'll definitely become a billionaire in one fell swoop.

This is something he could never achieve even if he ran a hot pot restaurant in Shacheng his whole life.

The reason these brothers were willing to listen to him was because he could lead everyone to wealth and prosperity.

Think about it, I could only earn 200,000 a year originally.

If you suddenly start earning two million a year by following me, that's only true for a very few arrogant people who think it's all their own ability.

Most people will listen to you and do whatever you say.

Even if it's wrong, it can still be right.

It took a long time for Boiling Sheep to explore chain operations.

Gao Hu, after all, had no experience managing more than a dozen stores, so he learned it by going to Zhang Tao and the others for drinks every day.

Actually, opening a shop is the hardest thing; you have to do everything yourself.

By the time I opened the third store, I was starting to feel overwhelmed. Every day it felt like I was playing whack-a-mole, dealing with problems as they arose.

Things got much better after the fifth store opened.

Everything has standards now, so just follow those standards. According to Zhang Tao and the others, Tengsheng Fruit was originally started by Old Chen leading them all by himself.

When the business grew significantly, he said he wanted to give shares to the management team, but everyone felt that making so much money seemed unnecessary.

What happened next? Old Chen had a long-term vision.

If half of the shares hadn't been distributed to the shareholders present at the scene, Tengsheng Fruit would have gone bankrupt countless times.

It can be said that the reason why these people can sit comfortably in the headquarters is because the people below are doing their best every day to protect every store for you.

Of course, Lao Chen also helped them all make money.

This is the premise.

Before that, Tengsheng had many stores that just wouldn't get off the ground no matter what they tried, and even the shareholders on site cried in desperation.

Later, Lao Chen closed all these stores, refunded all the shareholders' investment money in full, and even paid them double their wages.

He took on all the responsibility himself.

After a series of investigations, it was discovered that there really is such a thing as feng shui when it comes to opening a shop.

Those shops that they couldn't make a living, they've changed hands countless times over the past decade, and not a single one of them has ever succeeded.

Later everyone understood that when looking for a shop, you should definitely ask people in the neighborhood first.

Avoid these kinds of unlucky shops directly.

To put it bluntly, an investment of 1.5 million yuan is required to establish a Tengsheng Fruit plant.

Even if you only get 20% as the store manager, you still need to invest 300,000.

Even if they lose money, it won't affect them much, since they can still get hundreds of thousands of yuan every month.

Those shop managers who work for others are no good; they haven't been able to turn their fortunes around in years.

So later, Lao Chen came up with a policy that if the shareholders on-site did their best but the store still couldn't succeed, then the headquarters would bear all the losses.

The key point is that Lao Chen previously allowed those shareholders who couldn't afford to invest to take on half of their shares, which shows that he treated them with sincerity.

Only then will those people below truly be willing to make sacrifices for them.

Over time, it became apparent that Tengsheng was developing better and better.

The same goes for Boiling Sheep. Why did he set his employees' salaries so high? When he knew there was no profit, he simply canceled the dividend stock and changed it to an annual bonus.

Let's treat each other with sincerity.

To put it bluntly, people aren't stupid these days. If your boss treats them sincerely, they will treat your company sincerely in return.

After Old Chen discovered that Boiling Sheep could make money, the fact that he directly distributed 90% of the profits to his employees is clear proof of this.

His philosophy is that if the boss is living a life of luxury, it's unacceptable for those who work under him to be unable to even support their families.

He can't even afford to marry a wife, which is even more outrageous.

After several months of humbly seeking advice, Gao Hu has grasped a key point.

This also explains why Lao Chen set such high employee benefits in the first place.

They're really easy to manage.

It's completely different when employees solve problems for you on their own initiative than when you force them to do so.

Although Boiling Sheep's business is booming and everyone is busy, they are truly happy doing it.

Chefs earn a starting annual salary of 200,000 yuan, while waiters earn at least 8,000 yuan a year.

Needless to say, the management was extremely satisfied.

In this situation, if you want to open a branch, everyone will work together to help you do it well.

Not to mention that Boiling Sheep also has a big star hanging around there.

With Tencent constantly supplying massive traffic, if things still don't go well, Gao Hu, you really aren't destined to make a fortune.

Don't mention how glamorous you were in Shacheng before, how many tens of thousands you earned a year.

Look at Old Chen's eldest daughter, Chen An'an; she spends hundreds of thousands of yuan every month without a second thought.

Buy a bunch of junk.

Logically speaking, Old Chen rose to prominence just like them, enduring countless hardships, so why should he spoil his daughter so much?

Zhang Tao didn't understand at first either. He even clearly remembered how obedient Chen An'an was when they were in that small rented room.

Her parents went out, and she was home alone, without crying or making a fuss.

He wouldn't open the door for anyone, but jumped for joy when his parents came home.

It wasn't until Old Chen explained it to him that he understood.

An'an is now the daughter of a wealthy family; she no longer just has a father who sells durians on the street.

My mother is not a customer service representative who answers the phone every day.

She needs to adapt to her new identity now, and once she gets used to this kind of consumption, she won't be misled by money and material possessions when she grows up.

To put it bluntly, only those who are poor are easily attracted and tempted by material things.

After becoming wealthy, especially for someone who has always been a big spender since childhood, material possessions no longer matter to her.

At that time, she will truly pursue what she wants.

Old Chen also said that when he was a child, he wanted to be a basketball player or even a singer.

But do you see him still has dreams after he got married?

My dream is reduced to nothing more than making money, and it can only be about making money.

He didn't want Chen An'an to grow up like that; he'd rather she pursue her dreams without achieving much.

Even if this dream is highly improbable, or even seems unambitious to outsiders, as long as she likes it, that's enough.

At least, she has lived her life for herself.

Look at the level of awareness Old Chen has when he says things like that; it's something we can't even begin to compare to.

An'an has always been his most beloved, so she can buy whatever she wants now.

Even if you buy it and then throw it away immediately.

Old Chen wouldn't say anything.

Because his family already has enough of that; what they lack is for An'an to adapt to her new circumstances.

Once she truly adapts, this kind of retaliatory spending will cease.

Old Chen's approach to teaching his daughter is far-sighted.

It also made them truly understand what it means for parents to plan far ahead for their children.

He really saw far ahead.

I don't care how much money she spends now, I just hope she can grow up to be the kind of person she wants to be.

Even if you use a different example, it's the same: Old Chen's older sister, Chen Yao.

That was the person who took care of him from childhood.

Now he's opened a small shop for his older sister. Does that mean he's not good to her?
No, it's more about being content with a modest life.

For his older sister, being able to earn 50,000 to 60,000 yuan a month through her own hard work is the greatest happiness.

If you were to let them earn millions or even tens of millions every month, they would definitely not be as happy as they are now.

Such thoughtful arrangements for the eldest sister truly demonstrate family affection.

In short, Gao Hu, you want to win over Boiling Sheep.

Listen to Lao Chen, and you won't go wrong. Do exactly what he says, even if it's wrong, just follow his instructions first.

The result will most likely be what you want.

If you insist on adding your own ideas, it is very likely to backfire.

Although Old Chen grew up with them, their wisdom was on a completely different level.

This is also what Zhang Tao said the most.

Zhang Tao's success today is a testament to how a country bumpkin from out of town can live a respectable life in Beijing, even better than the locals.

Anyway, it all depends on Lao Chen, and it will probably be like this in the future.

(End of this chapter)