2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 364 Xiao Liu's Troubles

Zhao Chuanbing was among the earliest dealers of FlashCheer. He was attracted by FlashCheer's advertising and cost-effectiveness, and decisively opened a franchise store.

He previously ran a motorcycle repair shop and later learned some electric vehicle repair techniques.

Knowing how to repair electric vehicles makes them easy to sell. In addition, his store also occasionally holds promotions such as giving away rice and oil. In the past year and a half, Zhao Chuanbing's store has expanded to two shops.

His shop is now about 300 square meters. During peak season, he can sell two to three hundred vehicles a month, and during off-season, he can still sell around a hundred. He also sells accessories such as helmets, and provides repair and after-sales services, battery replacements, etc., so business is quite good.

For every electric scooter sold, a small store essentially acquires a customer. If they sell 1000 electric scooters a year, that means 1000 customers are acquired, and at least 50% of those 1000 should be repeat customers.

If each person earns 100 yuan from selling a helmet, changing a battery, or doing repairs, that's 500 yuan, which is quite a profit.

Zhao Chuanbing's shop is renowned for its sales volume. These repeat customers alone bring him considerable profits. Moreover, the people who buy cars may also introduce his relatives and friends to buy new cars.

Zhao Chuanbing, whose sales have been very good this year, can already see a bright future ahead.

The shop owner basically doesn't get any rest, and with the children still young, there's even less chance of traveling far.

This FlashDrive dealer conference invited many terminal dealerships like Zhao Chuanbing, and family members were allowed to attend.

After discussing it, the couple decided to close their shop for two days and take their child to Beicang to attend a dealer conference. They also planned to visit Putuoshan to pray to Buddha. They had inquired and found that there were speedboats directly from Baifeng Wharf in Beicang to Putuoshan, which would take about an hour to get to the island.

After arriving in Beicang, I signed in and completed the check-in procedures.

A standard room was just right for a family of three. Tiangang Hotel has been one of the best hotels in Beicang for many years. It was built only a few years ago, and the facilities are all brand new. Zhao Chuanbing was very satisfied with the living environment.

At the dinner, Zhao Chuanbing met Wu Zhenping, who was the one who developed the market for Flash in Anhui Province.

Wu Zhenping raised his glass and clinked it against Zhao Chuanbing's: "I remember you, Mr. Zhao, right? You were one of the earliest franchisees of our Shanchi. How's business lately?"

Wu Zhenping knew perfectly well whether Zhao Chuanbing's shop was doing well or not; one could tell how well a shop did throughout the year just by looking at the amount of goods it purchased each month.

Wu Zhenping already knew that Zhao Chuanbing's specialty store was eligible to be selected as an outstanding terminal store during the internal planning stage.

"Thanks to Manager Wu and the Flash Brand, our store's business is doing quite well," Zhao Chuanbing said, rising to offer a toast.

"Haha, it has little to do with me. It's all thanks to your excellent management." Wu Zhenping laughed.

Then he looked at the woman holding the child next to Zhao Chuanbing and said, "Is this your wife? I vaguely remember her. Since the whole family is here, let's stay a couple more days. It's a rare opportunity to go out, so let's relax and have some fun."

"That's what we were thinking too, we plan to visit Mount Putuo," Zhao Chuanbing replied with a smile.

"Then you should wear more clothes. It's quite chilly on Mount Putuo this time of year, especially for the children. Don't let them get cold."

"Okay, thank you for reminding me, Manager Wu."

There were too many people to deal with, and Wu Zhenping couldn't keep talking to Zhao Chuanbing forever; forget it, he'd better not tell him for now and wait until tomorrow to find out the surprise.

At this dealer conference, Flashlink offered outstanding terminal stores not only prizes such as laptops and mobile phones, but also a renovation subsidy of 10 yuan for every 100 square meters of store space.

Based on the standard of Zhao Chuanbing's 300-square-meter shop, he could receive a subsidy of 30 yuan.

This is equivalent to FlashCheer returning all the initial investment in their stores to them, which can be seen as an incentive for the terminal stores, encouraging store owners to increase sales.

Even among those selling electric vehicles of the same brand, no matter how popular the brand is, there will always be people who can't sell their vehicles. Besides lacking business acumen, some people simply don't put in the effort. People like Zhao Chuanbing, who are willing to find ways to increase sales, are a great example.

After the dinner, the family went to Tianrunfa Supermarket next to Tiangang Hotel to buy some snacks and browse the supermarket.

Zhao Chuanbing, who had planned to stroll around the streets some more, discovered that there were hardly any people on the streets around 9 p.m., and even the supermarkets were not crowded.

"That's strange, don't people around here go out at night? Or grab some barbecue or something?"

Although it's a bit cold now, it shouldn't be that there are almost no people on the streets around nine o'clock, right?

“Maybe every city has different lifestyles, but it’s rare to see the streets so quiet; let’s go back and watch TV,” said Zhao Chuanbing’s wife.
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"Why did you bring her back? Aren't you afraid of being photographed and having more scandals spread?" Tan Jincheng asked quietly while the dishes were being served.

After several months of experience as CEO, including participating in a financing round, handling a cooperation negotiation with Tencent, and coordinating with Ningbo University and local government agricultural assistance projects, Gu Qingqing is no longer the bright-eyed college student she once was.

In terms of influence, net worth, and so on, Gu Qingqing is actually not much worse than Liu Yifei now. She may not have as many fans, but she is a capitalist.

Tan Jincheng knew that if Gu Qingqing didn't agree, Liu Yifei would never go home with her.

Gu Qingqing smiled and replied, "What's there to be afraid of? It's not like rumors haven't circulated before. After dinner, I'll take a picture with her and post it on Kaixin.com, just to reveal that we're friends." Women's minds are truly hard to understand; oh well, we're already here, so what's the big deal?

Gu Qingqing's idea was simple, even a bit naive: to assert her dominance and let Liu Yifei see her current relationship with Tan Jincheng and his family.

She was indeed a little resentful that the last hype was done without her being informed.

This time, it was she who took the initiative to ask Liu Yifei if she wanted to come over for a visit; after thinking about it, Liu Xiaoli agreed. She realized that what she did last time was indeed a bit unfair, and she needed to smooth things over with this person.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it's almost certain that this is the woman who will become the boss of Flashway Future; otherwise, Tan Jincheng wouldn't have gone to such lengths to promote her to the position of CEO of Orange Technology.

With both financing and announcing a collaboration with Tencent, CEO Gu has been making headlines online recently, almost as much as Tan Jincheng.

She owns a thriving internet company, and her boyfriend is one of this year's top ten economic figures. If Liu Xiaoli had previously looked down on Gu Qingqing, now that she was looking down on her, she would truly be under a spell.

Despite a huge investment in promotion, the album received a lukewarm response, suggesting that singing may not be a viable career path. No wonder Tan Jincheng acted very strangely when the topic of releasing an album came up.

Did he already know this would be the outcome? Are businessmen really that perceptive?
I don't know if I'll have a chance to talk to Tan Jincheng alone tomorrow.

The moment Liu Yifei removed her disguise, Hu Xiaoyong was stunned. He had only come with his brother-in-law to make up the numbers, and he was already overwhelmed by the villa area before even entering. Once inside, he felt even more strongly the difference between a billionaire and someone else.

He didn't know how much wealth his brother-in-law Tan Lixin had accumulated over the years, but his family's living conditions and food and drink were considered quite affluent in Yicheng. Liu Xiaoyong had also frequently taken advantage of his family's wealth.

However, compared to his nephew's family, his brother-in-law's family was like a nouveau riche from the countryside.

Gu Qingqing is also a celebrity. Hu Xiaoyong had seen her photos online, and she was even more beautiful in person than online. Before Hu Xiaoyong could even marvel at Tan Jincheng's good fortune, he witnessed an even more shocking scene.

Celebrities have a special aura in the eyes of ordinary people. Even if a celebrity is not good-looking, people will still be unable to resist crowding around them and asking for a photo if they bump into them on the street.

"Liu, Liu, Liu Yifei?" Hu Xiaoyong stammered.

The other people in the room reacted similarly. They were all Tan Jincheng's family members. It didn't matter if they didn't recognize a few celebrities, but they definitely knew the spokespeople for Flash.

I never imagined I'd see him at home one day.

"Hello, I apologize for the intrusion and for disturbing you," Liu Yifei greeted with a smile, handling this situation with ease.

Gu Qingqing waved to Tan Jinyue, handed her the Barbie doll, and said with a smile, "This is a gift from this pretty lady. Quickly thank her."

The idea that a sister-in-law and brother-in-law don't get along is unheard of in the Tan family; the sister-in-law has the sister-in-law completely under her thumb.

Tan Jinyue looked at Liu Yifei with a curious expression and said, "Sister, you are so beautiful. I have seen you on TV."

Tan Jinyue is very cute, and her clothes are all designed by Tan Jincheng himself, making her look like a little child star. Liu Yifei couldn't help but pat her head: "Little sister, you are also very pretty."

"Come and sit down, it's almost time to eat, have some with us. My uncle is here today, the dishes are all Yicheng style, have a taste," Tan Jincheng said with a smile.

Then he said to Tan Jinyue, "You haven't thanked this lady for her gift yet."

"Thank you, sister," Tan Jinyue said sweetly, taking the Barbie doll from Gu Qingqing's hand and putting it away herself.

During the New Year's Day holiday, guests arrived one after another. Those who knew more or less brought gifts for Tan Jinyue. Her specially decorated toy room was filled with gifts, which made her very happy.

Liu Yifei looked at Tan Jincheng somewhat embarrassed, after all, she hadn't informed the real owner before coming.

A year ago, when Tan Jincheng approached her mother to discuss signing an endorsement contract, Tan Jincheng didn't impress her much except that he was handsome. She didn't have much of a concept of money either, especially since Flashcar didn't have much money at the time.

When Tan Jincheng proposed to sign her for ten years, she even thought he was a bit silly. She had never heard of signing a spokesperson for ten years at once. Wasn't he afraid that something might happen and he would lose the money if he didn't become popular?

However, aside from the changes that have taken place in Flash over the past year, she gradually realized that Tan Jincheng was different. His business was growing bigger and bigger, and his own reputation was growing. Not only that, he was also able to turn his girlfriend from a student into a nationally renowned beautiful CEO.

This ability to generate hype is no less than that of an entertainment company. In addition, Jay Chou's wildly popular new album actually has lyrics for a song he wrote himself. The lyrics are very poignant and beautiful, and the song is highly popular and well-received within the industry.

What frustrated her most was that Tan Jincheng, who could write such poignant lyrics, had looked down on her singing career from the very beginning. What frustrated her even more was that her first album, despite a huge investment in promotion, flopped just as he had predicted.

The entertainment industry is very realistic. Her album flopped, and there were already a lot of people criticizing her online. Now, even more people are coming out to criticize her, which is affecting her ability to get scripts.

Remembering her mother's advice, Liu Yifei felt a little troubled: "With so many people here, how should I start?"

(End of this chapter)