1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 93 Outlook for the New Year
In the next few days, more people came to visit Zhai Yuan.

Liang Zhichao and Chen Jiale came with their family elders. After all, Zhai Yuan was the boss of his own children, so their attitude seemed very humble.

"Uncle and aunt, you are so polite. Why did you bring gifts?"

"I told them not to waste money on gifts. Brother Yuan doesn't need these little things."

Liang Zhichao, as usual, was unable to speak human language and complained about his parents who were carrying gifts.

Chen Jiale smiled and kicked him, then said to Zhai Yuan, "Ah Yuan, the video studio has been renovated and will be open after the Chinese New Year. By then, your wound will be almost healed, so you can come and cut the ribbon."

"Forget about cutting the ribbon. I don't like to be in the spotlight. You two and Sister Ling can go then."

It's not that he doesn't like to be in the spotlight, but he doesn't like to be in the spotlight without any benefits.

When cutting the ribbon, everyone looks at the beautiful stars. In this respect, a hundred Zhai Yuans are no match for one Deng Leling.

"Okay, okay, I'll stand in the middle then." Liang Zhichao said without any self-awareness.

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "Since we are talking about video parlors, I would like to share some ideas for next year. With our cooperation with Deng Guangrong, the video parlor business will definitely not be hidden. After the Chinese New Year, more and more people will open parlors in other districts. In addition, we still have too few film sources. If we continue with the current business model, business will get worse and worse."

Zhai Yuan expressed the concerns he had in mind over the past few days.

In fact, the main problem is the source of films. After all, video halls are not up to standard and can only show some old films. Naturally, audiences will leave over time.

When it comes to pirating foreign movies, copyright and dubbing are secondary. In the era without the Internet, selecting movies one by one is the most troublesome thing. He doesn't want to spend too much energy on this for the time being.

"So I'm going to change my business model this year. I'm not going to sell showtime tickets anymore. I'm going to charge by the hour."

Seeing that both Carlos Chan and Leung Chi Chiu looked puzzled, he went on to explain, "During the day, the audience only needs to pay four dollars to enter the theater, and they can watch the movie all day. At night, the fee is higher, six dollars for the whole night. If you buy an eight-dollar pass, you can watch as much as you want all day."

"Is it possible? The profit will be cut in half, and I'm afraid I won't be able to recover the cost."

Chen Jiale frowned. What Zhai Yuan did was equivalent to destroying his own martial arts, and the benefits would be more than just cutting him in half.

In the past, tickets were two dollars a show. During the day, tickets cost two dollars a show, so five shows could be sold for ten dollars. At night, tickets cost three dollars a show, so five shows could be sold for fifteen dollars.

Now, adding up the day and night expenses, only one pass worth eight dollars is sold?

"Wouldn't it be better to sell the pass at fifteen or twenty?" he suggested.

"If you're going to do it, do it to the fullest, and don't let other places in other regions steal your customers in the future."

Zhai Yuan shook his head, glanced at Liang Zhichao who was calculating his income and expenditure seriously with a pen and paper, then grabbed an orange from the bedside and threw it at him.

He said, "Don't calculate it. I'm afraid that if you do, I'll lose everything. I've calculated it before. This price is just enough to control the cost, and there's a small profit, so it won't be a loss. In addition, our video hall's main profit direction will not be showing movies. After charging by the hour, those customers will sit there for hours, so of course they'll be thirsty and hungry. We can go to the factory to wholesale some small commodities such as drinks, snacks, and condoms, and put an ice cream cabinet in front of the video hall. We can sell each item at a price that's one or two cents more expensive than the convenience store. We'll try it for a month and see."

"clear."

Chen Jiale's voice sounded unconfident, as if he was unsure whether this way of doing business could make money.

It was purely because when the video hall was the only one in the market, they made huge profits. Now that the prices have been reduced, they are inevitably disappointed and worried that Zhai Yuan will deduct their salaries.

Zhai Yuan saw his concerns and said with a smile, "Brother Jiale, I may not pay too much attention to the video hall in the future. You and Ah Chao will have to work harder. In addition to giving you an extra 500 yuan per month next year, I will give you 10% of the shares each, and you can pay dividends monthly. Lawyer Shen has already prepared the contract, so you can go directly to him to sign it when the time comes."

Upon hearing this, Chen Jiale and Liang Zhichao looked up at Zhai Yuan in surprise.

A 500 yuan monthly salary increase is secondary, the 10% stake in the video hall is the biggest part. When it was at its peak some time ago, the 10 video halls had a monthly income of more than 300,000 yuan, and 10% was 30,000 yuan. Although he has to sell passes now, Chen Jiale thinks that he still needs a few thousand yuan, plus the basic salary, he earns more than the white-collar workers in the office building.

"Why do you leave the business to us and do it yourself?"

Liang Zhichao was equally excited, but immediately asked another question.

He lowered the price and raised the salary. It seems Brother Yuan is planning to be a hands-off boss.

"Don't you remember I started a phone company?"

Zhai Yuan smiled. In fact, Secret Garden had a close relationship with the video hall, as all the posters had paid numbers printed on them. After the Chinese New Year, he planned to do another round of promotion, just like the game advertisements in Internet cafes in the past, and put the Secret Garden posters in a conspicuous place in the video hall.

In addition, Shen Wei has also contacted several TV stations for advertising space.

However, the price of prime-time advertising space is too high, and Zhai Yuan has not yet decided what style of advertising to shoot that will not violate regulations and attract attention, so the plan for TV advertising has been temporarily shelved.

"Also, after the New Year, I will officially open a theater."

Zhai Yuan then told the two kings about his plan: "We will also open a production company to make movies. In the future, the movies can be burned into cassettes and sold in video halls."

The two kings looked at each other in bewilderment, thinking that this step was a bit too big.

Telephone companies, film studios, and even more outrageous theaters? I'm afraid even millions of dollars can't stop them.

They thought that after getting 10% of the shares of the video hall, the distance between them and Zhai Yuan would be narrowed. However, Zhai Yuan soared to a higher position like a rocket, making them feel like they were looking up to him.

"Brother Yuan, are you still short of roles for the movie? I think I can make a cameo appearance."

Chen Jiale was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed and made a joke, changing the name he had always called him "Ayuan" to "brother" like Liang Zhichao.

Zhai Yuanxin finished speaking, and there was another layer of pathetic thick barrier.

Is it true that someone as outstanding as me will slowly lose friends?
Zhai Yuan sighed, it’s so lonely at the top!

Until the day before New Year's Eve, two more visitors came to the hospital, shattering Zhai Yuan's newly established sense of superiority.

One is Ho Chi-long, an assistant to a legislator, and the other is Pang Ka-yin, the daughter of a grain merchant.

"Assistant He is here, please take a seat! Haimei, bring a chair over, Yaoyao, make a hot cup of coffee!"

Arrogant at first but respectful later.

Afterwards, Ho Chi-long expressed his high recognition for Zhai Yuan's work in the past six months, and put forward new requirements and suggestions for his work next year. He hoped that he could strengthen his responsibilities, improve the details, persist in learning and continuous improvement, and actively respond to Councillor Mak's policy proposal.

The official rhetoric was so intense that Zhai Yuan felt as if he had returned to the time when he listened to the "News Broadcast" at 7 o'clock every night.

In the end, the congressman's assistant finally left the only useful information.

"We have news about the theater you asked me to contact. It's located near Tak Po Garden in Ngau Tau Kok, Kwun Tong, the New Palace Theater. This theater doesn't have many seats, only about 1,200 or so. The owner asked for a monthly rent of 300,000 yuan. I can help you pay it down to 240,000 yuan. As for the bank loan, you need to negotiate it yourself. We civil servants can't help you with this, otherwise it will cause an investigation by the ICAC, which is very troublesome."

After he finished speaking, he took out two red envelopes and placed them on Zhai Yuan's bedside. He patted his shoulder and said with a smile, "Councilman Mai asked me to say hello to you. I wish you a happy new year and a happy 18th birthday."

(End of this chapter)