Back to the prime of life

Chapter 160 Financial Crisis and Championship Events

Lu Changge turned his college life almost into an internship experience for a college student in an Internet company. The third year of college had no meaning to him, except for the professional courses that were about to be opened.

In comparison, there was another thing that got more of his attention in September, but it was just attention. He pretended nothing had happened and spent the first week of his new semester according to the school schedule.

However, even in the cafeteria, he would carry the prepared food to a position closer to the TV.
There is a news channel there every day at noon, and currently the most important news comes from the financial field.

On September 9, the U.S. federal government took over the two major housing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. By September 7, the situation deteriorated further and Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection. Before people could react, the next day, AIG, the largest insurance company in the United States, accepted an $9 billion emergency loan bailout, otherwise it would have gone bankrupt.

The world has gone a little crazy.

When this financial tsunami reached China, overseas orders plummeted and coastal enterprises shut down on a large scale. According to later statistics, more than 2000 million workers were forced to return home due to factory closures.

2000 million is just a number, and many people have no idea about it. If you express it another way, it will be different. For example, the total population of Taiwan Province is more than 2000 million.

Qin Jun found him with a bowl of food from the cafeteria, sat opposite him, and told him that the garment factories had been bombarding him with phone calls in the past two days, and their main purpose was just five words: Boss, please buy some goods.

"Someone told me that such a sudden change is related to the thing on it, is that right?" Qin Jun had his back to the TV. Although he hadn't watched it, he knew what it was. After all, he had been watching it with Lu Changge for a few days.

Lu Changge remained noncommittal and simply said, "Using the internet to sell goods is all about taking advantage of low costs. We don't have a warehouse and can't stockpile goods, so there's no way we can increase our purchases. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"You tell them that we are a small, newly established factory. If we want to expand our supply, there are only two ways. One is for them to give us a lower price, or the other is to supply us first and pay us later."

Qin Jun was truly impressed. "You're pulling off a scam! No wonder they say being a boss is a gifted skill. Aren't you just the Lu Pa Pi of the new era?"

"Winter is approaching, and without the comfort of heating, people will rush to use firewood for heating." Lu Changge said as he picked at the few pieces of chicken in his bowl of Kung Pao Chicken, "Now it seems that starting an e-commerce business two months ago was a wise decision."

"Don't say that too soon. Although our sales have increased recently, with daily orders exceeding 300, this is still a small improvement."

The number three hundred may seem like a lot, but in fact, in the early days of e-commerce, as the size of the online shopping group expanded, people in the industry could see an increase in sales even if they just lay down every day, which was equivalent to riding a bicycle to travel.

But if you want to take the bus or train and increase the number of orders per day to over 10,000, you will need more methods.

Lu Changge knew it clearly in his heart, "I know, because our marketing is not enough."

His appearance aroused Qin Jun's excitement. "You have a solution, right?"

"Have."

After eating, they went to the rented shop together.

"...I think we need to change the name of the store. We used to call it Lu Baiwan, which was quite casual. It was very down-to-earth, but not very fashionable. Now we want to attract young urbanites who shop online, so we have to change the name. The new name is Lumo, which is short for Luminous, which means to shine or to reveal light. Hence the Chinese name Lu Mang."

Li Ming praised, "Wow, it's really fashionable!"

Ai Mai also said: "And the 'Lu' of Lu Changge is also hidden inside."

Lu Changge himself hadn't noticed this. "We will focus on promoting this brand in the future, but remember, don't print this brand in a prominent place on any piece of clothing."

Everyone was puzzled, "Why?"

"Because we sell it cheaply, no vain young person would want to show off an 89-yuan shirt on the street."

Yin Anyan asked again, "But after it becomes cheaper, how can it be called a brand? What does this brand mean?"

"That's a good question. Cheap things rarely have any brand power, and even if they do, they can easily be associated with scams. I can be frank: we're actually selling cheap goods at low prices, but we're just trying to package them in a way that makes them look cheap. For example, 'cheap' sounds so offensive, so we've changed it to 'popular fast fashion.'"

Qin Jun thought, "Do you want to advertise?"

"Advertising is for next year. Let's come up with some gimmicks this year. Didn't you just say that several manufacturers are calling you and want you to increase your stock?"

"Correct."

"Okay, what's certain now is that a global financial crisis has arrived. Export-oriented economies like Jiangzhou's will undoubtedly be impacted, and if small and micro-sized factories fail, a whole host of them will perish. So we need someone who can step up and help small and micro-sized enterprises find a way out through the internet. Through arduous efforts, he's finally achieved limited success. You think this kind of story should be broadcast on local television?"

Everyone's eyes widened after hearing this.

"Are you talking about you?"

"Yes, although I don't really want to be famous, I have prepared myself mentally. I should make sure that things can be successful first."

Li Ming asked: "The question is how to make this gimmick work?"

Lu Changge smiled and said, "Do you want to meet the Olympic champion?"

He will take care of the Olympic champion issue, while Qin Jun and others will be responsible for the name change. Products such as workplace training courses can be taken off the shelves. After all, a year has passed, and the current sales have been basically wiped out by the impact of imitators.

So far in 08, it had brought him over a million in profits. Lu Changge had no idea how much more. He used to calculate it, but once the money started to grow, he lost interest in the small changes. He just knew it was a few hundred thousand, not a few hundred thousand.

But the reason I'm taking it down now isn't to erase traces of the past, but simply to promote the Lumo brand. The internet has a memory, and nothing can be completely erased, unless someone is truly covering up everything. The thing itself doesn't matter.

Firstly, the content of the training course videos themselves wasn't deceptive; it was Lu Changge's own summary based on success books. Success books are everywhere on the market, so who's wrong? It's hard to say that everything in them is 100% correct, but they're definitely positive and uplifting, not spreading dark or depressing culture.

Secondly, even if someone feels they’ve lost out on something worth a hundred dollars, they generally won’t make a big deal about it.

Third, and most importantly, it's not illegal. If something isn't illegal, why would you care?
So the store, renamed Lumo, only has two products: shirts and pants. One is a men's suit, and the other is a women's suit.

The prices are all the same, the shirt is priced at 89, the pants are priced at 79, and the whole set is 159.

After the name change, some traffic will be lost because many users only know about Lu Baiwan’s workplace training courses, but don’t know what Lumo is.

But it doesn’t matter, new traffic will come in.

…………

Zuo Shuya knew that Lu Changge was a very busy man recently, so she had finalized his schedule a week ago.

February 9 at 16pm.

On this day, the HaiLan Bay Swimming Pool was completely empty and closed to the public. The reason had been posted outside the door to inform all members. No one expressed dissatisfaction because everyone knew that the Olympic champion had arrived.

Lu Changge did not underestimate the influence of an Olympic champion, so he contacted the local TV station in Jiangzhou in advance. The provincial TV station came uninvited because they wanted to track the Olympic champion's itinerary.

As for other reporters who came from nowhere, there were even more of them.

If you are facing friends from the media, this is also a new course, including how to contact them and how to arrange things on the day. But in fact, in a society where human relationships are important, the key is how to be nicer to them without bribing them, and then get them to write something good.

This was a delicate matter, and Lu Changge himself was also paying attention to it. He also deliberately revealed a piece of information: the owner of Hailan Bay Swimming Pool was an entrepreneurial college student with a net worth of one million.

This alone is enough to be topical.

Others thought that Lu Changge was trying to become famous, but in fact he regarded himself as a public relations manager.

According to the previously agreed process, Lu Changge and Zuo Shuya waited at the door. A business car would drive directly to the door in a while. In order to avoid reporters crowding and blocking the road, Hailan Bay Swimming Pool set up a special interview area. Everyone waited together and asked a few questions when they came. As for whether they would get answers or not, Lu Changge had no control over it.

In his previous life, he had seen this champion athlete on TV, Liu Zige, the gold medalist in the women's 200-meter butterfly and also the world record holder.

People like this always travel in a group, and the number of people coming will be communicated in advance. Lu Changge knew that there were two business cars, and the other car belonged to a swimming charity organization. The theme of this event was to popularize swimming knowledge for children. There were two processes: one was a speech to share one's own swimming experience, and the other was practical education to stimulate children's interest in swimming.

In order to save time, they also brought a charity organization over. Needless to say, the promotional video had to be used by both sides.

HaiLan Bay is considered the rich man who provided the venue and funds.

But in fact, there are more than two parties.

The Jiangzhou Municipal Sports Bureau has also joined in, and they are going to launch a public welfare publicity campaign of "Love life, learn to swim, and prevent drowning."

However, the matters of the Sports Bureau are relatively simple. The people who do the actual work come over to hang the banner, the leaders come over to shake hands, and then take a photo with the Olympic champion.

This is called one fish, three ways of eating it.

The most outrageous thing was that Zuo Shuya received a request to provide materials, and it would be best if she could get someone else's speech manuscript so that she could copy it verbatim when writing the press release.

Lu Changge rolled his eyes and told her to ignore him. There would be a speech soon, so why not just pay a little attention?
In short, this is an activity that requires arranging the venue, organizing the event process, and coordinating multiple parties. The multiple parties here include Olympic champions and their teams, leaders of sports departments at both the municipal and district levels, and the press corps.

After noon, the children who had been selected in advance had already taken their seats in the swimming pool hall. There was also a simple small stage here. After the speeches and questions, they changed their clothes and went to the swimming pool for practical teaching.

Of course, we also coordinated with the champion himself to demonstrate his swimming skills to the children.

At this moment, Principal Chen Xiaohe also came. She was chatting with a group of parents around, and she would point to Lu Changge while whispering to each other.

Only then did people realize that the owner of HaiLan Bay Swimming Pool was so young.

When the time came, two black commercial vehicles turned from the city road into the parking lot of the commercial plaza, and everything officially began.

Although Lu Changge was the boss, Deputy Director Zhou of the Sports Bureau was also here today, so he didn't move forward. Instead, he politely said, "Leader, can you help me answer the phone?"

Let him show up and say that he is doing you a favor.

Deputy Director Zhou was also very happy and said with a smile, "Let's go together."

As soon as the car door opened, Lu Changge saw the familiar face. He rushed forward to shake hands and said, "Hello, I'm Lu Changge. We spoke on the phone."

The title of Olympic champion is too big. In fact, she is just a 19-year-old girl with chubby cheeks and a shy smile. In addition, she is very tall.

"Hello."

Lu Changge leaned over and introduced, "This is Director Zhou from our Municipal Sports Bureau."

……

Zuo Shuya stepped back at this point, giving her face to her leader. She and Chen Xiaohe stood nearby, smiling and clapping, the two whispering to each other. Zuo Shuya exclaimed, "Oh my god, Liu Zige is so tall! I didn't realize it when I saw him on TV before."

"I didn't expect it either. It must be 1.8 meters tall."

Zuo Shuya was worried for Lu Changge, "Fortunately, Changge is tall, otherwise the picture would be disjointed."

"Like Director Zhou?"

Fortunately, they were whispering, but even so, everyone around them was laughing. It was a bit of a bully; Director Zhou was only about 1.65 meters tall.

The normal activity process at this time involves sending flowers, but Lu Changge refused this. He didn't like this and had hated this at work before.

Once you're in, just start as normal.

After some simple pleasantries, he walked onto the small temporary stage in front of everyone. He was the boss, he was going to give the opening remarks, and he had decided to show his face.

Generally speaking, young people would be a little nervous in such occasions, but Lu Changge acted like a veteran in every way, and he was not pretending. He could feel that his mood was very calm and normal. He did not need a speech script, just a microphone, and then he started talking:
Dear Ms. Liu Zige, Dear Deputy Director Zhou, Distinguished Guests, Dear Friends:
good afternoon everyone!
The azure waters are blessed with the presence of flying fish, and the vast wind echoes the sound of the tide. Today, we gather in the azure waters of Heilan Bay, born for the water and driven by dreams. On behalf of all Heilan Bay colleagues, I would like to express my highest respect to Ms. Liu Zige, a shining pearl of Chinese swimming—the champion and world record holder in the women's 200m butterfly at the Beijing Olympics!
Water is the cradle of civilization; swimming is a spiritual practice of self-transcendence. As the Olympic flame illuminates the rising five-star red flag, we witness not only the glory of gold medals but also the spirit of humanity constantly pushing boundaries. Today, we invite you not only to experience the warmth of a champion, but also to share Ms. Zige's life story of bravely forging her own path through the waves, allowing every pool enthusiast to find their own path in the waves...

……

"He's quite talkative." Chen Xiaohe said with some surprise.

"I've never seen this before. I guess he practiced for this. Besides this, he's going to be giving a brief interview later."

(End of this chapter)