After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 219 Teacher and Student

Publishing costs are very low these days.

The most important point is lax supervision. While all parts of the country are actively promoting economic development, insufficient efforts are being made to protect the environment. Without adequate environmental protection, deforestation and the unchecked production of paper are permitted.

Low material costs mean low paper prices.

Except for high-end printed coated paper, domestic technology is backward and needs to be imported from abroad.

All types of printing paper can be produced independently in China.

This creates huge profit margins for papermaking and the downstream printing and publishing industries.

For example, the 120 million yuan order from the Writers Association.

The material cost is 40 yuan.

Among them, the paper cost is 30 yuan and the ink cost is 10 yuan.

This is a hard cost that cannot be avoided.

As for the other cost items in cost accounting, there is still a lot of room for exploration.

If Zhou Haoran wants to reduce prices significantly, he mainly needs to make changes to several other cost items.

"Okay, let's not talk about the big principles of these models. Let's just talk about this order. According to my plan, accepting the order at a price of 60 yuan will not cause the printing factory to lose money."

“No loss?”

Li Changxing didn't understand.

Zhou Haoran stood up, picked up a pen, went to the whiteboard in the office, and quickly listed all the cost items.

Material cost: 40 yuan.

Salary cost: 12 yuan.

The cost of water, electricity, maintenance, warehousing, etc. is 3 yuan.

Equipment depreciation cost, 5 yuan.

Financial cost: 5 yuan.

Li Changxing pointed out that during the printing process, there will definitely be some mistakes, resulting in misprints, or some other uncontrollable items, which will increase the risk cost by another 5 yuan.

Zhou Haoran also wrote it down.

The total is 70 yuan.

Zhou Haoran first crossed out the "financial costs" and said, "Financial costs can be cut first. Why should we take out loans? High-interest short-term debt eats up all our profits!"

Jiang Xiong explained, "Financial costs are an unavoidable hurdle. We do have some money in our account, and based on this one order, we don't really need a loan. But if we really offer a 120% discount on the market price, and others are asking for 60 million yuan, we'll only need yuan. Then all the booksellers in the city will come knocking! I guarantee it!"

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "This is exactly the effect I want."

Jiang Xiong said: "The funds in our account are not enough to cover all orders, so short-term borrowing is unavoidable."

Zhou Haoran shook his head, "So we need to change the business model."

"what?"

Jiang Xiong and Li Changxing were both a little dizzy.

These days, “business model” is still an avant-garde concept that most people have never heard of.

Zhou Haoran stood in front of them like a teacher and said, "Old Li, Changxing Publishing House almost went bankrupt while printing the Children's Encyclopedia. Why? Because you had to borrow a large amount of money from the bank to finance the printing."

Jiang Xiong freely admitted, "I made operational mistakes. The Children's Encyclopedia couldn't be sold, and I couldn't pay the printing press for the order. This caused a chain reaction. I was going bankrupt, and so was he."

"That's the problem!" Zhou Haoran said with a serious expression. "The success or failure of a book project is the responsibility of the bookseller. Why should the printing house also bear the cost? This is unreasonable and must be changed."

"How to change?"

“Charge first, print later.”

"Huh?" Li Changxing was surprised. "Advance payment is a common practice in the industry."

Jiang Xiong's eyes lit up, and he thought thoughtfully: "If we charge first and print later, we don't need to borrow money to advance the funds, and we can really save this 10% financial cost."

"is it possible?"

Li Changxing looked stunned.

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "Prepaying for printing is a bad habit that must be changed! Zhongbo Bookstore should take the lead and set an example for its peers nationwide! As for whether booksellers will accept it... We've already accepted the order at half price, so who can refuse?"

Li Changxing looked like a student sitting and listening to a lecture.

Think silently.

Jiang Xiong was very excited and saw hope. "I think this will work! It can not only help the printing business avoid unnecessary risks, but also save financial costs."

Zhou Haoran turned around and deleted the "equipment depreciation cost" on the whiteboard.

"The equipment has already been purchased, so it's all sunk costs. Depreciation is only useful for bookkeeping; it doesn't need to be factored into actual operations. The equipment is just sitting there, depreciating whether we receive orders or not."

"Ah."

Jiang Xiong and Li Changxing nodded repeatedly.

Didn't quite understand.

But I couldn't even find the angle to question it.

"A loss on paper doesn't mean an operating loss, as long as cash flow is sufficient." Zhou Haoran turned around and looked at the remaining options. "Labor costs cannot be reduced, but labor efficiency must be improved. Increased efficiency means reduced costs."

The next statement is more complicated.

Zhou Haoran didn't give them any time to speak and continued lecturing.

Now we only take one order every few months, and the workers are not proficient in the business.

The efficiency is naturally low.

If you accept orders and work every day, your skills will become more and more proficient, and your efficiency will increase significantly. If the business granularity is more refined and the operation is streamlined, the efficiency of employment can be further improved.

There is also room to reduce the maintenance costs of printing equipment.

For such large equipment, wear and tear mainly occurs during the startup phase.

It keeps running without any glitches.

The maintenance cost is high if the engine is frequently started and stopped, or not used for a long time.

If a large number of orders can be received, the printing factory can operate two or three shifts a day, keeping the equipment in a long-term working state, and thus the overall cost can be reduced.

Once you become proficient in the work, the risk control costs caused by printing errors and work mistakes will be further reduced. After receiving a large number of orders, your bargaining power with upstream paper mills and ink manufacturers will also increase, and procurement costs will be reduced.

"Oh, and there's also the warehouse..." Zhou Haoran showed his cunning side again, "There's no reason for us to serve as a warehouse for booksellers. When the printing job is finished, we require the booksellers to immediately ship the books away. If you occupy our warehouse, you'll have to pay extra storage fees."

"Additional payment?"

Li Changxing was shocked again by such a strategy.

"This has two benefits. First, it increases turnover and encourages booksellers not to occupy our warehouses. Second, in addition to orders, there is additional storage income, which is equivalent to reducing storage costs."

Zhou Haoran once again used the means of the Internet.

Many internet products and services initially attract customers with low prices or even free services. Once customers arrive, they have to pay again if they want more services.

The same can be said for the printing business.

"First, we'll attract booksellers with an ultra-low price, 50% off the market price. Once they come, we'll have the initiative. Payment first, printing later; no warehouse space is allowed, otherwise we'll have to pay. Even if you want expedited printing, you'll have to wait in line." Zhou Haoran glanced at Qiao Nuo. "This is traffic thinking. Don't worry about making money first, just attract traffic first. Once the traffic comes, won't it be easy to monetize it later?"

Qiao Nuo's pretty face flushed red, and she was excited and proud.

This is a secret between her and her master.

It’s the essence of the letter-writing business!

Jiang Xiong was stunned. "Is this even possible?"

Li Changxing stared at the whiteboard and said absentmindedly, "Even if we don't count all that, materials cost 40, salaries 12, miscellaneous expenses 3, and risk control 5... the total cost is at most 60."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Yes, even if we don't consider the long-term scale effect and only look at this short-term order, we have no reason to lose money!"

"Then..." Jiang Xiong became excited. "Then I'll contact the Writers Association? Our offer is 60?"

Li Changxing's eyes lit up, "I feel like I've seized a great opportunity!"

Zhou Haoran said: "Hurry up and do it!"

……

With these three moves, there is no reason why we can’t get back the orders from the Writers Association.

There is no need for Zhou Haoran to participate.

He went to ask Qiao Nuo about school.

After all, she is a senior who just graduated.

Qiao Nuo said that school has already started, but the new students have not yet enrolled.

His brother spent the entire summer working on a project with his supervisor and didn't take any vacation.

"Your brother?" Zhou Haoran was curious. "Is your brother also at Fudan?"

Qiao Nuo said with a smile: "Yes, he is a graduate student."

"Your brother?"

Zhou Haoran remembered that he had a younger brother.

Qiao Nuo nodded slightly, "Yeah, two years older than me."

"Your family is full of cultured people."

Zhou Haoran admires him very much.

He went to the human resources department and got a work certificate from Red Star TV.

Then drive to school.

You need to go through the procedures for taking a leave of absence.

Take advantage of the fact that new students have not yet enrolled and it is not so busy, so you don’t have to queue up to handle various procedures.

I went directly to the Academic Affairs Office, took the notice, and in front of the academic affairs teacher, I wrote a written application for leave of absence and filled out the "Student Status Change Application Form." However, this still needed to be reviewed by the college, and I would need to vacate my dormitory and postpone tuition.

Zhou Haoran didn't know who to contact and was afraid the process would be too long.

Fortunately, he is very familiar with the School of Computer Science.

In my previous life, I even had a very good relationship with Dean Cheng Dechang. We had a lot of interactions during my school years and after graduation. He was a polite elder and didn't act like a leader.

It’s better to go directly to the dean.

Simple and straightforward.

I went to the dean's office and found that he was not there.

I asked and was told it was in the laboratory.

Zhou Haoran, familiar with the route, headed straight for Group 3 Lab, where Dean Cheng supervised his students. He was a doctoral supervisor, supervised master's students, and also taught the introductory "Computer Principles" course to freshmen.

No need to knock.

Push the door open and enter.

There was a commotion in the laboratory.

Seven or eight students were standing in front of a computer, arguing fiercely, seemingly having encountered some technical difficulties.

Zhou Haoran moved closer and saw Dean Cheng there.

Sitting in front of the computer, surrounded by students.

On the computer monitor are strings of very complicated codes.

Seeing this, Zhou Haoran subconsciously joked, "Dean Cheng, this is calling Java's green thread to do the animation loop. Can you understand? Don't mislead the students!"

"Ok?"

The classmates turned around and looked at him in surprise.

Cheng Dechang also turned around, looking confused, and adjusted his glasses. "Classmate, which group are you from?"

Zhou Haoran's forehead was filled with black lines.

Awkward!
My past and present lives are a bit confused.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly and immediately became serious, saying, "Dean Cheng, I have an application document that needs to be approved by the college. Could you please give me a note? I'm very busy here and would like to get it done as soon as possible."

Dean Cheng seemed not to hear what he was saying. He looked curious and asked, "Student, can you understand green threads? Are you proficient in Java?"

(End of this chapter)