Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 344 Lin Shengdong's Business Acumen (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

After Lin Qingyin finished speaking, she fell silent, and the smile on her face diminished considerably.

Sensing that Lin Qingyin was feeling down, Lin Shengdong sighed inwardly. As a parent, he naturally hoped that his daughter could find a suitable husband.

But this Cheng Yi is no ordinary man; he's practically a god of war, taking down Wu Xiutian and Shu Qin with a single move.

Lin Shengdong lowered his head and thought for a long time, his eyes gradually brightening.

He suddenly remembered a good idea.

He could also become a relative of the emperor's wife.

In terms of both financial resources and ability, he claimed to be no less capable than Zhang Gang.

He has always been very confident, especially in the area of ​​business operations.

After this incident, Lin Shengdong was already considering leaving and didn't want to stay in Dongcang County any longer. After all, by taking down Shu Qin, he had thoroughly offended the powerful families in Dongcang County. If he continued, he would probably face all sorts of difficulties.

Once he gets his shares back, he might as well sell the eight shopping malls and invest in Momo Group.

If Momo Group becomes too large, then he can invest in second-tier companies, and he'll eventually have a place there.

At that time, he will be able to help Lin Qingyin, get close to the Momo Group, and find a way to make money in the future.

This is what investment should be.

Having figured these things out, Lin Shengdong felt much more at ease.

Since his online meeting with Cheng Yi during the Chinese New Year, Lin Shengdong has carefully studied the Momo Group's businesses.

Many of Momo Group's industries are emerging and Lin Shengdong cannot fully understand them, but there is one industry that Lin Shengdong is very familiar with.

Merchant Points!

When it comes to individual business owners, Lin Shengdong dares to say he's second, and no one in Handong Province dares to say they're first.

He is the largest self-employed individual.

Starting from a small storefront of just a few square meters, Lin Shengdong gradually developed into eight multi-million-dollar shopping malls. If it weren't for the constant battles of wits and courage he had with Wu Xiutian and Shu Qin over the past decade or so, Lin Shengdong was confident that he could have opened Shengdong Shopping Malls all over the province.

He has a thorough understanding of the thoughts and pain points of individual business owners, and he also has a good grasp of the customers' mentality.

Every top performer in any industry has absolute confidence in their area of ​​expertise, and Lin Shengdong is such a person.

He was absolutely confident that if he were in charge of this area, he could increase the business volume tenfold or even more.

Having thought all this through, Lin Shengdong picked up his phone and sent Cheng Yi a text message: "[Let's talk. Hope you can come.]"

That evening, Cheng Yi brought Jiang Yuxi to the ward.

Jiang Yuxi and Lin Qingyin have a good relationship. When she heard that Lin Qingyin's father was hospitalized, she insisted on coming to visit him.

Cheng Yi had no choice but to drag Jiang Yuxi over.

"Jiang Yuxi!" Lin Qingyin greeted Jiang Yuxi happily as soon as she saw her come in.

"Is she Jiang Yuxi?" Lin Shengdong looked at the legendary Jiang Yuxi and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Although the girl is very pretty, she is still somewhat different from his daughter.

At least in terms of looks, his daughter has the upper hand.

"Hello, Uncle Lin." Jiang Yuxi greeted Lin Shengdong and walked over familiarly, placing the flower basket she brought on the bedside table.

After arranging the flower baskets, Jiang Yuxi looked at Lin Shengdong with curiosity and asked, "Uncle Lin, are you really the richest man in Dongcang County?"

"That's just nonsense from busybodies," Lin Shengdong replied dismissively.

Jiang Yuxi continued to press, "Uncle Lin, what's it like to be the richest man? Do you bring bodyguards when you go out? Are you worried about being kidnapped, like in the movies?"

"???" Lin Shengdong couldn't understand Jiang Yuxi's thought process at all. He laughed awkwardly and said, "How can I be considered the richest man in Dongcang County? There are plenty of hidden millionaires in Dongcang County."

Jiang Yuxi assumed Lin Shengdong was just being modest. Her eyes sparkled as she asked curiously, "Uncle Lin, how did you get so badly injured? Did someone try to kidnap you? How much money do they want?"

"..." Lin Shengdong looked at Cheng Yi with pleading eyes.

If this girl keeps asking questions, his blood pressure will rise.

Cheng Yi habitually grabbed Jiang Yuxi by the collar and pulled the persistent Jiang Yuxi aside.

Jiang Yuxi shouted indignantly, "Cheng Yi, what are you doing? What's wrong with me meeting my idol and asking him about his success? I'm definitely going to become the richest person in the world too."

Cheng Yi was completely immune to Jiang Yuxi's protests. He carried Jiang Yuxi to the living room of the special care ward and said to Lin Qingyin, "Lin Qingyin, you take care of Jiang Yuxi. I have something to talk to Uncle Lin about."

"Okay." Lin Qingyin walked to Jiang Yuxi's side knowingly, took Jiang Yuxi's hand and smiled, "Jiang Yuxi, I know most of what happened to my father. You can ask me if you have any questions."

"Really?" Jiang Yuxi's eyes lit up.

Seeing the two girls chatting enthusiastically, Cheng Yi walked into the ward and asked, "Uncle Lin, now that Shu Qin and the others have explained everything clearly, Wu Xiutian's shares in Shengdong Department Store have also been returned."

"I didn't come to you for these things." Lin Shengdong looked at Cheng Yi very seriously and said, "You helped me solve such a big crisis, and I want to help you too."

"Help me?" Cheng Yi laughed. "Uncle Lin, don't be so polite with me. With Lin Qingyin's connection, I wouldn't stand idly by."

"You don't believe I can help you?" Lin Shengdong asked in a deep voice.

"It's not a matter of belief," Cheng Yi said with a smile. "I really don't need Uncle Lin to repay me."

Lin Shengdong didn't waste any more words and went straight to the point: "Your current merchant outreach model is progressing too slowly. I've studied your model carefully. You've been operating for six months now, and only about 5% of the merchants in Jingzhou City have joined you. One reason is that you've hired college students for outreach. These students can help you acquire some ordinary merchants, but they can't get you big merchants." Lin Shengdong's words precisely pointed out the pain point of the current merchant outreach model.

The current merchant on-the-ground promotion model has fallen into a cycle: successful shops are unwilling to join, while struggling shops are eager to join.

In the entire Jingzhou City, less than 10% of the shops are not doing well.

Although the benefits brought by these 5% of merchants are already outrageous, there is still a long way to go to reach Cheng Yi's goal.

Cheng Yi's goal is 15%.

His understanding of the physical industry comes from Meituan. He has never opened a physical store or had much contact with physical store owners. The initial reason for implementing this merchant ground promotion model was simply to accumulate a capital pool.

Lin Shengdong said, "Actually, the goal of shop owners is to make money. As long as they can make more money, they will definitely not refuse. If you can refine the merchant promotion model and create a few booming shops as benchmarks, even shops with good business will definitely be interested. If they are still not interested, then you can support a competitor in their industry to make them feel a sense of crisis."

Lin Shengdong's method is simple, but very practical, because he understands the mentality of individual business owners.

Lin Shengdong continued, "If you do this well, you can set up a Momo member mall in each district and county, with local merchants providing the goods. These goods can be different from those in their shops. Then, you can settle payments with them every 30 to 60 days. This 30 to 60-day cycle will accumulate a lot of funds, which can be used for expansion or investment."

“Our shopping mall almost always adopts this model; we only need to pay the rent.”

"?" Upon hearing this pattern, Cheng Yi suddenly felt it was very familiar.

This sounds more and more like JD.com's self-operated business.

However, upon closer reflection, JD.com's self-operated model is actually quite similar to that of shopping malls in this era.

Many shopping malls offer free booths and shops, taking a cut from the sales and setting a settlement period of 3-6 months.

For example, the settlement cycle for Shengdong Department Store is 3-6 months.

If the merchant on-the-ground promotion model is implemented as Lin Shengdong suggested, it certainly has great potential.

However, Lin Shengdong's thinking was based on his own understanding of the situation, but Cheng Yi perceived the result differently.

If Lin Shengdong can really set up a Momo member marketplace in every district and county, then he can create a same-city express delivery service, and even a provincial sales network.

It has to be said that this richest man is indeed the richest man; he aroused his interest in just a few words.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "Uncle Lin, this requires a huge investment."

Lin Shengdong said, "Shopping malls are different from entertainment venues like internet cafes. Shopping malls are the highest quality assets. Even if the debt ratio reaches 80%, banks are still willing to lend. We can use the A shopping mall as collateral for a loan, then build the B shopping mall, and then use the residual value of the A shopping mall and the B shopping mall as collateral for a loan to build the C shopping mall. The development speed is extremely fast, as long as we don't borrow from branches in the same area."

"Isn't this a bit too risky?" Cheng Yi felt that Lin Shengdong's idea was too crazy and too daring. It was simply a way of playing without any regard for debt.

Indeed, the credit reporting system was not officially connected nationwide until July 2006. Before that, if you were bold enough, you could use the same house to get a loan from Bank A and then go to Bank B for another loan.

Therefore, banks usually use the method of collecting the property ownership certificate to prevent this behavior.

However, large shopping malls like shopping centers do not collect property ownership certificates. Not to mention collecting property ownership certificates, any bank, as long as it hears that a shopping mall wants a loan, the bank manager will come over with his mistress, all eager to talk.

Seeing Cheng Yi deep in thought, Lin Shengdong said, "These days, if you want to make big money, you have to be bold. Look at those real estate developers. Before the buildings are even topped out, they've already taken out mortgage loans to build new buildings in the next district. Which real estate company doesn't have a debt ratio of 90%? As long as the industry is on the rise, a debt ratio of 900% is fine."

This is the mindset of the richest person.

They don't act recklessly; they use any means necessary to achieve their goals.

Seeing that Cheng Yi had not expressed any opinion, Lin Shengdong persuaded him again: "If you are not at ease, I can set up a separate limited liability company. The registered capital of 10 million yuan is enough. My eight commercial buildings are worth about 160 million yuan. I will sell them as start-up capital. I will take 20% of the shares in the new company. Is that okay? The other 80% is for you. Even if there is a problem, you will only have 8 million yuan of liability."

Cheng Yi said, "Uncle Lin, if you really want to get into this industry, I can give you a share. You can set up a second-level company. What you said is a good idea, but I think the direction needs to be changed."

"How do we change it?" Lin Shengdong was taken aback.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "I think the future trend should be e-commerce shopping. eBay has been promoting it, and I think e-commerce will definitely rise in less than three years. When that time comes, if you can just click on the internet and have your goods delivered to your door, do you think physical stores and shopping malls will be affected?"

"Definitely." As a business professional, Lin Shengdong disliked the internet thing.

He nodded slowly and said, "You mean, we should go in the direction of e-commerce?"

“No.” Cheng Yi shook his head and said, “What I mean is, we need to come up with a template that can compete with e-commerce.”

"Isn't this a bit of an overreaction?" Lin Shengdong frowned. "Even eBay takes a month to deliver goods to your door. How can they compete with physical stores?"

“Times are changing. Just because they can’t do it now doesn’t mean they can’t do it in the future,” Cheng Yi said. “I have an idea, Uncle Lin, could you give me your opinion?”

"You speak," Lin Shengdong said, looking directly at Cheng Yi.

He was looking forward to hearing what good suggestions Cheng Yi might offer.

Cheng Yi said, "I think our thinking shouldn't be limited to just one district or county. If we're going to do it, we should connect the entire province's sales network. At worst, we can get two small trucks and drive around the whole province every day."

"You mean cross-selling?" Lin Shengdong frowned and said, "That's not appropriate. Cross-selling is now prohibited for many products."

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "We're just setting a general route so that we won't be caught off guard when shopping websites rise up. We need to learn to fight magic with magic. If we had a shopping website like eBay, where users could place orders and receive their goods the next day, do you think that would have a big impact on brick-and-mortar stores?"

Lin Shengdong's eyes showed a hint of surprise as he said, "That's impossible. How could there be an e-commerce platform where you can receive your goods the next day? If e-commerce platforms could do that, then all our physical stores could close down."

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "I was just giving an example."

He thought for a while and said, "Uncle Lin, if you are really willing to take over this business, I will go back and report it to the board of directors for approval. However, you'd better think it over carefully. You have 1.6 million yuan, which is enough to last you several lifetimes. If you use this 1.6 million yuan to buy a house in Yanjing City, it will probably be enough to last you ten lifetimes."

Lin Shengdong chuckled and said, "Money is just a number to me. What I like most is the process of making money."

“I’m actually not that interested in money,” Lin Shengdong added.

(End of this chapter)