Chapter 10: Expanding the Sales Network for Braised Food: Getting Others to Help You Make Money

After packing up his night market stall and going home to wash up and go to bed, Chen Yidong tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time. He felt that something was wrong.

Qian Xuemei was so annoyed by him that she kicked him and said, "If you're not going to sleep, then go away."

"No." As the saying goes, "The maternal uncle is the most important person to his mother," and the uncle is always worried. "Hey, Xuemei, don't you think something's wrong with Xiaoxiao? She's racking her brains to make money, it's even scarier than when she was preparing for college, when she was always glued to her books and only had studying in her eyes."

Qian Xuemei thought that the scoundrel was just making trouble for no reason: "Isn't it good that she's focused on making money? You said Xiaoxiao is someone who never slacks off at anything, and now that she's not making money, she's gone to find that guy, and you're happy?"

Chen Yidong was even more frightened and quickly shouted to stop him: "Can't you say something nice?"

Qian Xuemei rolled her eyes: "I don't know who's looking for trouble. You have to let the kids find something to do."

What's wrong with making money? Don't be fooled by the propaganda of "the poorer you are, the more glorious you are" that was promoted a few years ago. In reality, the rich households in the production team always lived better than the poor households.

Xiaoxiao is right, we should work hard to make money.

Wang Xiao made a fortune for the rest of October.

Leaving aside her stable income from selling braised food, she's incredibly busy with the wedding market alone.

It's interesting that October is traditionally a peak wedding season. Apart from the locals who flock to get married on National Day, almost all the rest are postponed to the middle and late part of the month, after the autumn harvest. I don't know if it symbolizes the joy of the harvest or if they are simply too busy to find time to get married and find a wife.

Thanks to the positive reputation gained from Xiuyun's wedding, Wang Xiao entered a mode of constantly rushing between weddings. On her busiest day, she did makeup for three brides in one morning, covering not only all eight villages in Zhouzhen but also five neighboring towns. Her economic surveys of the surrounding villages and towns also expanded to include areas within a ten-mile radius.

If it weren't for the fact that the distance was too far and her uncle's family was worried about her, she could even get orders in the county town.

Her hard work paid off. On the last night of October, when everyone sat down to tally up the accounts, Wang Xiao herself was surprised. After deducting all costs, they had actually made a total of 669.9 yuan in just half a month.

Without saying a word, Qian Xuemei took out a dime from her pocket and put it in: "Okay, 670."

If you earn 670 in half a month, that's 1340 in a month. How much would that be in a year?

Chen Jingjing, a junior high school student, is currently the top mental arithmetic student among the four. She directly gave the answer: "16080 yuan".

Wow, that's amazing! Selling braised food can be so profitable. No wonder those who sell braised dried meat can build a three-story house without going into debt.

Adding this to my parents' wages and the money we earn from selling grain and pigs, we can almost raise enough to make two households with 10,000 yuan each.

Wang Xiao also thought the results were good, but she suspected that sales would decrease if they continued. After all, many families are getting married in October, and farmers have more money after selling their grain and are more willing to spend. It's uncertain what will happen after some time, unless they can find a way to expand their sales reach.

She smiled and divided the money into four parts: "Here, at the end of the month, we'll split the profits, one part for each of us, 167 yuan and 5 mao."

Strictly speaking, this shouldn't be the case. Not only was the idea to sell braised food hers, and she also provided the recipe, but she and her cousin were the main sellers for the first five days, so they should have received more money. However, considering that adults wouldn't calculate things so meticulously, and that her main sales force later on—her wedding, the evening sales of braised dried goods, and the late-night snack sales—was mainly handled by her uncle and aunt, we'll just average it out.

Anyway, due to geographical limitations, this business can't be very large. Let's just consider it as her transmigrating into the book to make good connections with her relatives.

The uncle and aunt were shocked. Both Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei shook their heads and waved their hands in unison: "No, no, this is your money. We'll just lend a hand at most."

Just kidding. They are elders. How could they take advantage of younger people? It would be so embarrassing if word got out.

Chen Jingjing was too embarrassed to accept it; she would be happy to take five yuan as pocket money at most.

Wang Xiao insisted on pushing the money over: "Take it, Jingjing, don't you want to learn English? I'll take you to the bookstore in the provincial capital to buy more English tapes later. Uncle and Aunt, this money is rightfully yours. You see, I didn't share the money I earned from doing the bride's makeup and hosting the wedding; that's money I earned myself."

She ate and lived at her uncle's house, but didn't pay a single penny.

"Alright," she said confidently. "This is just the beginning; the best is yet to come."

This era is like a main road with few cars. You can drive however you want with the steering wheel in your hand, and the road is unobstructed.

Qian Xuemei accepted the money and nodded, saying, "Okay, then we'll consider it a partnership. When you go back to work, you'll get a share of the profits from this braised food business."

Although it's tiring, with no rest time outside of work, selling braised food earns much more than overtime pay. Even if you only earn seven or eight yuan a day, you can still make two hundred yuan a month, which is very worthwhile.

Looks like I won't even have to wait until the end of the year to pay back the thousand or so yuan I borrowed to build the house. I'll save the rest, and maybe this year I can even get a big color TV for Chinese New Year. No, no, no, I need to save up first and get a refrigerator. That way the braised food won't spoil easily and will sell better.

The aunt is thinking about how to spend the money she earns, while the niece is still figuring out how to earn more money.

After all, she never thought about enjoying herself when she earned tens of millions, so a few hundred yuan is not enough for her to lie down and rest.

She also wants to earn more money from braised food.

With limited manpower, there were only four people available, including her. This meant that their braised food sales were limited to Zhou Town. Not to mention the surrounding areas, they could hardly even reach the slightly remote villages in the town. In this era of underdeveloped transportation, it was unrealistic to expect people to travel for hours just to buy braised food.

Then the only option is to expand the sales network, which simply means setting up more sales outlets in the surrounding villages and towns.

It's unrealistic to expect my uncle's family to do this job. They're doing just fine in Qianjia Village, so why would they separate from their family and go to another place to open a shop?

The only potential partners she could consider were people who had already settled and lived in other towns.

The uncle and aunt exchanged a glance and tentatively asked, "You want to partner with the braised food shop in town and get a share of the profits?"

“No,” Wang Xiao shook his head. “Sell the recipe directly. Profit sharing isn’t realistic. They’re not my uncle and aunt; I have no way of knowing how much they make. They can easily fool me. Selling the recipe is the easiest way to make a profit. Besides the braised food shops in town, we can also sell it to small shops in more remote villages. I’ve seen them bring back pig’s head meat and fermented bean curd from town to sell, which shows they’re aware of this, but they haven’t targeted the tastes of the villagers, so business is so-so. Hmm, a braised food shop in town sells it for 600 yuan, while one in the village sells it for 500.”

If they had never sold braised food, Chen Yidong and Chen Xuemei would definitely have suspected that their niece had gone mad, daring to ask for such an exorbitant amount, more than a year's salary.

But now, they both have a strange idea: it's so cheap, it's really cheap, they can break even in a month or two.

Chen Jingjing suddenly realized: "Sister—you've been running around all over the place, you were actually conducting research in people's villages, weren't you?"

Wow, you're so smart and amazing! No wonder you're a college student.

Her sister would take the braised food to sell in other people's towns and villages, essentially promoting the food herself. People would buy it, enjoy it, and then find it unavailable, inevitably leading to discussion and nostalgia.

If her sister then tries to sell her braised food recipe, people who know there's a market for it will naturally be interested. Then her sister won't have to worry about not being able to sell the recipe.

Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei snapped out of their daze after hearing their daughter's rambling.

Good heavens! Is this how college students do things? Not only do they make three or four payments at once, but they also lay the groundwork for making money the next time. Seriously, anyone who gets into college is definitely not a bookworm; they're more than three heads taller than that person.

Wang Xiao felt a little embarrassed by all the flattery. This was nothing, not worth mentioning at all.

Chen Jingjing asked curiously, "Sis, aren't you amazing? You've made all the money."

“You can never earn all the money in the world,” Wang Xiao chuckled. “Selling the recipe for braised dishes is the first step. The next step is supplying raw materials. I’ve inquired around, and there aren’t many places selling chicken feet in the surrounding area. In a town’s market, there are only one or two stalls selling chicken feet, and very few people fry tofu either. We can supply chicken feet and tofu to the shops that buy our recipe. For the chicken feet, we can find a supplier to buy them wholesale at a low price and deliver them to our door. We can fry the tofu ourselves using soybean oil, which makes it taste better, and then deliver it to our door as well. Making tofu is too hard work, so we can just ask the tofu sellers to wholesale tofu and have it made. This way, we can earn the difference between the price and the profit, making small profits but selling a lot.”

She smiled and encouraged her team, "Don't worry about people not wanting our goods. It's human nature to be lazy. At the same price point, the easier it is, the better. Even considering the time cost, a slightly higher price is acceptable as long as it's within our budget. Our goal is to cultivate their dependence so they get used to getting their goods from us. Once customer loyalty is established, they become our stable sales channel."

The family of three all turned into (ΩДΩ) faces.

Good heavens, she really doesn't let anyone else earn a single penny.

However, my uncle and aunt, being adults, considered the issue more realistically: "This involves traveling to so many places; we can't possibly manage it all."

Even by bike, it would take at least an hour to get from Qianjia Village to the next town. And then to the villages below? Goodness, they couldn't outrun them, definitely couldn't.

Wang Xiao had also considered this issue: "We should plan the route reasonably and deliver the goods in batches at different times. Now that the Frost's Descent has passed, the temperature is low at night, so the dried tofu won't spoil overnight, and the chicken feet can be soaked in water overnight without any problems. We'll deliver a batch in the morning, noon, and evening, and try to coordinate the timing as well. Once we've saved up enough money, we can buy a motorcycle."

Chen Yidong was almost scared to death. His niece was really daring. Motorcycles are so expensive. They are not something that ordinary people can afford.

Wang Xiao really had no experience in this area, but she didn't dwell on it: "Or a diesel tricycle or something, just buy whatever is convenient and have it delivered directly."

Qian Xuemei snapped out of her daze: "That won't do. We have to go to work, we're too busy. We also have to sell our own braised food."

Wang Xiao didn't offer advice, but only talked about selling braised food: "Actually, we don't need to go to the villages to sell it ourselves anymore. We can just focus on selling late-night snacks. As for the business in the villages, we can find someone to help us with delivery."

She held up her fingers and said, “I see that the factory workers in town come from all sorts of villages. Uncle and Aunt, you can choose the ones who are reliable and have them compile a list of people in their respective villages who want to eat braised food. Then, have them bring it over after get off work in the evening. Um, give them a 10% commission on each serving of braised food. This way, they will be more motivated to work.”

In reality, people today aren't that much different from those thirty years from now. Only a minority of people have the guts to run a business and bear all the profits and losses themselves. But if you can also earn a stable income from your labor on the side, requiring only time and effort, then really, as long as the money is right, there are plenty of people eager to do it.

Chen Yidong and Qian Xuemei looked at each other in bewilderment again.

Wouldn't that mean they could wipe out all eight villages in Zhouzhen in one fell swoop?

Won't that be bad? It'll steal the business from the old man selling braised tofu.

Wang Xiao never accepts moral blackmail. She's quite ruthless: "Customers have the right to choose. If our braised dishes aren't good, they can still find another place or simply not eat braised dishes at all. By the way, the delivery of raw materials to village shops can also be done in the same way, depending on the actual demand. I've only heard a little about this aspect and haven't had time to do any actual on-site research yet. If the wholesale price is cheap and the profit is high, I think it's worth considering."

Qian Xuemei fell silent. Actually, regardless of whether she did wholesale or not, if she wanted to focus on selling braised food, she definitely wouldn't be able to keep her job at the garment factory. She couldn't very well ask her husband to quit his job; his salary was much higher than hers.

Wang Xiao continued slowly and deliberately, "When a business grows, you have to hire people to help. The people you hire must be quick and efficient, reliable, and most importantly, hygienic. If you're not clean in the food business, you'll definitely run into trouble."

She went on and on, making Qian Xuemei and her husband's hearts churn. If it weren't so late, with everyone busy with work, school, or business the next day, she probably could have talked all night.

After turning off the lights and lying in bed, Qian Xuemei gritted her teeth and made up her mind: "I'll ask my parents to come and help me tomorrow."

She was a local from Qianjia Village. Chen Yidong, an outsider, settling down in the village was practically considered a son-in-law by outsiders. To avoid suspicion and embarrassment for their son-in-law, her parents lived with her older brother and only came to help out when they were busy.

Chen Yidong hesitated: "Isn't that a bad idea? My brother and sister-in-law will be unhappy."

“What’s wrong with that? We can pay our parents the same amount of money we pay outsiders. It’s already past the Frost’s Descent, and next week is the Beginning of Winter. There’s still so much to do in the fields. Why can’t my parents come and help? We don’t want the money they earn; it’s just going to my older brother’s family. Humph! They should be the ones making money. If they have money, my sister-in-law will be more cheerful because of the money.”

Chen Yidong wisely declined to comment.

The relationship between sisters-in-law is not much different from that between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law; the main difference is that distance makes things better and closeness makes things worse. Since they live in the same village, it's perfectly normal for them to dislike each other.

Fortunately, Qian Xuemei didn't need her husband's support. After venting her frustrations, she felt refreshed and immediately gave the order: "Go to sleep."

I still have a ton of things to do when I get up tomorrow. If I really want to make the braised food business successful, there are so many things to consider.

Well, she'll have a good talk with her niece tomorrow and come up with a concrete plan.

Little did she know that her aunt's plan was so well-intentioned, but the very next day, a bolt from the blue struck her.

Wang Xiao had to return to the provincial capital immediately.

What are we going back for?

work!

The original owner's wedding leave had long since ended, and the Chemical Institute called Zhouzhen Chemical Plant directly, informing Wang Xiao that he must return to work at the Chemical Institute immediately.