Chapter 70: Subconsciously writing down the client’s name…
At the very least, Chen Pan could only go to other people's homes to call them for help, and he had not yet developed to the point of going to other people's fields to look for them.
So that afternoon, Chen Pan and his grandparents got on his great-grandfather's trolley and returned home again.
The handcart, which had been used for a long time by my great-grandfather's family, chugs along with great effort. Amidst the billowing smoke and the constant rise and fall of the water level gauge on the water tank ahead, Chen Pan sits at the back of the handcart, holding Xiao Hei in his arms, and slowly moves away again.
"Yongyi, I'm sorry to bother you again!"
"Whatever Uncle San said, this is what I should do."
"Why so many shoulds? Yongyi, why don't you stay at your aunt's house tonight and go back tomorrow?"
"That won't do. Everyone's been busy working lately. If I go back tomorrow, it would be like I'm deliberately being lazy. So, uncle and aunt, you guys go and renovate that house. Once you're done, I'll stay there and enjoy myself the next time I deliver something for you."
"Okay! It's settled then!"
Chen Pan, holding her puppy, sat in the tiny gap between the cabinet and the TV stand. Her grandparents sat at the front, clutching the handrails and squeezing into the tiny nook, trying to shout and converse with the uncle driving the trolley in front.
Chen Pan held Xiao Hei in his arms and sat there with an expressionless face.
The strong wind outside blew her hair in front of her for the Nth time, covering her entire face and mouth for the Nth time.
Chen Pan finally couldn't bear it anymore and reached out to pull the hair off her face, and made two loud "Puh" sounds, spitting out the two dog hairs that blew into her mouth.
“Woof woof!!”
Chen Pan felt a little depressed by the generous flattery, but Xiao Hei, whose belly and butt were tightly held by her, seemed very excited.
Its propeller-like tail twirled constantly in Chen Pan's arms, and the stronger the wind, the more excitedly it barked. When the trolley was going at its fastest, it even deliberately thrust its head forward, closing its eyes and looking as if it was enjoying the wind and speed.
“Virtue!”
While Chen Pan was tidying up her messy hair, she subconsciously held on to the other person to prevent him from jumping off in excitement.
"Panpan, go on!"
Just as Chen Pan was struggling with his hair, a yellow object flew towards him. Chen Pan subconsciously raised his hand and caught it, only to find that it was the yellow headscarf that his grandmother had been wearing since morning.
"Put on your headscarf and it won't blow!" The grandmother sitting in the front row gestured loudly to Chen Pan.
"I don't--"
Chen Pan was about to say no, but after seeing her grandfather take off his hat and put it on her grandmother's short, slightly graying hair, Chen Pan finally shut up. Just like countless times before, she raised her hand and took the headscarf handed by her grandmother, put it on her head, and tied it tightly at the bottom.
The handcart with a black head continued to rumble loudly, and the black smoke in front continued to tilt from side to side exaggeratedly.
Chen Pan, sitting at the back of the handcart, watched as a small car following behind them quickly swerved and passed them. Several cyclists and motorcycles were sprayed with black smoke, groaning and cursing, then quickly distanced themselves from them.
It is obvious that this scene is not good at all, and the car owners who were sprayed with black smoke should have cursed loudly.
But for some reason, Chen Pan suddenly became happy again.
She adjusted the thin but warm yellow headscarf on her head with her hands, and changed her posture slightly to sit in the small corner. Chen Pan hugged her furry little black dog, thinking about the little one she left at the Xue family next door yesterday, and suddenly felt that this was not bad.
The basic decoration of Chen Pan’s new house in Liuping was completed very quickly.
In the days that followed, his grandfather was busy running around and applying for loans. Later, her family invited her second grandmother to help with her shop.
Grandma and second grandma are two old sisters over 50 years old. They run a pancake shop together.
His grandfather was busy applying for a loan and busy overseeing the renovations upstairs and downstairs.
After the loan was approved, he brought Chen Laoshi from the clan leader's family over.
From then on, Chen Laoshi, Chen Pan and his grandfather moved to the big yard in Liuping.
Of course, the rooms Chen Pan and his grandfather lived in were larger, like suites, filled with the furniture they'd brought back from their hometown and some other things they'd purchased later. Chen Laoshi's room, on the other hand, was only one, with a bed and cabinets that Chen Pan's grandfather had later brought him to the secondhand market. It was truly a standard employee dormitory.
But even so, Chen Laosi seemed very satisfied.
Soon he became the first employee of Chenji Grain and Oil Company, mainly responsible for sales, which meant carrying a small bag and sweeping the streets in the surrounding areas and the city every day.
Of course, the term "street sweeping" was also taught to the other party by Chen Pan.
Her grandparents are so busy nowadays, it is impossible for Chen Pan to really just ignore everything.
After learning that the factory at home had assigned all of the clerical and financial work to his cousin Chen Pingping and another eighteen-year-old sister named Yang, Chen Pan stopped thinking about his good friend Yang Xiaomei and her mother Fang Qinghua, and instead used his weekends to teach them everything he could.
She hand-drew what a sales order form, a customer information form, and a shipping record form for Pingping and Lili. Fearing they might ask how she knew all that, Chen Pan even went to Xinhua Bookstore and bought them professional financial shipping forms, financial registration forms, and sales registration forms.
In addition to the pre-made receipt books available on the market, Chen Pan also bought professional financial and sales books from the bookstore. She bought three copies of each. One copy was delivered to the factory and given to Chen Pingping, Yang Lili, and Chen Erge, the salesperson. One copy was kept at the company, all on Chen Laoshi's desk. Chen Pan kept the other copy for herself.
If someone asked, Chen Pan would tell them that she read it in a book.
In today's society, some things are really convenient.
You can actually buy pre-printed sales orders, shipping orders, and delivery notes off the shelf, without having to print or design them. Many finance and sales books these days don't offer fancy, high-sounding content; they offer practical instruction on how to create spreadsheets, calculate profits and costs, and even visit clients one by one.
Many things nowadays have a literacy purpose. To prevent people from understanding, the content is very straightforward and simple.
Anyway, Chen Pan originally bought these things just to shut everyone up.
But after flipping through the books after buying them, Chen Pan felt a sense of wonder: how could such a good thing even exist now? While others might not know if they'd read them, she quickly flipped through them. Later, when she suddenly couldn't concentrate on her studies at night, Chen Pan would treat those books as extraneous reading and subconsciously read them again.
Chen Pan worked in a factory in her previous life, where she was the one screwing screws at the front.
But even so, she had seen the orders, plans, ingredients lists and production orders sent from above.
Their factory was not big at that time, and sometimes those who were engaged in production would also go to the planning department to place orders.
At that time, if the planning clerk and production clerk were particularly busy, they would be asked to make the invoices themselves.
If the other party asks for leave, they will be asked to handle the planning and production orders themselves.
At that time, Chen Pan could access the factory's computers and see the various reports and work logs placed on the desktop by the other party.
Because she still had a small lingering desire to stay at the factory longer and switch to a clerk position, every time Chen Pan went to the other party to fill out an order, she would scrutinize the computer and the system like a thief, eagerly opening and examining the reports they had placed on their desks.
In order to earn more and live a better life, when the girls around her asked her to stay overnight at an internet cafe, Chen Pan carefully learned how to use Excel and Word, as well as how to touch type.
Because of this, she was even ridiculed by the girls around her.
But after she unexpectedly learned that the salary of a clerk was not as good as that of a person on the front line of production, Chen Pan finally gave up shortsightedly.
Yes, in that era, although clerks always sat at computers, although the company paid five insurances and one fund, although they had normal holidays, and although they never worked overtime.
But when Chen Pan found out that the other party's salary was not that high, at least not as high as hers in their factory, she gave up studying.
Then, on the eve of her resignation, the young woman had actually used her previous work experience to get a job in the sales department of another company as a sales merchandiser. It was said that the other party's work started to receive commissions. After her salary increased from 3,000 to over 6,000 per month, this is another story.
In short, the little reporting knowledge Chen Pan had was initially learned from others. Later, when she was selling her own lunch boxes and egg pancakes, she naturally stopped working with reports and analysis. She later revisited this knowledge when she and a good friend opened Sisters Malatang. Business was booming, they hired an employee, and after using a cash register system, Chen Pan learned from it.
In those days when computers were still relatively new and most middle-aged people were illiterate, Chen Pan had no choice but to teach Chen Pingping and others how to prepare reports and register.
As for sales, Chen Pan has not learned this systematically.
But thanks to the information she'd received from her previous life, as well as her own limited social experience, Chen Pan shared everything she knew about salespeople: how to be bold, print business cards and flyers, and canvass the streets. She told her grandfather, Chen Laoshi, and Chen Erbao back home.
In fact, Grandpa Chen also knows all these things.
He used to stay in the store every day and met people who came to him with business cards and quotations to sell him flour and cooking oil.
So now when Chen Panyi mentioned street sweeping, he actually understood.
He immediately took Chen Laoshi, Chen Erbao and others to make business cards. Chen Pan wrote the content of the company's flyers, and he found Qin Yang next door, and Qin Yang asked his friends to print them for them.
Even Chen Pan later said that labels should be put on their flour bags and cooking oil bottles.
Qin Yang introduced two of his friends to Chen Pan, who then contacted the manufacturer and made the labels for them.
While Chen Pan was preparing the packaging and flyers, Grandpa Chen had already taken Chen Laoshi and Chen Erbao out to canvass the streets for sales.
The rest of the family went about their business as usual: some harvested wheat, some harvested rapeseed, and this year they also harvested soybeans. Some harvested, some cleaned up, and some hauled supplies to the mill and oil mill. Of course, they didn't produce in large quantities until they had the new packaging.
Then, taking advantage of this period of time, the great grandfather and the second grandfather took the money given by Grandpa Chen Pan and went to the telecommunications company to get a phone.
In this era, a single call costs almost two thousand yuan. If the Chen family wants to call two for the factory and company, that would cost over four thousand. This price is said to be much cheaper than before.
This money, as well as the money for building a warehouse for the new factory, were all borrowed.
Because he owed the bank almost ten thousand yuan, Grandpa Chen was even more afraid to delay. Every day he took the two young men, Chen Laoshi and Chen Erbao, to noodle shops, steamed bun shops, factory canteens, bakeries, stores and other places to sell their products.
In addition to the flour and cooking oil they supplied to the Qin family and Chen Pan's own store, their first real customer was found in a ramen restaurant in the west of Longcheng.
The quantity they initially requested was actually just for one day, which was two bags of flour and a bucket of cooking oil. The price was actually not expensive, a little cheaper than other places.
But even if the boss only asked for two bags of flour and a bucket of cooking oil, Grandpa Chen and his men would still rush back that day with high spirits. Then, they rode their bicycles and carefully delivered the three items.
That was the first real business of Chen’s Grain and Oil Factory.
After returning with the money in the evening, Grandpa Chen excitedly went out to buy some wine and the kind of medicinal roast chicken that their family liked most.
That night, he asked Grandma Chen and Second Grandma to leave work early, and also asked Chen Erbao, who always went home late, to stay. Then the three of them, Second Grandma Chen, Grandma Chen Pan, and Chen Pan, all six of them, had a good meal at Liuping's house, and the men also drank some wine.
When grandpa got drunk, he suddenly took Grandma Chen's hand and said how scared he was recently and how happy he was today.
Everyone then realized how much pressure he was under.
At this moment, looking at his grandfather whose face looked much more haggard, Chen Pan even felt a little regretful for encouraging them to do this.
But fortunately, it all seems to have passed.
At six o'clock the next morning, Chen Pan received his first real customer call at his company.
When she finally realized what was happening, with her hair all messed up from being woken up, she subconsciously took note of the customer's name and their needs. Chen Pan finally reacted and quickly said, "Okay, Boss Ma, I know your address. We'll definitely deliver twenty bags of flour, ten liters, and five kilograms of rapeseed oil to you before eight o'clock."
This was the first time their phone rang at this time since it was installed.
In fact, not only Chen Pan on the left was woken up, but also Grandpa Chen and Grandma Chen on the right, and Grandma Chen Er who slept with Chen Pan last night. Even Chen Laoshi and Chen Erbao who slept in the staff dormitory on the far right were awakened.
Because of the hangover and the late sleep, everyone looked unwell, their hair was messy, and their faces were greasy as if they had just woken up.
But after everyone listened to the call from the client, holding their breath, and their heads were pressed together, no one could contain their joy any longer. All the fellow villagers, both men and women, screamed and cheered excitedly like little children.
“Ohhhh!!”
“Shhhh!!”
Chen Laosi was even more exaggerated. He bent down and whistled loudly.
"Everyone, don't be so happy, hurry up and pack up and deliver the goods."
Amidst the cheers, Chen Pan was the first to react and immediately reminded.
"Yes, yes, I'll go outside and find a car. Second brother, fourth brother, you two should hurry up and wash up and pack."
Although his head hurt, Grandpa Chen reacted and immediately went outside to find a pickup truck.
"Okay, let's clean up now!"
"good!"
The last time my great grandfather and second grandfather came over, they had already brought them a batch of goods.
So Chen Erbao and Chen Laoshi reacted and immediately went to the toilet and washed up.
"If you are in a hurry, buy your breakfast yourself." Grandma Chen, who would have woken up at this time, shouted loudly to her husband who had already gone out, and then immediately called the second grandmother to go downstairs to open the shop together.
Of course, before leaving, she did not forget to remind Chen Pan to lock the door when he went out.
"Okay, got it, grandma!"
Looking at everyone who was busy all of a sudden, Chen Pan agreed loudly.
Looking at this scene, Chen Pan felt that they should quickly find someone to watch over the goods in the warehouse, so that there would be no problems.
But when he thought that winter vacation would be coming soon, Chen Pan swallowed his words again.
But when he turned around and saw the building next door that had already been built, he thought about the recent renovations there, and that Qin Yang and his team seemed to have arranged people to come over every day to keep an eye on the workers inside.
Chen Pan thought about it, and then she had the idea of bothering Qin Yang and the others to keep an eye on her yard when they have time.
It felt a bit bad to keep bothering Qin Yang like this, but he also felt that the broken glass bottles on their courtyard wall were sharp enough, and no one would climb in in broad daylight.
But no matter what we thought in our hearts, after grandpa found a small truck, we all carried the things together and went to deliver the goods early.
Chen Pan locked the door and went to her own shop to get her breakfast. She hesitated for a moment and then shamelessly turned into the Xue family next door.
After all, this is a special era without surveillance.
It was also a special era when passers-by walking outside might suddenly have their backpacks snatched away or have the gold jewelry on their ears and necks suddenly pulled away.
So Chen Pan felt that although he felt embarrassed, he should still trouble Qin Yang again.
"Okay, no problem. I'll ask the supervisor I hired to pay special attention to it when he goes over." Qin Yang was unloading the goods early in the morning. After arranging the delivery workers to put down several boxes of laundry detergent and a dozen aluminum pots, he nodded quickly at Chen Pan.
"Well, thank you for your help. I have a dog named Xiao Hei at home, and he will bark if a stranger approaches him. So you can tell him that he doesn't need to stare at him all the time, just look when he hears a dog barking." Chen Pan said subconsciously while watching his family unloading those things.
Then she quickly asked curiously, "Is this for those who redeem gifts?"
"Yeah, that's right. People have been coming to redeem their gifts since the beginning of the month. To be honest, that anonymous membership card you mentioned has really helped me a lot this year."
Speaking of this topic, Qin Yang felt a little happy, and told Chen Pan that the sales of his store had increased several times in the second half of this year.
"No matter how good my ideas are, I still need your constant cooperation. You organized events for National Day, Teacher's Day, and Mid-Autumn Festival, and even a few days ago, the Winter Solstice. If you don't make money doing this every day, who will?"
Looking up at the red banner that had been posted in front of Qin's store early on, which read "Warmly Celebrate the Arrival of New Year's Day 1993", Chen Pan unconsciously chatted with the other party for a few more words.
Later, the grandma selling pancakes next to her suddenly coughed violently twice. Only then did Chen Pan react and quickly said goodbye to her.
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