Chapter 104 I dare not ask Aunt Wen for money, you go ask her.
Wen Yue deleted all the content from her original social media account. In the past two days, she filmed two new videos and uploaded them. The account finally looks somewhat alive again.
That day, the photography equipment Wen Yue bought arrived, and she dragged An Fusheng along to film a cooking tutorial.
Wen Yue placed a fill light in front of and behind An Fusheng, circling around him and filming. Her phone was almost touching An Fusheng's kitchen knife. An Fusheng felt that she was in the way: "The videos you filmed the other day were all about cooking, and the cooking steps in the videos were not cut out. Can't they learn how to cook?"
Wen Yue continued filming with her phone, saying, "It's different. Before, those were all long shots, showing everyday activities. Now, we're filming a special tutorial, focusing on cooking. Of course, we need to get closer to highlight how well the food is made."
An Fusheng: "Those daily routines are all about cooking, right? Anyone can learn if they want to. What does it matter if it's near or far?"
Wen Yue: "Making tutorials isn't just about teaching others how to cook."
An Fusheng: "What else can a tutorial do if it doesn't teach cooking?"
Wen Yue: "Of course, it's to whet the appetites of those greedy girls and boys. Who lies in bed hungry in the middle of the night browsing food tutorials to learn how to cook? Tutorials need to be filmed up close to the food to show how delicious it is to be attractive."
An Fusheng pushed the fill light that was blocking most of his view: "But like this, I can't see anything, how am I supposed to chop vegetables?"
Wen Yue pulled the light that An Fusheng had pushed away back: "Hey, could you turn your body a little to the side? You can also chop vegetables a little slower. This warm light creates a nice atmosphere when it shines on the ingredients."
An Fusheng: "Then take your phone over there."
Wen Yue: "No, you need to use this diagonal composition when chopping vegetables, otherwise it won't look good."
An Fusheng felt like a monkey trapped under the Five Finger Mountain, and it took him more than an hour to make a simple home-style tofu dish.
Fortunately, Wen Yue didn't choose to film during the opening hours, otherwise customers would have been cursing after waiting for so long.
Previously, Wen Yue said she would film three tutorials a week, and An Fusheng thought it was too stingy to only teach people to cook three dishes a week. Now he doesn't want to teach any more, but Wen Yue insists, so he has no choice but to cooperate.
"Brother, has our restaurant done any promotions before?" Wen Yue finally finished filming and started editing, occasionally looking up to chat with An Fusheng.
An Fusheng said, "Yes, when we first opened, we registered with a food delivery platform, and the platform gave us promotional support for the new store. Later, we also distributed coupons and gave away kimchi to attract customers, and the results were quite good."
Wen Yue: Okay, so this is what you call promotion? These kinds of promotions won't attract many new customers at all. The fact that the restaurant has such stable orders every day can only mean that the retention rate of old customers is too high. It's all thanks to his older brother's cooking skills that it's keeping the business afloat. If they lose even a little bit of customers, the number of orders will be in jeopardy!
"Brother, I think we need to do more marketing and promotion. We need to expand our customer base first to ensure a stable long-term order volume. Also, with a larger customer base, we won't have to worry about not having customers if we want to increase orders in the future," Wen Yue said.
Anfu thought Wen Yue's words made sense and asked, "So what are your thoughts?"
Wen Yue said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'd like to try promoting our two new media accounts first to see if we can attract some customers, but it will require some money."
An Fusheng: "Ask Aunt Wen for money."
Wen Yue grinned awkwardly, "I don't dare, you go ask for it."
An Fusheng: "..." You've said all that just to say this.
Wen Min was particularly busy at the end of the year. Every day, he would take Wen Xinghe to and from school. The rest of the time, he would either have to attend meetings or report on his work. This year, the welfare home opened a restaurant, which was a new policy practice and the results were quite good. The higher-ups paid close attention to it. In addition to giving oral reports, Wen Min also had to write various reports. So, Wen Min was running around during the day and working overtime in the office at night.
On the other hand, with final exams approaching, everyone is studying with extra enthusiasm. As the saying goes, "Even last-minute sparring can be effective." Bai Mangmang and Wen Xinglin have recently become so eager to study that they don't need any prompting and go to Wen Min's office to study right after dinner.
An Fusheng hadn't asked the adults for money much, and he felt a little embarrassed. He originally wanted to talk to Wen Min alone, but he couldn't find the time, and Wen Yue kept urging him.
After dinner, Wen Min went to her office to work. Bai Mangmang and Wen Xinglin also went to Wen Min's office to do their homework. An Fusheng pretended to study, dawdling for a long time before finally getting to Wen Min's side and saying shyly, "Mother Wen."
Wen Min turned her gaze from the computer to An Fusheng: "What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
An Fusheng: "The restaurant is currently experiencing a shortage of customers, so we want to do some promotion."
Wen Min: "Sure, the restaurant will definitely need more customers next year once it's finished. What are your plans for promotion?"
An Fusheng: "Right now, I'd like to try promoting our new media accounts first."
Wen Min: "That's great. Nowadays, everyone likes to get information through short videos."
An Fusheng: "We... need some money?"
Wen Min: "How much do you want?"
An Fusheng: "Twenty or thirty thousand."
Wen Min: "Yes, that's fine."
An Fusheng knew that Wen Min wouldn't make things difficult for him, but he was still very happy that Wen Min agreed so readily.
He darted out of the office and ran to the living room to find Wen Yue: "Wen's mother said it's okay."
Wen Yue beamed with joy: "Really? That's wonderful! Big brother, you're amazing!"
An Fusheng was embarrassed to ask for money for another reason. He opened the restaurant with the intention of making money to buy a car for Wen's mother and a cochlear implant for Shisi'an. However, he hadn't done either of those things yet. Instead, he used the money he earned to buy a tricycle and do promotion. He asked with some concern, "Is this kind of promotion really useful?" Wen's mother trusted him so much, and he would feel very guilty if the money was wasted.
Wen Yue said, "It will definitely be useful. Our kitchen is clean and hygienic, the dishes are good, and the chef is a handsome guy. These are all hot spots. If we spend some money to promote it, we dare not say it will be a hit, but the popularity will definitely be high. When it attracts more customers, we will make the money back sooner or later."
If An Fusheng had ever encountered a scammer, he would definitely have noticed that what Wen Yue was saying now sounded remarkably like a scammer's script. But he hadn't encountered one yet. He nodded, "When we have more customers in the future, we'll do more orders and earn the money back quickly."
Wen Yue said, "Absolutely!"
An Fusheng: "We've made some money these past few months. After the New Year, let's buy a car for Aunt Wen so it will be convenient for her to pick up and drop off Xinghe at school or go to meetings."
Seeing Wen Min leaving early and returning late these past few days, Wen Yue was filled with emotion and agreed, "Okay."
An Fusheng: "Have you been feeling tired these past few days?"
Wen Yue said, "I feel quite relaxed."
An Fusheng: "Then we'll add more orders tomorrow."
Adding extra orders isn't simply a matter of cooking a few more dishes. First, you have to consider that even with a larger quantity, the speed of serving shouldn't be affected. Second, you need to consider how to purchase ingredients to ensure their freshness. You have to buy just the right amount of ingredients every day. In this case, it's best to choose popular dishes for the extra orders. The higher the chance of them selling, the less likely the ingredients will be wasted.
However, when running a restaurant, you have to consider costs and profits. Some dishes are very popular, but they are expensive and cannot be sold at a high price. For example, eggplant is a vegetarian dish, so you can't sell it at the price of a meat dish. However, eggplant itself is not cheap, and it takes a lot of oil to cook, so the cost is very high. Although it has a high order rate, it is not suitable to be a dish that can be added to orders.
Another type is dishes with a more complicated preparation process. Making too many dishes will affect the speed of serving, so you need to consider how many more to add if you want to increase your order.
The siblings then pulled Xu Sannian, who was telling stories to the children, and the three of them spent the whole night discussing before finally deciding on the menu items to be added and the quantity of each item.
...
With Shan Wenyue added, there's no longer a dedicated time for filming. She has to help with washing and preparing vegetables. However, the short videos she shares daily don't need to be filmed in a very professional way. She's a bit busy, but she can still manage.
Sharing daily life is mainly to show diners the authenticity of a clean and hygienic kitchen and high-quality ingredients. Although this is the most basic requirement for a restaurant, many businesses nowadays have long abandoned professional ethics in order to make money. They abuse cheap and substandard ingredients, and the hygiene of their kitchens is shocking. Pre-made dishes are everywhere, so a clean and hygienic kitchen and freshly cooked dishes are especially precious.
With the recent promotion, the restaurant's short videos have gradually become popular. The popularity on the internet is a virtuous cycle, and in just a few days, the number of likes and comments under the short videos rose from single digits to triple digits.
Some people were attracted by the clean kitchen environment, some by the dishes cooked over a high flame, and some by the young and handsome chef, even though the chef's face was not actually shown.
An Fusheng was originally only willing to show his cooking hands, but after much persuasion from Wen Yue, he finally agreed to show his entire back when shooting long shots.
However, his tall and slender figure captivated a large number of netizens even with just his back view, and most of the comments under the video were about him admiring the chef.
Some people are so blatant that even An Fusheng is embarrassed to look. He asked Wen Yue to find more opinions and suggestions about the dishes in the comments section. Every day, Wen Yue searched through a bunch of comments that were eyeing her older brother, looking for useful information until she was dizzy.
"Brother, someone said we put too much chili in our kimchi, it looks really spicy."
"This chili isn't spicy, so you'll need to add more for better flavor. But if he doesn't like it, he can leave a note when ordering."
"Oh, someone who has tried it has already replied for us."
Wen Yue read several questions from netizens in a row, and when she was about to reply, she found that someone had already replied. "It really is true that 'after entering the pass, great scholars will naturally come to debate the classics for me'!"
Wen Yue simply ignored it and picked out some special comments to share with An Fusheng. "Someone said that their school was not in our delivery range before. He and his classmates called the delivery customer service for a month, and now they can finally deliver. Hahaha, it's really not easy to get a bite to eat."
An Fusheng said, "Say something useful."
Wen Yue: "Oh, someone said that the portion of our main dishes is very generous. Two dishes are enough for the three people in their dorm. But it would be better if we could add some green vegetables. Because everyone only likes to eat a little bit of green vegetables, and ordering a single serving is too much and wasteful. They suggested that we add some green vegetables to the set meal. If we are worried about the cost being too high, the portion of the main dish can be reduced a little to balance out the cost of the green vegetables. 582 people liked his comment."
An Fusheng didn't like eating vegetables much when he was young. Even when he did eat vegetables, he preferred them to be stir-fried with meat. He wouldn't even look at vegetables stir-fried on their own. At home, his mother, Lou, would always emphasize that he should eat green vegetables. Lou's mother required that the green vegetables be green and leafy, and only stir-fried ones counted. That's why An Fusheng would stir-fry some green vegetables every day. He never expected that so many people loved eating green vegetables.
“Okay,” An Fusheng said.
There are plenty of green vegetables in the garden. After the New Year, when spring comes, we can plant even more. It won't cost any money. We'll cook them the way Grandma Lou likes – just blanch them. It won't take much effort.
"Okay, I'll reply to him."
"Hahahaha!" Wen Yue suddenly burst into laughter: "Some people say that you make the kimchi so spicy, aren't you afraid that customers will get diarrhea and come to you?"
An Fusheng: "Hasn't this question already been answered?"
Wen Yue laughed and said, "No, other people replied that it can be sold to college students. If the college students get diarrhea from eating it, they will buy medicine themselves and will not come to you. College students are so cute, hahaha!"
An Fusheng: "..."
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