Chapter 148 Small Business
"Amy—"
"Where would you like to go for coffee?"
"Let's go to the old place," Xue Shiqi got into her car and looked around, "You got a new car again?"
"The previous car was a truck. Mira said it was not suitable for meeting clients, so we bought a new car." The car Tang Yuan has is a sedan. Although it is not very expensive, it is more than enough for meeting ordinary clients.
But she usually doesn't drive this car. Most of the time, she chooses to drive that shabby second-hand car.
After Xue Shiqi sat down, Tang Yuan started the car and left.
The two of them didn't meet very often. The first time they met, she approached Xue Shiqi, claiming to be Wen Jiaqi's friend, and told her that she could contact her if she needed anything.
After that, they met two or three times, and because they got along well, Xue Shiqi had a good feeling about her.
"Your mother asked someone to bring these things over. Just in time, Jiaqi had some goods delivered, so they came here together. I'll put them on the back seat. Don't forget to take them when you leave later."
"Thank you for your help," Xue Shiqi thanked him, "You two are so busy, unlike me, who is usually free."
"It's also very important for you to learn design. How is your study going recently?" Tang Yuan asked her curiously.
"It's pretty good. My classmates are all very nice. Some time ago we visited the largest church nearby and saw some beautiful sights." Xue Shiqi told her seriously about her study life.
From visiting to designing, and then to getting along with classmates.
Maybe it was because she was "unfamiliar with the place" and now she finally met an "acquaintance", she talked a lot, even more than when she was in Hong Kong before.
She never stopped talking along the way.
Even when the two of them were sitting in the cafe, she kept talking.
Tang Yuan just looked at her quietly until she finished speaking.
"Am I talking too much?"
Tang Yuan shook his head, raised his eyes and looked at her softly: "Do you miss home?"
"Yeah," Xue Shiqi lowered her head and gently stirred the coffee in front of her, "but I can hold it in. Since I'm here to study, I will definitely work hard and can't give up just because I miss home. In fact... I still have the habit of knitting sweaters, but I can't sell them anymore."
Sweater...
Tang Yuan thought of the stock she had in hand.
The sweater business is limited by seasons. In order to sell more sweaters in this season, Shen Wenyu and her colleagues have been working hard to knit sweaters over the past year, and they have accumulated a lot of inventory.
Now that Mona can't do anything, we can only think of other ways.
Of course, she would not blame Xue Shiqi for this matter. After all, this is Country M, not Hong Kong. Xue family's connections are mainly in Hong Kong. Even if Xue Shiqi has some ideas, it will not have an impact on Country M.
But maybe you can get some idea of the price of the "limited edition" sweaters here.
"Let's go shopping in the mall later?" Tang Yuan suggested to Xue Shiqi.
"Of course." Xue Shiqi nodded immediately.
While drinking coffee, she began to talk about her learning achievements during this period. Although the results of this year's study were not remarkable for her, she benefited a lot from it. The design ideas that were originally vague in her mind all took shape after learning.
She likes knitting and designing, and has decided that after graduation, she will go to work in her mother's company and then gradually take over the business.
When they had finished chatting, the two of them got up and strolled around the mall.
The size of this mall is pretty good, and it has a fair amount of traffic. There are many shops of all sizes inside, selling all sorts of things, but the prices are generally a bit high, with the average price of clothes being at least a few dozen dollars.
But this is not expensive. After all, the average salary in Country M is more than 10,000 US dollars a year, and it is not uncommon to buy clothes worth dozens of dollars.
Tang Yuan originally planned to stroll around, but while walking he found a shop that was being sublet.
The price of the sweaters she had given to Mona was not expensive, and she had stockpiled a lot of clothes in the past year. If she could have a shop here to sell them, even if she only sold them for twenty dollars each, she would still make a lot of money.
She does not expect to make more money. After all, no matter how special and unique her sweaters are, it is difficult to increase their prices without the brand markup. Most of the time, a large part of the price of clothes is due to the brand.
If a brand wants to become famous, it has to spend a lot of money on advertising every year.
After all, she still doesn't know much about the market in Country M, and she will have to go back sooner or later. If she spends money but the benefits don't last, or if they don't produce good results, it will be a loss.
Tang Yuan's mentality is more or less still that of a petty citizen.
I like to make some small money.
She said something to Xue Shiqi, then quickly entered the store and found the owner who wanted to sublet the store.
"Would you like to rent this shop?"
"Do you think that's okay?"
Xue Shiqi turned around, a gleam in her eyes: "Does your shop need students who want to work part-time to earn money for their studies?"
Tang Yuan pretended to be in deep thought, and asked under her expectant gaze: "Are you willing to help me take care of it? You know, I have not been here for long, I am afraid it is not convenient for me to take care of it."
Fortunately, she didn't try to take advantage of others.
This year, Shen Wenyu and her colleagues did not imitate Xue Shiqi's designs when knitting sweaters. Instead, they referred to fashion magazines in Country America and designed many different styles.
In order to sell her products at a good price, she is very serious in choosing the yarns, and she only picks the best yarns from the market. Even if she sells them at a high price, customers will still support her.
In this way, even if she brought sweaters to sell, Xue Shiqi wouldn't notice anything.
The shop rent is several thousand yuan a month. Taking into account labor costs and other costs, the shop's monthly expenses are four to five thousand yuan. If Xue Shiqi is hired as a servant, the price will be even higher.
But before the development of the Internet, the shopping mall business was very good. As long as the products were good, there was no need to worry about not being able to sell them.
It is very convenient for Xue Shiqi's school to come here, and as a manager, she does not need to be here every day, so it is not difficult for her to come here occasionally.
As for the money, she doesn't care.
She was concerned about another issue.
"Can I sell the sweaters I knit here?"
"Of course," Tang Yuan nodded, "Not just sweaters. If you have a design you want made, I can also ask my friend to make it for you. The price may be a little higher, but the finished product can be hung in the store for sale."
"Really?" Xue Shiqi's eyes widened. "Then is my classmate's design okay?"
"Can."
"I promise you," Xue Shiqi nodded immediately, "Let me take care of it, I will definitely take good care of it. In fact, if I want to stay in Country M forever, I can do that, but I will definitely return to Hong Kong in the future."
"Then enjoy your life here in the next few years." Tang Yuan smiled.
The two hit it off immediately, and Tang Yuan immediately signed a lease contract with the landlord. Xue Shiqi then recruited employees for the store, and she would ask students from the school to help.
It is not full-time, but the hours of duty in the store are arranged according to the students' class schedules.
Fortunately, the store originally sold clothes and did not require any decoration. You could just hang up the clothes and open the store.
Tang Yuan went "back" for a while, and when he came back, there were already employees looking after the store. Xue Shiqi was also busy in the store. Maybe it was because she really liked running a store, or maybe she was happy that the sweaters she knitted could be sold, her face was filled with visible happiness.
Without any reminder or payment, some labels, tags and other things have been placed.
The brand name was conceived by the two men when Tang Yuan rented the shop. It is a combination of the word “flexible” and can be said to be a flexible brand with a unique meaning, or it can be said to be meaningless.
Xue Shiqi felt it was necessary and it would be nice to hang a tag.
She did not change the clothing brand of the Hong Kong studio. It is still the brand "Fei Ru" that Guo Qianru originally decided on. From this perspective, the two brand names are somewhat similar.
“You’re here!”
"Well, you are really suitable for opening a store," Tang Yuan looked at the store which was very different from before with only a few minor changes. "It's very beautiful. I like it very much."
"I'm glad you like it. I was just worried that you might not like it," Xue Shiqi breathed a sigh of relief. "Not only did I move things in the store, I also brought the sweater here, um..."
Tang Yuan looked at the bags of clothes piled in the corner and said, "You can sell them. You can set the price. It's still winter now, so you can sell more sweaters."
As she spoke, she showed Xue Shiqi the cart she had brought, on which were several large boxes of clothes, all of which were knitted this year.
"It just so happens that my friend has a batch of these, we can sell them together," Tang Yuan asked Xue Shiqi to look at the clothes in the box, "Since the store is handed over to you, I feel very relieved. No matter how much or how little you sell, I don't mind. Just take your time, understand?"
The cost of the sweater was not that high, and based on her previous sales, as long as she could sell a small portion of it, she could make back the cost, and the rest would be pure profit.
Business in a new store is generally normal. She doesn't expect to sell all of them, but just sells as many as she can.
Thinking of this, she also looked carefully at Xue Shiqi's expression.
After looking at the sweater, she didn't think there was anything wrong with it and quickly nodded to indicate that it was okay to sell.
As for the pricing, the two had discussed it and decided to sell simple styles for 50 yuan, and complex styles for 70 to 80 yuan, or even more than 100 yuan. Without considering the conversion rate, the price was almost the same as that in Hong Kong.
This also means that Tang Yuan can make more money through this business.
You have to know that the salary she paid to Shen Wenyu and the others was only more than 30 yuan a month, which was 300 to 400 yuan a year. If she sold 51 pieces, she would get 500 yuan if she sold 10 pieces, which is in US dollars. Converted into RMB, it is 750 yuan, which is enough for her to hire two people to knit sweaters for her for a year.
After settling the bill, she suddenly felt a little regretful for asking Mona to help her sell sweaters.
The clothing business is indeed more profitable on the retail side. Even though the retail side has expenses such as store rent and labor costs, the profit is still considerable.
This year, she has accumulated more than a thousand handmade sweaters. If she can sell them all, she can earn at least more than 50,000 US dollars.
By this calculation, this is also a big business.
And after selling all the sweaters, the store will not be empty. Her parents-in-law will still help her make clothes, and she can sell them later.
"Is it too low? I don't know the situation here, but for handmade items like this, maybe we can set the price a little higher?" Xue Shiqi asked unconfidently.
Tang Yuan came back to his senses: "You decide. You can set a higher price in the early stage. If it doesn't sell, you can lower the price?"
It is easy to lower the price after setting it high, but it is difficult to raise the price after setting it low. If you can sell at a high price, you naturally have to choose to set it high.
The two agreed and raised the price of each sweater, by an average of at least $30.