“Uh…” Wen Ci drew a sharp breath. How should she explain marketing? Everyone had their own interpretation. In her view, marketing was a means to serve sales.
“You can understand it as a way to make selling things easier.”
After saying this, Wen Ci had a sudden idea. She looked sincerely at Xu Jinghe and asked slowly, “How about you sell me the clothes from your factory, and I’ll handle the marketing and sales myself?”
“Sure,” Xu Jinghe agreed without a second thought.
Wen Ci’s eyes lit up, a smile spread across her face, and she said gently, “How much for the goods in your factory? I’ll pay you half as a deposit first.”
“No need.”
“It’s necessary!”
Seeing Wen Ci’s serious expression, unlike she was joking, Xu Jinghe asked cautiously with a grave expression, “Sister-in-law, are you serious?”
As far as he knew, probably only Huo Jingyuan’s aunt had the financial capacity to buy up all the inventory his factory had accumulated. Currently, the factory had stockpiled goods worth roughly over a million.
“Ah? What do you mean?”
Seeing Wen Ci’s expression, Xu Jinghe smiled and explained, “Sister-in-law, you probably don’t know the scale of my garment factory. It has five hundred employees and is one of the largest factories in the south. The cost price of that batch of old stock is probably over a million.”
Hearing the figures from Xu Jinghe, Wen Ci was stunned.
A million didn’t sound like a huge amount.
But this was the 1980s, when the average monthly salary was thirty or forty yuan. And this wasn’t even Xu Jinghe’s entire net worth, just the inventory from one season’s production.
Wen Ci looked at Xu Jinghe with increased admiration.
She had been overestimating her own abilities!
She never imagined that Huo Jingyuan’s childhood friend had such substantial resources.
Even counting the salary Huo Jingyuan had given her, she could only afford to buy about one-tenth of the inventory in Xu Jinghe’s factory. Spending it all would leave her with no money even for shipping costs.
Wen Ci deflated like a balloon.
Making money wasn’t easy either,especially when trying to take such a big leap all at once. She completely lacked sufficient capital to support such an endeavor; it was just wishful thinking.
Xu Jinghe: “I actually think your idea is feasible. I can let you have the factory’s goods to sell. You can pay me after you’ve sold them.”
Wen Ci waved her hand in refusal: “No, no, forget it.”
She was confident about selling them, but if they really didn’t sell, not only would the expensive shipping costs be wasted, but it might also affect the friendship between Huo Jingyuan and Xu Jinghe.
After weighing the pros and cons in her mind several times, Wen Ci decided to give up on the idea. There would be plenty of opportunities to make money in the future.
“Pretend I never said anything; I was talking nonsense.”
However, Xu Jinghe became earnest. Although this was his first time meeting Huo Jingyuan’s wife, he felt they got along well, and he thought this sister-in-law had unique insights. She was just hampered by a lack of capital.
Xu Jinghe had seen many female business talents, especially Huo Jingyuan’s aunt, who was truly a legend in the business world, having expanded her business overseas.
“Sister-in-law, you should be brave and give it a try!”
After saying this, Xu Jinghe thought of a compromise. “I can give you thirty percent of the factory’s inventory first. You can ship the goods to the north and try. If it works, we can talk further later.”
“Really? Is that possible?”
“Of course it is. I’ll give them to you at cost price, five yuan per piece. However much you sell them for, all the proceeds will be yours.”
Wen Ci calculated carefully.
Five yuan per piece wasn’t high. Those outdated clothes in the capital’s department stores were also selling for ten yuan each. Including shipping costs, the cost price should be around seven yuan.
Wen Ci asked: “How much does one piece of clothing weigh?”
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