What kind of look is that?
Look at how happy Qingshan is; it's hard to say who's pitying whom.
Jiang Xiaoman coughed softly, turned on the projector, and displayed the organizational chart of her new company that she had prepared.
Langshan Village now has too many and too varied industries, mainly because they were so poor before, and they want to try any business that makes money.
As a result, as they tried and tried, branch lines were developed without them even realizing it.
It's unrealistic to cut off so many complex industries all at once. Not to mention that these industries are making money for them, even if they weren't, these industries are still related to the livelihoods of many people in Langshan. They can't just cut them off as they please.
Now, Jiang Xiaoman has reorganized all these complex industrial lines and plans to establish two companies first.
"One is Langshan Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd., which is a provisional name. We'll discuss the official registered name later."
"This company is our main business. In the future, all businesses related to agricultural development and agricultural technology will be placed under this company, including my tea cooperative, Yan Ge and Xiao Yu's beekeeping cooperative, and Ying Zi's wild mushroom planting cooperative."
"What kind of business is this agricultural technology?" Shan Yan asked, frowning.
Jiang Xiaoman knew they would ask this question, smiled, and flipped directly to the seventh page of the PPT.
“As I said before, we can’t just make money from one end or one industry chain. There are actually many ways to make money. Take my tea cooperative for example. Right now, our main business is selling finished tea cakes. But in the tea industry, can we make money selling cultivated tea seedlings? Can we make money selling skincare products and handicrafts made from tea?”
“I think we should make full use of the industrial park platform that the county has built for us. Don’t be afraid of losing face, just ask the county for people! Recruit talents from outside under the name of college student village officials or agricultural technology companies, and revitalize the entire industrial chain to maximize benefits!”
Jiang Xiaoman never hid his ambition in front of his old buddies.
He wants to make money from making tea and selling tea cakes.
If necessary, Jiang Xiaoman would slowly extract all the oil and moisture from every single leaf on a tea tree.
Not to mention cultivating tea seedlings. How many tea tree branches are cut off from the hundreds of acres of tea gardens in Langshan every year after the tea picking season?
If they could build a dedicated tea tree seedling base and utilize these pruned tea tree branches, turning waste into treasure and cultivating them into tea tree seedlings, wouldn't that be another source of continuous income?
The key is that this doesn't actually require much technical expertise. He's already inquired with professors at the Agricultural University, and their Tea College offers this course. He plans to recruit two people from the Agricultural University to provide technical guidance, and then hire a few local workers to start a seedling business.
He's already figured out the sales channels—their small tea cakes are becoming increasingly popular, and their business has even expanded overseas. The demand for tea will definitely continue to grow, and relying solely on the old tea gardens that have been reopened will certainly not be enough.
Then they can further expand the scale of tea planting.
So where do these newly joined tea growers buy tea seedlings?
Instead of letting them buy randomly from outside, where they might get scammed, it's better for them to cultivate seedlings at their own seedling base and sell them to these growers. Not only are the prices more affordable than buying from outside, but the quality is also guaranteed.
There are also skincare products, soaps, and hand sanitizers made from tea leaves. The technology for these products is now mature, and several brands have even emerged. If others can do it, why can't they?
More and more tourists will come to Langshan in the future, and these will all be their potential customers. Jiang Xiaoman didn't want to get rich overnight; he just wanted to set up the framework of the agricultural technology company first. When the time was right, he would also try to build a research and development team, since it was something that would be used for face protection, and safety was definitely a priority.
Besides the agricultural technology company, the second thing Jiang Xiaoman wants to integrate and establish is the Langshan Cultural Tourism Group.
Although the county has built an industrial park for them, it certainly won't help them set up a tourism company. Not to mention their town, even the county's own cultural tourism group is said to be having a very poor business. Sigh~ They are struggling to take care of themselves, so how could Jiang Xiaoman have the nerve to bother them?
He was eager to establish this company mainly because he wanted to consolidate some of the scattered businesses that were previously affiliated with the cooperative into the new company.
For example, the strategic cooperation agreements signed by their cooperatives, planting bases, camping bases, and film and television bases fall under the category of tourism and culture. By setting up a separate company, the accounts can be more clearly settled in the future.
For example, the Langshan Intangible Cultural Heritage Embroidery Workshop, which they co-founded with Jinyan Group, is also a local cultural industry. How can they put embroidery and potato planting in the same company?
Moreover, being classified as a tourism and culture company has an advantage. In addition to enjoying some preferential policies for cultural industries, Jiang Xiaoman even plans to open up a special performing arts business line and recruit a group of young people with good looks and temperament to specialize in folk cultural performances such as tea-picking dance, Langshan embroidery, and folk songs and bamboo music.
This would not only create some job opportunities for young people, but also, through continuous programming, help tourists better understand the mountain folk culture of Langshan.
As Jiang Xiaoman detailed each business line, the old guys in the conference room couldn't help but widen their eyes and open their mouths, looking like a group of terrified thugs.
Is this the difference between people?
While they were still toiling away, Comrade Jiang Xiaoman had already taken the lead among the people. Other bosses wanted to squeeze every last drop of residual value out of their employees, but Boss Jiang was something else entirely. He squeezed not only the employees, but also every single tea tree under his company's name, to the last bit of residual value...
"So? Does everyone agree with this organizational structure?" Jiang Xiaoman looked intently at everyone.
Ordinary people clapped and voted, their eyes glazed over.
How could they disagree?
Even if they racked their brains, they couldn't come up with so many creative ideas.
Who would have thought that the tea leaves that Langshan people have used for generations to make tea cakes and brew tea could actually be used to make skincare products?
Lang Ying is probably the only woman present who still uses skincare products. However, she is currently pregnant, and she has heard that many skincare products are not very suitable for pregnant women. So, she has now returned to using the "mainstream rural bestseller"—a children's cream that costs one yuan a bag.
Jiang Xiaoman had previously received a private message from a boss who made skincare products through OEM manufacturing. The boss wanted to collaborate with them to develop Langshan brand tea tree skincare products. But Jiang Xiaoman, being a straight man, knew nothing about skincare products.
Later, I asked a few female classmates from university and searched online for some branded tea tree skincare products. I found that they actually could make them, and I was really tempted.
Perfect timing! I heard that the industrial park offers special R&D subsidies for technology companies, so what are we waiting for?
Independent brands are different from local specialties; they can't be built in a year or two. But what is Jiang Xiaoman afraid of? Anyway, he doesn't plan to leave Langshan. If it doesn't work in a year, he can do it in three or five years. He can always make it work.
The raw materials used for research and development, such as wild tea leaves, tea flowers, and tea seeds, are abundant all over the mountains and are free.
The industrial park was also built by the county, so all you need to do is pay a little rent and utility fees.
The most expensive part of this project is probably the R&D team. But how can you make money from the start in business? You have to invest some costs first, right?
Jiang Xiaoman singled out this project to see if anyone wanted to invest with him.
"None of us have experience in the skincare industry. Let's be clear, I can't guarantee that this project will make money. It's possible that even if we invest millions, it will still be a waste."
"However, I've heard that the skincare industry is quite profitable. And as you know, raw materials like tea leaves, tea flowers, and tea seeds cost almost nothing in Langshan. Every year when a tea garden is pruning its tea trees, it cuts down tens of thousands of kilograms of leaves. We can buy these scraps at low prices, and that's enough for our needs."
"We'll have to wait until we recruit a research and development team to figure out the specifics. To put it simply, some contract manufacturers did approach me before, wanting to directly use our brand, but I didn't agree. If we're going to do it, we'll make the real Langshan wild tea tree skincare series. A girl's face is so precious. It's convenient to find someone to do contract manufacturing, but if it goes wrong, our Langshan brand will be ruined."
"That's the situation. I've made a rough estimate, and the initial investment for this project will be around two to three million. Don't go around spreading this around. Think about it yourselves first. If you want to invest, we'll have a separate meeting to discuss it next time." After saying this, Jiang Xiaoman refused to say anything more.
With his current wealth, he could easily invest in this project on his own, but if he were to do so, the brothers who had finally managed to get together would likely drift apart.
A few years ago, when Jiang Xiaoman returned to her hometown, she probably never imagined that one day she would have to try to manage others.
After all, his initial "ultimate goal" was to earn 100,000 to 200,000 yuan a year so that he could save a generous pension for his father.
Now, judging from the dividends at the end of last year, the village's cooperatives alone can bring him six million yuan in dividends in a year!
This does not include his income from running his own media outlets.
He hasn't calculated it in detail himself, but conservatively speaking, his annual income from these two items combined last year was definitely 20 million.
Even so, he was ridiculed by his "peers".
After all, internet celebrities with a similar number of followers who don't earn more than 100 million yuan a year are too embarrassed to attend the award ceremonies held by the platform.
However, Jiang Xiaoman himself knows that he is different from other internet celebrities.
Other online celebrities' brands are just their own IDs, but Jiang Xiaoman's brand is the entire Langshan area.
He can't ruin his hometown's reputation. Some promotions are obviously unreliable, and he wouldn't dare touch them no matter how much money they offer!
Chapter 258
This was probably the longest meeting Jiang Xiaoman and his team had ever held since they established the cooperative. It lasted from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Even Lang Ying, who was pregnant, was a bit exhausted and was sent home by Qingshan to rest at noon. Qingshan then represented their family and attended the meeting as an observer.
In addition to these physical industries, Jiang Xiaoman also took the opportunity to mention the concept of establishing a tourism development company.
Behind closed doors, Mr. Jiang wasn't very optimistic about the current camping base project in the village. Just like a few years ago when homestays were all the rage, everyone rushed to set up homestays, pouring in so much money, but how many of them actually made a lot of money?
The homestay trend came quickly and went even faster. Some latecomers were ruthlessly abandoned by the market before their homestays were even opened for business.
Forget about making money; it's a miracle if you don't lose everything.
There's a lot of online joke about it, saying that guesthouses are like middle-class harvesters, specifically designed to fleece the middle class.
Do you think that after working your butt off in a big city and earning a few hundred dollars, you can find a scenic spot, open a guesthouse, and retire comfortably?
Don't be ridiculous, business is so bad! To save costs, some owners have unknowingly become cleaning ladies, cooks, gardeners, guesthouse customer service staff... Others have taken a different approach, even providing game coaching and leveling up for guests. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. How is it any easier than working for capitalists?
However, the owner is currently riding high, and the camping industry is indeed booming this year. Jiang Xiaoman isn't sure how long their village's camping base will remain popular. If the owner can't continue operating, he can simply withdraw his investment and leave, but what about them?
"Xiaoman, what do you mean?" Shanyan seemed to have grasped Jiang Xiaoman's train of thought.
“I have carefully studied the current operating model of the camping base. In fact, their current operation is still very crude. They only provide camping sites and services such as barbecue, fishing, and bathing. People come twice for novelty, but I'm afraid there won't be many repeat customers.”
"So I thought we should prepare for both possibilities. Let them do what they want, and we'll set up a separate tourism development company. We'll recruit some eloquent locals from Langshan to work as tour guides on the side. We can plan 2-3 tour routes, all-inclusive, for 100 yuan a day. I think there should be tourists willing to spend that money to come and have a trip."
"As long as tourists fall in love with the scenery and folk customs of Langshan, even if the camping base project fails in the future, with our current economic strength, we can actually take over the project and do it ourselves."
“We are different from those out-of-town business owners who come to Langshan to invest. We are people who will live here for generations. To put it bluntly, even if we don’t have any guests, the house is still ours to invest in. We can live in it ourselves.”
"I've noticed that recently everyone in our village has been drawing lots to move their homesteads to the west bank of the river. About ten families have drawn lots for homesteads on the west bank, right? Does that mean the rest of the families won't build houses?"
“Since we’re going to build them, let’s just set up a tourism development company and bring together all the villagers who want to run guesthouses and homestays with us. It’s much faster to develop together than to go it alone. Not to mention anything else, just the construction and decoration alone, if we buy together, it’ll be cheaper than buying building materials in the market on our own.”
Jiang Xiaoman's words really got everyone excited.
Even the emperor has several poor relatives, let alone these newly rich shareholders present here.
A few years ago, they were poor themselves. Now, after finally succeeding in starting a business with Jiang Xiaoman, their relatives and friends have been coming to them for a while, hoping that they can also help their poor relatives.
But the village cooperative was all set up by Xiaoman and Shanyan, so even if others wanted to bring people in, they were too embarrassed to ask.
Put yourself in their shoes. If they discovered a lucrative business opportunity and wanted to help their good friend earn some money to get married, that would be considered loyalty. But a brother can't be greedy and drag his relatives and friends into it too, can he?
If you help a relative from your own clan, should your wife's family help you too? If you want to help everyone, isn't that using your brother's business to do favors?
People help you out of brotherly affection, so why should they help your relatives and friends?
The group was initially hesitant to speak, but Jiang Xiaoman took the initiative to bring it up. They were all deeply moved and promised to ask their relatives as soon as they got back. As for them, did they even need to ask?
Now, in the entire Langshan area, which family doesn't want to get rich by following Brother Xiaoman?
Okay, although Xiaoman never promised that doing business with him would definitely make you rich, everyone can see that he's right.
Look at all the people who followed Xiaoman. They used to be dirt poor, but now every single one of them has a hundred or two hundred thousand in savings.
Jiang Xiaoman never expected that with just a suggestion, everyone would already think that this new project would definitely make money.
He can't take the blame for this!
"Let me make this clear first: whether you're running a guesthouse or a regular farmhouse, it's best to do what you can afford. Think of it as building your own house. Build as big as you can afford, and absolutely do not take out a loan."
"As I just mentioned, the campsite in our village is doing pretty well right now, but I don't know how long it will last. What if the owner is willing to keep it going? With this project blocking our way, we can only follow behind and get the scraps. There might not be many guests at first after the guesthouse is built. If you put all your savings into it and don't make any money, don't blame me!"
The more Jiang Xiaoman talked, the more she realized she had made a foolish move, taking too big a step and accidentally tearing her balls.
Unexpectedly, the more he said that, the more the people present began to comfort him.