Chapter 199
The application for intangible cultural heritage inheritor status will take some time, so Jiang Youliang and his group don't need to wait in the county. After filling out the forms and chatting for a while, Director Chen warmly invited them to have a meal at the county government canteen before leaving.
Jiang Youliang waved his hands repeatedly, every hair on his body screaming rejection!
It's not that he's being polite; he's been an ordinary citizen his whole life, and the thought of eating in the canteen with a bunch of government leaders makes him feel uneasy.
Noticing her father's unease, Jiang Xiaoman quickly spoke up—
"It's rare for us to come to the county town. We were saying last time that we wanted to take my dad to try the hot pot here. If Director Chen isn't too busy at noon, how about I treat your department's colleagues to hot pot together?"
Regardless of whether this path is viable, Jiang Xiaoman still admires the cadres at the Intangible Cultural Heritage Center.
Knowing that traditional intangible cultural heritage is inevitably going to be eliminated by the times, they are still trying to turn the tide. This is probably why Chinese civilization continues to thrive despite being hit hard.
Unexpectedly, Director Chen refused.
"Next time, once the approval is granted, I'll bring people to deliver the plaque to you, and then we can try your local farm-style dishes."
"The county has regulations that prohibit accepting banquets from officials, including hot pot."
Jiang Xiaoman could only take her father and Sun Zheyuan with her when they went out to eat the all-you-can-eat hot pot that she had eaten with her friends last time.
"Why bother with a buffet hot pot? Since we're already here, let's go get something good to eat!" Sun Zheyuan jingled his car keys.
"Isn't it said that public officials cannot accept invitations to banquets?"
"Yes, you can't accept invitations to banquets. If you treat your friends to a meal at your own expense, as long as you don't drink alcohol at noon, it's not against the rules."
I see!
Public servants these days have it pretty tough. Are there really so many rules even for eating a meal?
Perhaps fearing that Jiang Youliang would feel uncomfortable, Sun Zheyuan did not take them home, but instead took them to a farm near the outskirts of the county town.
"This restaurant is quite famous for its bone broth and firewood-cooked fish. I come here to eat every time I come back. You guys should try it."
Sun Zheyuan was probably a regular at this farmhouse. As soon as he arrived, the proprietress automatically led him to a small private room. Before he could even speak, she picked up the menu and quickly wrote down a few lines—
"Same old routine, right? A bone broth for four people, with the small red chilies on a separate plate; a pot of braised fish cooked over firewood; and since we can eat the cured meats we made ourselves recently, how about a plate of steamed cured fish? Or cured pork ribs with radish? Or salted pork belly with cabbage?"
Sun Zheyuan then asked them what they wanted to eat, worried that they might be afraid of spending money. He generously explained that when he usually came to eat, he would just put the bill on his mother's account. The farm would do its accounting at the end of the month and then take the bill to his mother's company at the beginning of the next month to settle the account, so he wouldn't have to pay anything.
"Auntie is paying for it. There are only three of us, so we don't need to order so many dishes. It would be a waste if we couldn't finish them. For meat dishes, let's just have the bone broth and the fish cooked over firewood. We can also order three vegetable dishes and a bowl of rice."
To everyone's surprise, Sun Zheyuan waved his hand and insisted that the owner bring out one of each of the restaurant's signature dishes.
"I'll pack up the leftovers and take them back to town. It's all your fault! There used to be a small restaurant in our town, but ever since the owner went to sell tea cakes with you, the restaurant has closed down!"
What? How come he didn't know that someone in town was doing tea cake business with him?
Seeing that he genuinely didn't know, Sun Zheyuan was speechless.
"I know about this in town, how come you, a boss, don't know?"
Sun Zheyuan, wanting to be a good Samaritan to the end, explained the whole story to Jiang Xiaoman before the food was served.
Simply put, his subordinates were so capable that they were already helping him expand his supply chain without any prompting from Boss Jiang.
Jiang Xiaoman's online tea cakes have always sold very well, and they're always out of stock every time they're restocked. He's quite laid-back about it, though. He originally sold the tea cakes to help his fellow villagers sell their tea and earn some pocket money. Now, his annual income from selling tea cakes is far more than he had imagined, so why bother? He just sells as many as he can and then relaxes!
He wanted to lie down, but his dedicated employees wouldn't allow it!
Lang Ying and Shan Ying, along with other employees of the tea cooperative, earn most of their annual income, in addition to their basic salary, based on sales performance. The more they sell, the more bonuses they receive.
Are the mini tea cakes in the online store not selling enough?
Then let's find a way to increase production!
So, without Jiang Xiaoman's knowledge, the employees took advantage of opportunities such as going to the market and visiting relatives to recruit people everywhere and develop suppliers for Jiang Xiaoman.
There are many wild tea trees in Langshan, but no one used to pick them. Ever since Lang Ying and others started selling Amway everywhere, saying that in their village, an elderly couple went up the mountain to pick tea leaves and earned more than 10,000 yuan a month, and that in the old mountain valley, a family stopped growing potatoes and went up the mountain to pick tea leaves and make tea cakes, earning more than 80,000 yuan in three months... Sure enough, they have bewitched the villagers who were already afraid of being poor.
Ironically, not only the villagers who farmed the land, but even many business people who originally ran small businesses in the town couldn't help but be incredibly tempted.
Sun Zheyuan often went to small restaurants to treat himself, and the couple were among the first to be successfully persuaded by Lang Ying to buy Amway products.
They used to run a small restaurant in town. After deducting rent, utilities, and food expenses, the couple was lucky if they could make a net profit of 3,000 yuan a month.
But ever since they listened to Lang Ying's advice and returned to the village to pick tea leaves and collect tea cakes, I heard that the couple now earns tens of thousands of yuan a month and has become the "new rich" in their village.
"Buying tea cakes?" Jiang Xiaoman caught a key phrase.
"That's right! Their village is a bit far from yours. It's not worthwhile for the villagers to make a few kilograms of tea cakes and sell them themselves. So the restaurant owner goes up the mountain to pick tea leaves and lets his wife make tea cakes at home. He also buys tea cakes made by the villagers at a low price. Once he has a whole truckload, he resells them to you."
"I didn't expect your group of women to be so capable. They're busy all day long, taking care of the kids, doing housework, going to work, raising pigs and chickens, how do they still have time to help you develop suppliers?"
Jiang Xiaoman: "..." Don't even mention you, I'm wondering about it myself, okay?
After finishing their meal, Sun Zheyuan drove the father and son to the village and then returned to the town.
Jiang Xiaoman quickly summoned Lang Ying and others to the cooperative for a meeting!
He needs to know how many suppliers they have now.
"What kind of supplier? Pshaw! They're just people who live far away and don't want to make the trip themselves, so they just sell at a lower price and resell to someone else. That person makes a few dollars for travel expenses per pound of tea cake. What's there to say about that?"
Lang Ying felt that this was similar to the internal adjustment among villagers. They used to do the same when selling eggs in the village. They would have twenty or thirty eggs to sell, but it wasn't worth making a special trip to the town for such a small amount of eggs. So they would sell each egg for a penny less and sell it to the egg collector in the village. The collector would earn some money for running the errand, and they could save themselves some trouble.
Jiang Xiaoman, having calmed down, was speechless.
Yes! If you look at it from a different perspective, isn't that just how it is in the countryside?
Our local produce is too small. Even if we know we can sell it for a higher price in town or even county, the travel expenses wouldn't even cover the cost of making the trip for such a small amount of produce. It's better to find a middleman nearby, sell it to them at a lower price, and use the time they save to go into the mountains and pick another basket of wild tea.
Although the matter was quite ordinary, it must be said that Lang Ying and her team's actions did indeed provide the cooperative with a stable supply channel. Jiang Xiaoman thought about it and proposed to the other two shareholders that they give each of the employees who participated in this "supplier discovery" a special reward of 2,000 yuan.
Therefore, never underestimate the role that women can play in the workplace.
When they want to make money, their brains and drive are just as good as men's!
Jiang Xiaoman herself never expected to turn the middlemen into her suppliers, but Lang Ying and the others did, and quickly developed a large number of suppliers who lived far away.
In this way, as long as there is a tea cake collector in other towns, all the people in the town can go up the mountain to pick tea leaves and make tea cakes.
Anyway, I can sell them whenever I go to the market. Although the price is not as high as the purchase price in Jiang Xiaoman's area, it's convenient!
Jiang Xiaoman just didn't want to miss spending time with her father because of her career. It's not that she wouldn't take the money that was offered to her; wouldn't that be foolish?
Having figured this out, he went back and carefully made a list of local mountain products and specialties that were currently selling well in his online store and were often out of stock. After thinking about it, he added his purchase price to the list so that suppliers could set their own purchase prices based on his prices.
Anyway, his purchase price is very transparent. As for how much the supplier can earn, that depends on the actual local price.
Everyone is in Langshan, but the prices of various local specialties still differ.
For example, in some places where there are many wild tea trees, every household can make small tea cakes. As the quantity increases, the price can naturally be lowered.
In some areas where sweet potatoes are abundant, various sweet potato vermicelli and noodles have been produced on a large scale, and their prices are naturally much cheaper than those made by farmers themselves.
After Lang Ying and others privately forwarded the purchase orders to the suppliers they had contacted, Jiang Xiaoman's business for the year was almost done, and she could prepare for the New Year.
However, before the winter break for the Lunar New Year, there is another important thing to do: hold a summary and commendation meeting.
Despite their frequent stockouts, their sales and profits this year are figures that Jiang Xiaoman and Jiang Yu dare not reveal.
If I tell anyone, I'm really afraid I'll get knocked unconscious on the street and then kidnapped and extorted...
Such achievements in the first year of the cooperative's establishment prove that they have won the most crucial first battle in their entrepreneurial journey, and they must seize this opportunity to boost morale!
Before the commendation meeting, Jiang Xiaoman went to Jiang Yu's house, where the three major shareholders sat down together for a meeting to discuss how to hold the commendation meeting.
“Bonuses will definitely be paid. I suggest that we use the current salary standard and, based on each individual’s contribution to the cooperative, pay 1 to 3 months’ salary as a year-end bonus,” Jiang Xiaoman explained, referring to the rates she had found out at other companies.
Both the rocks and the river fish indicated that it was acceptable.
"I see that the town officials give out welfare benefits during the Spring Festival. Why don't we get some too?"
"I was just about to discuss this with you guys, Brother Xiaoyu. Don't we both have partner brands? How about this: we organize an online live stream for our cooperative's employee commendation meeting, and then ask the brands to sponsor it or provide us with some benefits at a friendly price. This way, they'll get exposure, our cooperative's costs will be controlled, and we can also get some free advertising for the products we sell. What do you think?"
When Jiang Xiaoman shared the tricks she had learned from other streamers with the two of them, Shan Yan and Jiang Yu both wore expressions that were hard to describe.
"Isn't this just using other people's money to do things for yourself?"
"Yes! But you can't calculate it like that. Little Fish, think about it. You have almost three million followers now, and I have more than 11 million. As long as you sponsor something, you can get an ad in our live streams without having to pay us extra for promotion. Let alone the brands we've worked with, believe it or not, if I went out on my own, I could find quite a few manufacturers willing to work with us."
“That’s true…” Jiang Yu couldn’t help but nod.
He used to think that increasing his followers meant more people would watch his videos, and more views would mean more revenue in the backend.
Unexpectedly, after the number of followers increased, the revenue from the backend views was negligible compared to the advertising fees that the account received.
So, when Jiang Xiaoman mentioned live-streaming the awards ceremony and finding sponsors to cover the prizes, Jiang Yu immediately understood—
Isn't this just like many celebrities turning their weddings into business conferences?
For ordinary people, getting married can deplete their family's savings and empty the wallets of all six members of the family.
Celebrities get married without spending a penny, and might even make a fortune...
Chapter 200
As expected! Jiang Xiaoman guessed correctly. When he and Jiang Yu mentioned the cooperative's plan to livestream the awards ceremony, almost all the partner brands readily agreed to sponsor the event.
Several well-funded brand owners also stated that if Jiang Xiaoman and her team were willing to give them the naming rights to the awards ceremony, they could even cover the employees' year-end bonuses.
Jiang Xiaoman, of course, would not agree.
Then, taking advantage of the opportunity to distribute New Year's goods, they can appropriately insert some soft advertisements, which can be said to be a win-win situation for both them and the brand.
If even the awards ceremony involves a naming rights bidding process, then the event will lose its original purpose.
In Langshan, the New Year celebrations actually begin in the twelfth lunar month. Once the twelfth lunar month arrives, every household gets busy slaughtering pigs, making glutinous rice cakes, making tofu, killing chickens and ducks, and taking advantage of the fact that relatives who have gone to work in the city have all returned to enjoy the short time of family reunion.
In order not to delay the employees' winter holiday, Jiang Xiaoman held the employee commendation meeting two days before the start of the twelfth lunar month.
Fans who saw the video were so envious they cried.
These days, even the wealthiest state-owned enterprises can't possibly give everyone a month-long Spring Festival holiday! They really want to work for Brother Xiaoman too...
Last year, Jiang Xiaoman's Langshan Wild Tea Cake Cooperative hired a total of four employees. Because making tea requires a lot of care, all of them were female employees. Moreover, in accordance with Jiang Xiaoman's assistance policy, the employees hired were all stay-at-home mothers from relatively poor families, like Shan Ying, who were also hardworking.