Moreover, Jiang Xiaoman had privately explained to Lang Ying that the reason she was paid such a low salary was mainly because she was afraid of arousing envy, and that as a widow and orphan, she would be easily taken advantage of.
In fact, salary is only a small part; the real bulk of income comes from performance bonuses.
Although Jiang Xiaoman's monthly sales volume is not as high as that of top livestreamers, it has been steadily in the middle. In addition to the brand collaborations he takes on himself, he also uses the sales of local specialties from Langshan to calculate the performance bonuses for his employees.
Take the second quarter as an example. Based on his current net profit, Lang Ying's quarterly bonus and monthly performance bonus combined should amount to at least 50,000 yuan!
This is almost the total annual income of an average family in Langshan over two years.
And it's not peak season yet.
It can be predicted that as long as Lang Ying continues to work diligently with Jiang Xiaoman, her actual annual salary will exceed 300,000 yuan in two years.
A woman earning an annual salary of 300,000 yuan who has experienced the bitterness of marriage before, unless she's out of her mind, would jump back into the fire pit of marriage...
Lang Ying didn't not want to get married; what woman doesn't want a man to rely on?
The problem is that in Langshan, most men, no matter how poor, think they're emperors just because they have one more thing than women. They're lucky if they don't beat their wives, let alone expect them to support the family and take care of the children. Dream on!
Having figured this out, Lang Ying is now practically ready to move her entire household to this courier station.
There were other families in the village whose children were attending daycare in town, so Lang Ying simply gave them 200 yuan a month and asked them to pick up her own children and also bring her two daughters to the express delivery station, so that she could devote herself to her work.
Recently, Jiang Xiaoman has been busy renovating her own homestay. In the evenings, Lang Ying lets her two daughters eat and play at the express delivery station, or turns on the TV for them to watch cartoons. She and her group of female workers are busy packing tea cakes day and night.
This time, unlike the previous small-scale operation, Jiang Xiaoman consulted many online brands that make similar products and further subdivided the tea cakes he collected into three grades. The tea cakes were first classified according to the grading standards set by Jiang Xiaoman.
Then, the sorted tea cakes are vacuum-packed one by one by machine and put into different colored tea bags. This way, they are easy to identify when shipping and will not be packed in the wrong way.
There was one mistake during this process: a newcomer mixed up tea cakes of different sizes, forcing everyone to work overtime all night to reassemble and sort the incorrectly packaged tea cakes.
From then on, Lang Ying, the head housekeeper, learned her lesson, readjusted the division of labor, and, without any formal instruction, broke down the entire sorting and packaging process into an assembly line.
She assigned two experienced tea cake makers to the sorting area, putting them in charge of grading and sorting the tea cakes. This way, if any problems occurred in this step, their wages would be deducted, making the responsibility clear to them.
There are also three quick and steady workers assigned to the tea cake vacuum packaging area, responsible for vacuum packaging and re-inspection of each small tea cake. If a tea cake leaks air and spoils later, it will be the responsibility of these three.
Those who lacked professional skills or were a bit careless were assigned to do repetitive packaging work. The advantage of this work was that it didn't require much thinking and the process was very simple. To put it another way, even if the simplest person in their village came, they would eventually develop the muscle memory and be able to do the job well.
With this division of labor, the efficiency of the entire tea workshop improved dramatically.
Jiang Xiaoman was delighted and went over to tell Jiang Yu that he firmly supported Lang Ying in becoming an independent and self-reliant modern single woman. Otherwise, if she got married, where would he find such a capable secretary-general?
Jiang Yu burst into laughter, while Qing Shan, standing next to him, was almost brought to tears by his outburst.
Lang Ying didn't want to get married, so what could he do?
Chapter 168
After working tirelessly for more than two months, Jiang Xiaoman felt that she had almost developed eight-pack abs from all the running around, and she was also dark and thin. She finally managed to clear out the last batch of tea cakes and the remaining mountain products.
It was really tiring, but it was also really profitable.
After deducting the costs of purchasing tea cakes and mountain products, as well as the wages of employees, logistics and other expenses, Jiang Xiaoman actually earned more than one million yuan in less than three months!
He didn't dare tell anyone in the village about this amount!
Even with his father, he was afraid that the old man might blurt out something while drunk, so he only told Jiang Youliang that he had earned over 200,000 yuan.
When others ask, he says that this line of work looks like it generates a lot of revenue, but the gross profit is actually very low, and you still have to pay taxes. When the villagers hear that you have to pay taxes, they are speechless.
After all, even the poorest families these days have televisions or smartphones. Think about the news reports about some online celebrities having to pay hundreds of millions in back taxes. Ordinary people don't understand what tax rates are, but they vaguely feel that doing e-commerce means paying a lot of taxes.
By sheer accident, Jiang Xiaoman managed to fool him like that.
Although she earned a lot of money, Jiang Xiaoman didn't dare to spend it and temporarily deposited it all in the bank.
He has already discussed it with Shan Yan. After the autumn honey season is over, they will discuss with the village separately about renting land to build a factory.
Business will grow bigger and bigger in the future, and we can't keep running a small workshop in our own backyard every year, can we?
Moreover, with a larger scale, relying solely on manual labor is not enough. It is necessary to install some machines and recruit a group of more stable employees. At that time, their cooperative can be transformed into an "agricultural cooperative enterprise" operating model.
This model has been proven by the market and is quite suitable for rural entrepreneurship.
There's nothing we can do about it.
After the chaos of the wave of returning to hometowns to start businesses in previous years, everyone now knows that in addition to choosing the right project, the relationship with neighbors is also very important when starting a business in rural areas.
Bringing farmers into cooperatives, making them part of the entrepreneurial team, and leading the local people to make money seems to be the key to the success of many similar projects.
This coincides with Jiang Xiaoman's initial idea.
He was originally from Langshan Village and wanted more than anyone else for the uncles and aunts in the village to live a good life and for the children to have the opportunity to go to university. To attract more farmers to join the cooperative, it was necessary to expand the scale of production.
Therefore, they must build their factory by the time the spring tea harvest season begins next year at the latest.
One million might not be enough.
In addition to the factory building, they also need to purchase machinery and equipment.
Jiang Xiaoman was initially hesitant to take such a big step, but Sun Zheyuan, the town's poverty alleviation cadre, brought him good news—
I heard that two years ago, someone in their town also wanted to explore the wild tea of Langshan. They bought the machines and spent tens of thousands of yuan to build a simple factory. However, the green tea they produced had no reputation and no brand to rely on. The owner himself was unwilling to spend money on marketing, so in the end, they could only compete in the low-end market.
After working myself to the bone all year, I ended up losing over 100,000 yuan at the end of the year!
The boss couldn't hold on for two years. He lost all the savings his family had accumulated over a decade of hard work, and even had to sell their house in the county town. His wife was threatening to divorce him. In the end, he had no choice but to close the factory and sheepishly follow his wife back to the factory to work as a screwdriver.
“I heard his machine is still there, and it’s only been used for a little over a year, so it should be in pretty good condition. Do you want to go take a look?” After hanging up the phone, Sun Zheyuan sent over the owner’s phone number.
Jiang Xiaoman had never bought tea-making machines before. Fortunately, Shan Yan had many connections and invited an expert from the provincial capital. The three of them went to the town together and bought a complete set of tea-making machines for only one-third of the market price.
Sun Zheyuan was right. The machine was at least 90% new. The reason it hadn't sold was because the production capacity was just too low—large companies didn't need such a small machine, and small workshops couldn't afford it. This unfortunate owner probably didn't know anything about the business and had been tricked.
Shanyan's friends had advised them that if they wanted to expand the factory in the future, they should do it all at once, even if it meant taking out a bank loan, to make sure the factory buildings and machinery were in good condition.
Otherwise, if we expand again in a few years, the machines will depreciate and we won't be able to sell them for much money. If we expand the factory and get more land, the price will probably be several times higher than it is now.
Jiang Xiaoman considered it for a moment, shook her head, and told Shan Yan and his friend her thoughts.
"Brother Yan, don't laugh at me for being unambitious. Actually, the reason I returned to my hometown to start a business after graduating from university was to spend more time with my dad."
“My business hasn’t even grown big yet, and I already don’t have time to spend with him. If I expand production and really become a big boss, I’ll be traveling all year round, and my dad will become a left-behind elderly person again.”
"How about this, Brother Yan? Let's get this straight today. From now on, as long as my father is still alive, I will not leave Langshan Village to do business. Whether it's beekeeping or making tea cakes, I will be satisfied as long as I earn enough for my father and me to live on in our old age."
"Actually, I've been quite regretful lately. I feel like I've let my dad down. I came back hoping he could enjoy his retirement, but now that my business is growing bigger and bigger, it's made my dad suffer along with me."
“I’ve thought it through. Let’s do it this way. I’ll use this machine after I buy it. Brother Yan, if you ever want to open a big factory in the future, you can give me a share if you don’t mind. I won’t do the work. My dad is getting old, and I can’t leave him alone in the mountains.”
...
Shan Yan was deeply moved by what he said, and his friend's eyes even reddened. He couldn't help but step forward, grasp Jiang Xiaoman's hands, and pat him hard on the shoulder: "Good brother! Just for what you said, I, Tong Shuai, must make you my friend today!"
"You're absolutely right! Back then, I was single-mindedly focused on starting a business and making a fortune, traveling all over the world. In the end, I didn't make much money. My mother wanted to see me one last time before she passed away, but she didn't get to see me. Sigh!"
Tong Shuai originally came to help Shan Yan, but unexpectedly met Jiang Xiaoman, a very filial son. This was exactly what he wanted, so he immediately said that he had been the general manager of a tea factory before, and since he was not busy these days, he could stay and help them set up the factory's management structure.
Most importantly, Tong Shuai had a strong sense of brotherhood and insisted on recognizing Jiang Xiaoman as his sworn brother, even going so far as to visit Jiang Youliang as a junior. This left Jiang Xiaoman both amused and exasperated. Fortunately, he now had a place to stay, so he quickly called Jiang Youliang on the way to explain, gave Lang Ying a few instructions, and then took his new friend home.
However, Tong Shuai is a really comfortable person to be friends with. He is quick-witted and has a lot of experience from traveling all over the country. Along the way, Jiang Xiaoman listened to him talk about the unpredictable and treacherous aspects of the business world, which was a real eye-opener for her.
At the same time, it strengthened his original intention: a simple mountain boy like him should not make his business too big, otherwise he would not even know how he died.
When they got home, Jiang Youliang heard Tong Shuai say that he wanted to befriend this brother because his Xiaoman was particularly filial. He couldn't help but straighten his back proudly, and said modestly that his Xiaoman had been filial since she was a child, and that Tong Shuai really had good taste!
Jiang Xiaoman: "..."
See? Anyone who wants to please their father can always do it right by praising his son to his face!
Unexpectedly, Tong Shuai and Jiang Youliang actually had a very pleasant conversation. The two even went to the back mountain to visit Jiang Youliang's beehives and dug up a basket of newly grown potatoes.
This is terrible!
Jiang Xiaoman was secretly puzzled.
You should know that although potatoes are ready to eat at this time of year, they are not fully grown yet. If it were Jiang Youliang, who cherishes food, he would never be willing to dig them up and eat them at this time!
At this time of year, their family would eat the potatoes stored in the cellar from the previous year.
"Xiaoman, come quick! Look how well our potatoes are growing this year! Xiaoshuai said he's never had our red-skinned potatoes before. Tonight, you can stew some potatoes and chicken for him, and I'll go catch a chicken and kill it."
Since we're going to treat everyone, it's impossible to invite just Tong Shuai.
Jiang Xiaoman called and invited Shan Yan and Jiang Yu as well.
However, only Shan Yan came over for dinner that night.
"Xiaoyu said he promised his fans that he would do a live stream tonight and sing fishing songs for them."
After saying that, Shan Yan glared at Jiang Xiaoman.
Jiang Xiaoman had long since developed a thick skin from being so jealous, so she shrugged and pretended not to receive Yuanfu Shanyan's glare.
Isn't it all his fault for leading Jiang Yu to do live streaming, which caused Jiang Yu to become addicted to live streaming and have to go into the live streaming room every night to chat with fans?
If you're really that angry, why don't you make your Jiang Xiaoyu so tired every night that she doesn't have the energy to do live streams?
He couldn't bear to bully Jiang Xiaoyu, so he ran over and yelled at him. That's men for you, huh!
If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't very familiar with Tong Shuai and needed Shan Yan to keep him company, Jiang Xiaoman would have loved to kick this old jealous pot down the mountain!
However, he had been busy making money during this time, and his father, Jiang Youliang, hadn't been this happy in a long time.
Seeing her father proudly displaying the Kung Fu tea set he had bought for her, and humbly learning from Tong Shuai who knew how to brew Kung Fu tea, Jiang Xiaoman felt a warmth in her heart, rolled up her sleeves, and went into the kitchen.
His kitchen is much more convenient to use than the one at the courier station down the mountain, and the vegetable garden is right behind him, so he can pick and cook whatever he wants to eat.
Before it got dark, Jiang Xiaoman took her vegetable basket and sickle to her family's vegetable garden. Sure enough, as long as her father was home, their garden was always fully planted.
The fence made of small steel bamboo is covered with loofah, flat beans, cucumbers, long beans... There's also a trellis next to it, where two chayote plants were casually planted.
Upon seeing the chayote, Jiang Xiaoman felt a wave of dizziness!
Chayote is definitely in the top three of his most hated vegetables!
There's no other reason, it's just that this thing grows so fast. If you plant one at home, it won't die for several years. It sprouts every year, and a single vine can produce hundreds of melons!
We can't even finish eating it all!
What's even more infuriating is that once the chayote ripens and falls to the ground, new seedlings will sprout again next year, so there's practically no need to plant them yourself. When Jiang Xiaoman was little, he hated eating chayote, and every year during the chayote seedling sprouting season, he would secretly trample a patch of them to death when his dad wasn't looking.
I never imagined his dad had such a deep love for chayote. Even though we didn't have any seeds at home, he actually dug up two plants from someone else's garden and planted them...