"Do you have enough capital?" asked Shu Yan directly.
Old Zhang remained silent for a bit then said, "I have been thinking about it; I can take out a second mortgage. If I don't at least git it a try, my factory will really go belly up."
"Why don't we work together then?" asked Shu Yan all of a sudden.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Lao Zhang as he looked at Shu Yan nervously.
"I will give you full rights to produce them. I'll also provide the materials and you provide the location and salaries. We will split the profit 50/50. What do you think?" Shu Yan leaned back and waited for Lao Zhang's answer.
When she first made the underwear, Shu Yan was just testing water. Had Lao Zhang not come, she'd have gone to Boss He. In fact, working with Boss He would probably be even more beneficial. He already had built-in customers. But then Shu Yan would also not be able to get 50/50 split. She'd be lucky to even get 20%.
Besides, Boss He might seem like a passionate guy but he has his cunning side. Lao Zhang, on the other hand, was much more of a trustworthy person. Shu Yan was 100% sure that if Boss He was the one making the fall set for her, he'd have been producing and selling them elsewhere way before now. Let alone coming to get her consent.
"I... let me think about it." Lao Zhang wasn't able to make a decision.
***
Lao Zhang paced back and forth. He didn't need to consult Shu Yan at all and there was nothing that she could do had he produced and sold her designs. There was no such thing as patent on these things. Except his principles wouldn't allow him to do that. He believed that being trustworthy was an important quality. It was what his father had always taught him since he was a child. And exactly because of that, his workers at his factory never abandoned him at their most difficult time.
What Shu Yan had proposed was very tempting. A second mortgage was the last resort. It was their home. It was their home. If they lost their home, his wife and children would have nowhere to go. He could be a transient, but he couldn't let his wife and children became homeless as well.
If he chose to work with Shu Yan, she'd be fronting all of the cost at this stage. There would be no need to take out a second mortgage and the risk would be split. Lao Zhang couldn't think of any reason to decline that.Shu Yan fully expected Lao Zhang to agree to her proposal. The two of them had lunch together the next day and signed a contract. They went over to the market to pick out materials and fabrics that very afternoon.
Shu Yan had been producing red and black ones. Chinese really like their red and it was the most popular color. She had subsequently added grey and black for men; those did alright as well. Now that they were going to wholesale them, these color selections were a little bit lacking. They added pink, aqua, and purple for women's style and also added blue for men ones. They've produced a few other colors ones but were only using them as samples. The colors mentioned above were the ones they would be producing for wholesaling.
There would be four different sizes for each color. 200 sets of each came out to be 6,400 sets. Along with the other colors, 6,500 sets total. The cost of the materials came out to be 30,000 ~ 40,000 yuan. This entire amount was all paid for by Shu Yan.
"Are we going overboard on this?" Lao Zhang was a bit hesitant when he watched Shu Yan paid.
"It'll be fine. When push comes to shove, I'll have a promotional event to get rid of them." That had always been part of Shu Yan's plan. Underwear would not go out of style. She could always have a couple of promotional events at the end of the year and they'd be all gone. "Do you still have the numbers of your old customers? Call them up and see if they are interested."
"Just a few random customers. They won't make a dent." Lao Zhang felt a bit embarrassed. He had made a popular style before. Unfortunately, it didn't last too long on the market. He wasn't able to work on any popular styles in the two years that followed and most of his customers that bought from him had turned to other factories.
"You never know. Resources are resources. Give it a try and contact them anyway." Shu Yan suddenly realized that Lao Zhang's factory had no salespersons. "Who used to be in charge of sales?"
"My wife. She was a worker at a factory store before. She knows how to make clothes herself and also knows a lot of people. Many of our original customers were brought over by her." There was a sense of pride on Lao Zhang when he was talking about his wife.
He was one who loved his wife a lot. Shu Yan's lips curved upward a bit. "Then can we have your wife continue to do be the salesperson? We will pay her a salary for that."
"It's our own factory. There's no need for a salary," said Lao Zhang as he waved his hand. "That's not a problem. My son is in junior high school and my wife has a lot of free time. She can come back to work."
"Now that we are working together, we should be fair when it comes to money. Better safe than sorry. Let's not have any conflicts later on over several hundred dollars." Shu Yan felt that they need to be clear when it came to that. "Why don't we do this? We will pay your wife $100 / month base salary. 5% commission on first order, 2% on returning customers. Any shops that she was able to sell to, we will adhere to this pay schedule. What do you say?"
Good verse. No wonder she was so successful in business. Lao Zhang felt that working with Shu Yan would be a very pleasant experience.
"In addition, I will talk to a few wholesalers when I went over to City Han next time. If we can sell our undergarments there, we will be able to make more sales."
Lao Zhang was a bit hesitant. "If we sell to wholesales, will they take our designs and make their own?"
"There's a good possibility of that. But you know about the garment industry. Any semi-decent design will be copied in a few days. Even if we don't sell them to the wholesalers, it's a matter of time before they copy our design. So we might as well sell more while we are the only one making them." Shu Yan had already thought about it long time ago. China was a copycat country. It didn't matter what it was, anything that remotely make any money would be copied. Fall clothes didn't involve a lot of technicality. Anyone would be able to reproduce it from looking at it. They'd be all over the place within a week.
Truth was, if they have enough capital, they could register their brand and advertise on TV and newspaper and immediately became a well-known domestic underwear brand. Unfortunately, that would require a lot of manpower and resources.
Welp, couldn't worry too much. First and foremost was to make a huge amount during the market blank phase. She'd at least need to recoup some of her money.
That Saturday, Shu Yan planned to go City Han for merchandizing again. Xiuxiu had taken the next day off so Shu Yan would need to rush back in the morning. Then Xiuxiu announced in the afternoon that she wouldn't be taking the day off after all.
"Chen Fei is an architect so his time is very flexible. My parents don't have too much work lately either so they are home most of the time. We can switch it to Monday. So take your time coming back," explained Zhang Huaxiu.
That worked out better for Shu Yan. She had planned to really walk about the wholesale market and also bring some samples with her to promote. It'd be great if she could secure some channels.
The few women from last night had probably really excluded Shu Yan. They hadn't called her to go merchandizing in a while now. Shu Yan didn't call them either but just called the driver directly.
"I'm sorry. I am already booked."
Shu Yan felt regretful about that. But since she wasn't in a hurry this time, she could very well take the train to City Han the next morning.
She seemed to hear another man's voice from the other side who had said something to the driver. The driver suddenly changed his tune and said, "Oh, you know my passenger this time. It is the same man as you have ride share with last time. He said he didn't mind if you ride share with him. Do you still want to go? If so, I can come pick you up."
"Yes, I will wait for you in front of Fu Street." Shu Yan didn't think it'd be that man. What a coincident.
Shu Yan had to go merchandizing almost on a weekly basis so JingJing and Tianbo were already used to it. They were able to take good care of themselves without too much prompting from Shu Yan. Shu Yan, worried, repeated the reminders to them again before she went downstairs to wait for the car with a big bag of samples. A small car pulled in front of her not too long after and Feng Zeyu was riding in the passenger seat.
Surprisingly, Feng Zeyu nodded at her when he saw her today.
"Um, thank you," said Shu Yan softly.
They did not exchange any more words on their way to City Han. When they arrived, Shu Yan said, "I won't be heading back with you this time. I have a few extra errands to take care of today."
"Alright. Then I won't wait for you." The driver nodded.
"Let me pay you what I owe you now then." Shu Yan nodded and handed the money over to the driver.
"That won't be necessary. Mr. Feng had already paid for the entire amount. You can pay him if you want."
"That won't be necessary. Its on our way anyway."
This was the first time Shu Yan heard Feng Zeyu spoke an entire sentence. His voice was magnetic and very pleasing to the ears.
"No, that's not right. You paid for the car but I should split it with you since I rode in it too. Please take the money." He refused and Shu Yan shoved the money into his chest before she got out of the car. "Thank you. Have a good day."
Feng Zeyu took a look at Shu Yan and quietly accepted the money.
"Mr. Feng...."
"It's fine. Let's go."
After she was done with the merchandizing, Shu Yan brought her sample with her over to a few wholesalers that she was more familiar with. The shop that she always bought from has their own factory; Shu Yan avoided them purposefully. If they have their own factories, they'd just imitate and produce their own anyway. Which was why Shu Yan never planned to reach out to them to begin with.
The other few bosses were just wholesalers so Shu Yan planned to sell out of their storefronts.
"You opened up your own factory already?" One of the boss ladies who was closer with Shu Yan asked.
"No, it belongs to a friend of mine. I'm just helping him out. You won't need to spend money on inventory. We'll just leave them here. If anyone like them, you call the factory and we'll send the products to you right away, or even straight to the customers. You won't need to do a thing to earn a cut." The boss lady agreed immediately after Shu Yan had said that.
It'd cost her nothing. Nothing wrong with leaving them inside her shop. It wouldn't take much room anyway.
"They look like they'll sell. Factory price? How much for wholesale? How much for retail?" asked the boss lady directly.
The cost was 7 yuan including labor, materials, rent, and utilities. After discussing with Lao Zhang, they've decided factory price would be 13 yuan and as low as 12 yuan if they were to buy a lot. 18 yuan for wholesale price and 35 yuan for retail. That's what they had set them at but, in reality, they would not be able to monitor the wholesale and retails prices closely.
"That's a bit on the high end." The boss lady was hesitant about it.
"Take a look at this quality. We shoot for mid/high end, not something you'd find on the sidewalks. Your merchandizes are right mid/high ends as well. You won't like anything on the low end. Besides, you won't have to pay for them in advance," said Shu Yan with a smile.
"Alright, give me five sets of each," said the boss lady seemingly with difficulties.
Shu Yan didn't have five sets with her. She wasn't able to carry so much by herself. She left one of each color there and would give Lao Zhang a call after ward to have him send more over.
Shu Yan used the same sales pitch at a few different mid/high end wholesalers' places and, after she grabbed some more inventory for herself, it was already noon. Shu Yan saw a lot of vendors behind the market and there was a good selection of noodles, rice, , steamed buns, etc.
Chinese have always been smart. Once the country has opened up, they'd always manage to find a way to become wealthy.
Shu Yan hasn't had food from street vendors in a long time. She picked a place that looked relatively cleaner and order a noodle dish. It tasted pretty good. She then found a spot where she could take a quick nap before returned to the shops again in the afternoon. Only a few of the shops sold a few of her fall undergarment. The result wasn't particularly great.
Shu Yan decided to spend the night at City Han and check again the next day before she headed back home.