2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 19 Visiting the Factory
Finding a real estate agent is relatively simple. Since houses don't come that quickly, just contact a couple of agents, state your requirements, and leave the rest to them.

As for the location, there aren't many requirements; Tan Jincheng's only requirement is that it be cheap, and he'd save money wherever possible.

Fortunately, housing prices aren't expensive these days. Finding a decent office space and renting it for a year doesn't cost much.

After deducting the 8 yuan of registered capital, the two only had 10 yuan of start-up capital left.

With rent, daily maintenance, and the need to hire one or two more employees, life is pretty tight.

20 yuan is enough to start a small business or even buy a house; but it would be a bit tight if you were to start a business.

No wonder that when the economy declined in later generations, starting a business was ranked number one on the list of things that would lead to financial ruin.

After visiting two places, the morning was over. By the time they left the last agency, it was already noon, and the two of them were hungry.

I simply found a small restaurant by the roadside to fill my stomach; it was still the International Hotel of a certain county.

"By the way, are we only looking for office space? Don't we need to find accommodation?"

During the meal, Zhang Xupeng asked.

"There's no rush. We'll talk about it after we've settled on an office space. Otherwise, we won't know where to rent. If all else fails, you can just make do with the office space for a while."

"how about you?"

"Me? I'm going to Guangzhou, haha."

"Holy crap, it really is; so what should I do when you go to Guangzhou?"

"I'll find you a job this afternoon, maybe you can even make some money, hehe."

"What the hell?"

"Eat first, then talk after you finish."

Tan Jincheng's idea was to send Zhang Xupeng to a clothing factory to learn the basics of clothing and factory management.

In the future, Jinpeng Trading Company will need to have its own factory, and not only that, it will also need its own clothing design department.

From independent design to production and sales, having a relatively complete industrial chain is the foundation for a company's survival.

However, it's too early to talk about these things now. In the early stages, with a makeshift team, survival was the most basic requirement.

Xiaxi Village is located in the eastern part of Beicang, not far from the city center and the port; a large container industrial park will be built here in the future.

Like most rural areas, Xiaxi Village is filled with all kinds of small buildings, each with a small courtyard.

Similarly, there are also rows of bungalows from time to time. These bungalows are generally quite dilapidated and are built with thick bricks, similar to roof tiles, which are unique to the seaside.

Wild, untamed greenery appears on these walls from time to time, telling the story of their age.

Tan Jincheng knew that most of these bungalows were rented to migrant workers in the area, with rent of two to three hundred yuan a month and no private bathroom.

The entire village is built along the river, with villas and bungalows interspersed, appearing somewhat chaotic. However, once you find the pattern in the roads, everything becomes surprisingly orderly.

The garment factories in Xiaxi Village are housed in individual buildings, and you can find them almost anywhere with an open gate and piles of fabric on the cement floor.

Family-run workshops can have anywhere from a few workers to a dozen or even forty or fifty; they have low operating costs and are easy to manage.

Most importantly, in these family-run workshops, almost all the workers can make the whole garment, unlike assembly line factories where they only make a single part.

In small workshops, garment workers work in teams of husbands and wives or sisters, collaborating quickly to produce a garment after receiving a sample. Income is primarily piece-rate, and the workload is extremely heavy; many workers often work more than 12 hours a day to earn more money.

If their health permits, they can work for months on end without rest, just to earn more money.

Lacking resources, they could only go from shop to shop. At first, after visiting a few shops, the bosses thought the two were looking for work. The young men were strong and capable, and were quite good at pulling cloth and transporting goods.

However, upon learning that the two were not there to look for work but wanted to see samples of the factory, they both refused without hesitation.

Several companies in a row were the same.

No matter how much he pleaded, the other party was unwilling, taking it as someone sent by a competitor to cause trouble. Tan Jincheng had no choice but to withdraw helplessly.

"What do we do now? There's nothing we can do if they won't show it to us," Zhang Xupeng said, somewhat at a loss.

It's really unpleasant to feel like you can't help at all.

After thinking for a moment, Tan Jincheng said, "Since they won't show it to us, then we can at least show it to them."

"What do you mean?" Zhang Xupeng asked, somewhat confused.

"Come on, let's find a place to sit down, I'll draw a few pictures."

Before leaving home, Tan Jincheng carried a small backpack with him, which contained not only some essential documents, but also a notebook and a pen.

This is a habit from my past life. In my past life, I always liked to carry a small backpack with paper and pen inside. I would write down whatever I saw or thought of.

A bad pen is worse than a good memory.

Tan Jincheng certainly isn't a professional fashion designer, but he can easily sketch out the general shape of a garment with just a few strokes.

Simply draw a few pictures, pretend to be a salesperson from a company, talk business with the boss, and make the other party lower their guard so that they are willing to have an equal dialogue with you.

The previous approach was indeed somewhat wrong. It was normal to refuse orders if you were unfamiliar with the product or service and wanted to see samples before placing an order.

However, if a company's salesperson wants to order a batch of clothes using their own samples, then it's still possible to negotiate.

To be honest, Tan Jincheng's drawing was quite ugly, but he couldn't care less about that at the moment; ugly is ugly, so be it.

After thinking about it, I went to a nearby shop and bought a pack of Da Hong Ying cigarettes.

The most basic way to navigate social interactions is to use cigarettes as a bridge, wine as a road, and a smiling face to welcome people.

The morning's events went too smoothly, causing Tan Jincheng to forget about these things; having been bedridden for several years and not being able to smoke at home recently, he had become somewhat negligent.

Sure enough, this time they were much easier to talk to than last time. They offered cigarettes to the men they saw, called the younger ones "brother" and the older ones "uncle".

With her sweet talk, ability to communicate fluently in the Ningbo dialect, and the potential to secure business, she finally made a breakthrough and was led to the office of a boss who looked to be around thirty years old.

At this point, Tan Jincheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The office is small, about 10 square meters, with a coffee table, a sofa, and some documents on the bookshelf behind the desk.

On the desk sat an old-fashioned computer, the kind with a large, bulky screen, which had a distinctly vintage feel.

"You two don't look very old, so why did you decide to start a sales business?"

As soon as Tan Jincheng and Zhang Xupeng sat down, the boss asked curiously.

(End of this chapter)