Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 267 Assets of 50

There's no point in saying more, let's get back to the timber business.

Yan Hui quickly realized that his next step should still be the timber business; the chemical industry was not something he could afford to do with his limited assets.

That's just how reality is; you have to keep learning, keep trying and making mistakes, and keep giving up.

The urea-formaldehyde resin factory is a small to medium-sized chemical plant, producing about three kinds of chemical products, with urea-formaldehyde resin being its flagship product. During his visit, Yan Hui met the person in charge of the production workshop, an undergraduate student from a polytechnic university in Shandong Province who had been working in the workshop for two and a half years. They exchanged contact information.

During this period, Yan Hui has been busy going between various construction sites, and his motorcycle is almost worn out.

April is the busiest time for construction sites, with all sites starting work to catch up on the work during this period when it's not so hot and the daily construction hours are long.

Among the construction sites that Yan Hui supplies, the largest single site is this 20-square-meter project. Yan Hui is already familiar with all the subcontractors here, and the one with whom he has the best relationship is Wang Qiang, the supervisor who is receiving plywood for the first time.

At that time, there was no concept of "job title" on the construction site. Wang Qiang was the project manager of a large subcontracting team. You could call him a supervisor or a project manager.

After several collaborations, Yan Hui has started delivering wood panels to Wang Qiang and others.

Compared to most bosses, Yan Hui has an advantage: he's educated. Don't think this is a joke; many people wonder what kind of education Yan Hui, with only a junior high school education, could possibly have.
Outsiders might not know, but those familiar with Yan Hui would understand that he had essentially taught himself high school math, physics, and chemistry. Although he didn't know anything about vectors, derivatives, Lorentz forces, chemical equations, etc., he didn't need to use them anyway. Yan Hui excelled at anything applicable in business; he was extremely good at calculating profits and always managed to pinpoint what people needed.

Yan Hui could offer the same quality goods at a lower price, which Wang Qiang admired. Wang Qiang also had the authority to make his own purchases, but he was responsible to his boss, who wasn't an outsider and would definitely cause problems if he tried to take kickbacks. However, since working with Yan Hui, he discovered that Yan Hui had given him a few percentage points of leeway.

Whether he eats in this space or how he eats, Yan Hui doesn't care. Yan Hui only needs to ensure that the food is good and inexpensive.

The ground-level buildings in this community have already been erected, which requires scaffolding, which in turn requires planks, specifically larch wood.

Yan Hui had always sourced his goods from Geng Zhongxing because of his small needs. However, Geng Zhongxing suddenly noticed that Yan Hui's demand had increased dramatically. Previously, he only needed 10 or 20 cubic meters of timber a month, but now his demand had increased to more than 50 cubic meters.

Geng Zhongxing was a smart man. In order to keep Yan Hui as a customer, he took the initiative to become Yan Hui's customer and bought 800 sheets of plywood from Yan Hui one after another, at a price of 75 yuan per sheet.

This created a positive feedback loop: Wang Qiang and other project supervisors and managers needed him, Geng Zhongxing dared not offer him a low price, and the factory director was responsible to Yan Hui.
During this supply season, Yan Hui gradually found his footing, easily moving between various construction sites, suppliers, and processing plants to earn a limited profit margin.

The busy time made Yan Hui feel very fulfilled. In the six months since the project started, Yan Hui has been busy and running around. He had to spend more than 10,000 yuan to buy a second-hand Hafei Songhuajiang minivan. His motorcycle was completely scrapped and he sold it for a few hundred yuan.

With the van, Yan Hui was able to deliver some common goods to the construction site as well.

By September, after a full year of hard work, Yan Hui had secured the plywood supply for 80% of the projects undertaken by Jian'an Group. Jian'an Group's projects aren't all large-scale, nor do they all require plywood; these sites combined require approximately 3000 sheets of plywood per week. In addition to the sites handled by Jian'an Group, Yan Hui also secured plywood supplies for three or four other additional construction sites.

Now, he needs about 1.5 sheets of plywood per month. He has introduced new equipment to the factory manager's production line, and almost all of the production capacity has been allocated to Yan Hui. In addition to the plywood business, Yan Hui's board business has also gradually taken off, with a stable demand of about 150 cubic meters per month.

The number 150 cubic meters might not be familiar to everyone, but a simple conversion will make it clear – it's equivalent to two freight cars.

In terms of sheet metal alone, two train cars a month was the demand during Jianye's initial stage. However, now he doesn't need to worry about the preceding processes; he only needs to select and supply the goods, which is very easy for him.

Currently, 1.5 sheets of plywood are needed per month, and Yan Hui's profit reaches 18 yuan per month. He wants to find a way to share half of it with General Manager Han, which General Manager Han finds astonishing and has been refusing Yan Hui's profit sharing.

Leaving aside the specifics, by September, Yan Hui had 500,000 yuan in funds and had gained considerable fame locally.

The biggest difference from before is that now, someone is willing to advance the funds.

When supplying construction sites with boards or timber, Geng Zhongxing and his friends are willing to pay after receiving the goods, and proactively advance the funds for the goods.

Yan Hui accomplished all of this on his own; he didn't even have a single follower.

But wherever he goes, people call him Boss Yan!
Most people would get carried away in this situation, but Yan Hui didn't. He consistently refused all kinds of kickbacks and temptations, spending at least ten hours a day running around, consuming at least half a tank of gasoline daily, personally handling everything from inspecting timber and plywood to bookkeeping and settling accounts. Many people who knew Yan Hui thought he was outrageous, even President Han thought he was outrageous.

If it were anyone else, they would be hiring people and enjoying themselves at this point.
The person Yan Hui interacted with most on a daily basis was Factory Director Xiang.

His contract with Yan Hui had already been fulfilled and exceeded.

The 10 boards that Yan Hui mentioned earlier are almost ready to be produced. He has not only introduced a new production line, but also made a considerable profit! Now he's just short of getting a Buddha statue to worship Yan Hui. If Yan Hui's orders stop, he doesn't know how he'll survive!
In 2001, prices rose slightly compared to 2000, but the price that the factory director paid to Yan Hui remained stable without any increase. Yan Hui didn't say anything, but he was naturally satisfied.

As order volume increased, Yan Hui became more and more authoritative, and he was always very polite to the factory manager.

That day, Yan Hui approached Factory Director Xiang to inquire about the construction of the processing plant, which terrified Factory Director Xiang.

He was terrified that Yan Hui would start his own processing plant! That would be the end for him!

However, he was relieved when he heard that Yan Hui wanted to set up a regular processing plant, not a plywood processing plant.

Yan Hui is finally going to start building the factory.

(I cut a lot of the middle part of this chapter because I felt it was useless, so I skipped a section. I hope you can get used to it.)

(End of this chapter)