Reborn in 1999: Starting as a black marketeer

Back in the dorm, before I even opened the door, I heard a lot of shouting and yelling inside. Zhang Liang had pulled a few people together to play cards again.

Wang Feiyang was a little helpless. After arriving in Moscow, Zhang Liang started to let loose. But everyone has their own ambitions, and he wouldn't try to persuade him.

Wang Feiyang just didn't like the room being constantly crowded and messy, as it would affect his rest.

Looks like I'll have to talk to the floor manager...

Each floor of the dormitory has a manager, mostly Russian middle-aged women. They are responsible for managing various miscellaneous tasks on the floor, such as changing bed sheets and blankets for students every week, cleaning the communal kitchen, and of course, arranging dormitory assignments.

For example, if you have a girlfriend and want to live together, you can talk to the building manager and if she agrees, she will give you a separate room.

Of course, in principle a marriage certificate is required, but in practice it's much more flexible...

Wang Feiyang had no intention of living with anyone; his plan was to have a private room. This was against the rules, as the dormitories in the preparatory school were all double rooms, with no single rooms available.

But rules are rules, people are flexible, especially in Moscow, where nothing is off-limits for discussion.

Wang Feiyang probably understands this better than anyone else!

…………

A little later, Zhang Zhongguo also returned to his dormitory. He immediately went to Wang Feiyang's room across the hall and saw several people playing cards. He then pulled Wang Feiyang to his own dormitory.

After closing the door, he took a bulging envelope from his inner pocket and handed it to Wang Feiyang, saying with a smile, "Here is five thousand US dollars. Please count it."

This is the money he promised to lend to Wang Feiyang yesterday.

Wang Feiyang took it and counted it; it was exactly five thousand. He asked for paper and a pen and carefully wrote down an IOU, using the same format as the ones he had given to Zhang Liang and Hu Xiaoyun, specifying the loan amount, repayment date, and amount. Then he signed his name.

Zhang Zhongguo carefully put away the IOU and then asked with concern, "Is the company doing well?"

"Everything went smoothly. Today I went to the agency to complete the company registration procedures, and I also contacted the freight forwarding company to have them deliver the goods to my company tomorrow. Next, I need to recruit two Russian girls as sales staff and publish some ads in professional newspapers and magazines. That's how I start the company's business." Wang Feiyang briefly introduced his plan.

Starting a company and setting up a stall in a large market are, of course, completely different business models.

While large markets have many drawbacks, they have one very prominent advantage: you don't need to worry about customers at all when doing business there. The place is already well-known, and every day a steady stream of customers come to buy goods on their own.

Starting a company is different; you have to find your own customers, which is the biggest challenge!

Zhang Zhongguo frowned and thought for a moment, then slowly nodded and said, "To be honest, I don't know how to start a company either, but since you've already done this, why not give it a try? If it really doesn't work out, just take the goods to the big market and sell them off. It'll just mean losing some money."

Clearly, he still didn't quite approve of Wang Feiyang's approach.

Wang Feiyang smiled and didn't explain further. It was still early 2000, and very few Chinese businessmen came to Moscow to open companies and operate in a formal manner. Everyone was still happy to be a "middleman," bringing in a batch of cheap and inferior goods from China and selling them cheaply in the big market to make a quick profit.

But he was different. Although he started as a middleman in his previous life, he quickly turned his business into a company, so he had more experience in this area.

Although Russia and the whole of Eastern Europe are still in chaos, and most people have very low incomes, there is a great demand for cheap and low-quality goods. However, it cannot be denied that there are still some middle-income people who cannot afford big European and American brands and do not want to compromise their lives by buying inferior goods. What we need to do is meet the needs of these consumers!

A counterfeit Levi's is still Levi's, and its quality is not much worse than the genuine product, but the price is much lower.

Anyway, nobody cares whether you're selling counterfeit goods or not. These days, even GUM on the edge of Red Square is openly selling counterfeit goods, so why can't Wang Feiyang sell them?

He started this company with the potential customer base of small business owners who have clothing counters in department stores in cities of all sizes or who own their own clothing stores.

When they had no other choice, they could only buy goods from large markets and then resell them. Goods purchased at low prices could not be sold at high prices, and goods of such low quality could not accumulate loyal customers. They could only earn a meager living.

Anyone in the clothing business knows that the higher the brand, the higher the profit margin. Given a choice, nobody wants to sell at the price of street vendor goods.

Previously, they had no choice, but now Wang Feiyang has provided them with a new option: if they want to sell higher quality products at higher prices, they can purchase from his company.

If this first batch of goods sells well, he will import more other categories from China later, from jeans to shoes to down jackets, bags, etc., all of which are so-called "export surplus" items, with quite good quality and slightly higher prices, to compete with the resellers in the big market in a different way.

If we really scale it up, the sales volume and profits will be very considerable!

…………

During dinner that evening, Wang Feiyang gave a brief report on the company's progress to the "shareholders." Although they were all just "creditors," they didn't care too much about his company's situation, as long as Wang Feiyang could guarantee that he would repay the money on time.

But letting them know that the company is progressing smoothly can also make everyone feel at ease.

"It's alright, Feiyang, just do what you think is right. If we didn't trust you, we wouldn't have lent you the money," Hu Xiaoyun said first, showing confidence in Wang Feiyang.

She genuinely didn't care, even though she was Wang Feiyang's biggest "creditor," it was only a few thousand US dollars. In case Wang Feiyang's company really didn't do well and lost money, Hu Xiaoyun planned to make him pay off the debts of the others first, putting hers last.

If Wang Feiyang can't repay his debts, it would be best if he could pay them off with his own body...

Of course, not everyone is like her. Guo Juan and Zhang Liang were very concerned about whether the money they lent out could be repaid safely and on time, so they listened very carefully to what Wang Feiyang said and racked their brains to come up with some ideas for him.

"I wonder if there are any fashion magazines here. It would probably be more effective to do a GG ad in one of those magazines."

"Actually, we could hire more sales staff and let them actively go to stores in various cities to promote products, instead of just sitting in the company waiting for customers to come to us."

"The TV GG has the best effect, but I don't know if the price will be too high."

Doing GG on TV is going too far. Even if you sell counterfeit goods in Russia and nobody cares, it's still a bit much to openly do GG on TV...