One Yuan First Recharge: I'm Actually the Boss Behind a Fortune 500 Company

After the meeting, Zhang Wei did not immediately return to his workstation, but followed Zhou Jianjun into his small office.

"Brother Zhou," he said, closing the door and lowering his voice, "there's something I think we need to discuss further."

Zhou Jianjun had just sat down when he heard this and looked up: "What's wrong?"

"It's that mission from earlier," Zhang Wei pulled up a chair and sat down.

"You asked me to find a factory, and I have connections and resources. But the problem is..."

He paused, gathering his thoughts: "Isn't our search a bit too aimless?"

Zhou Jianjun didn't speak, but gestured for him to continue.

"Think about it," Zhang Wei leaned forward slightly.

"The boss said to find a physical factory, but didn't say what it would be used for."

"If we just find any place, rent or buy it, and put it there—wouldn't it just become a decoration?"

"So what do you mean?"

"What I mean is, we need to figure out exactly what this factory is going to be used for first." Zhang Wei took out his phone and pointed to the start-of-work bonus he had just sent:

"Look, the boss is so good to us, giving us a 2,000 yuan bonus as soon as we start work. We can't just take this money for nothing, and we can't just do the work haphazardly either."

After listening, Zhou Jianjun remained silent for a few seconds, then slapped his forehead heavily.

"Look at my brain," he said with a wry smile. "I've been so focused on hiring these past few days that I've oversimplified this whole thing."

"Yes, Brother Zhou," Zhang Wei nodded.

"We need a direction. Otherwise, we'll be like headless flies, bumping around everywhere, and even if we find a place, we won't know how to use it. Wouldn't that be a waste of effort?"

Zhou Jianjun stood up, walked to the window, and looked outside.

Zhang Wei is right.

The boss gave me the task, but didn't give me any specific direction.

This may seem like delegating authority, but it's actually a test for them—a test of their ability to think independently and to implement tasks effectively.

"Let's go," Zhou Jianjun turned around, "let's gather everyone together and discuss this."

Five minutes later, seven people formed a circle in the open space in the center of the office area.

Yu Xinxin was also called over. She moved a chair over and sat down on the side, holding a notebook in her hand, ready to take notes.

"Everyone, put aside your work for a moment," Zhou Jianjun clapped his hands. "Let's have a small meeting, nothing formal, just a chat."

Everyone looked at him.

"Zhang Wei just asked me a question that I think makes a lot of sense," Zhou Jianjun said.

"The boss told us to find a physical location, but didn't say what it was for."

"If we just find a place, rent or buy it, and leave it there—that won't work."

He paused, then continued, "The boss spends money hoping to see results."

"We need to make this venue valuable; at the very least, we can't lose money."

"But here's the problem," Zhang Wei continued:

"We're a media company; we do design, shoot videos, and organize events. If we were to find a venue completely unrelated to our business, like opening a restaurant or setting up a warehouse—it's like crossing a mountain—we couldn't manage it."

That hits the nail on the head.

For a moment, everyone fell into thought.

A few seconds later, Lei Zhen raised his hand: "Manager Zhou, I have an idea."

"you say."

"Could we set up a photography studio?" Lei Zhen's eyes lit up.

"A professional shooting location, complete with lighting equipment, backdrops, and a makeup room. This makes it convenient for us to shoot videos and photos ourselves, and we can also rent it out to others."

"For some small studios or individual photographers who don't have a fixed location, we can charge by the hour or by the day."

He became more and more excited as he spoke: "And this is a perfect match for our business. I understand equipment, Lin Wei understands composition and aesthetics, and Chen Ming can handle client communication. It's a complete closed loop."

After listening, Zhou Jianjun nodded, then shook his head.

"Lei Zhen, your idea is good," he said, "but there's a problem—does a photography studio count as a factory? The boss wants a physical factory; a photography studio is more like a workshop, and its scale may not meet the boss's requirements."

"Moreover," Sister Wang pushed up her glasses, "the investment in a photography studio is considerable. Lighting equipment, soundproofing, air conditioning systems—all of these cost money. Even if it's rented out, the payback period is long, and the risk is significant."

Lei Zhen thought about it and agreed that it made sense, so he stopped talking.

Then Chen Ming spoke up: "Then... how about setting up an event warehouse? We often need materials like trusses, backdrops, tables and chairs for our events."

"If we have a warehouse, we can store and manage everything in one place, and we can also take on warehousing business from other companies."

"That's a physical business," Zhou Jianjun pondered, "but the profit margin is too low. Warehousing is just a place to store things; you can't make much money there, and you have to worry about fire prevention and theft prevention."

Yu Xinxin whispered, "How about... we open a printing shop?"

Everyone laughed.

"Xin Xin, the printing shop is too small," Zhang Wei said with a smile, "and there are so many of them everywhere, the competition is too fierce."

Next, Sister Wang offered several suggestions from a financial perspective, but they were all rejected due to concerns about profit margins or management difficulty.

Lin Wei remained silent, simply listening attentively.

The discussion lasted for more than ten minutes, and various ideas were brought up, but none of them were very satisfactory.

It's either out of touch with the company's business, too small in scale, or not profitable.

The atmosphere was somewhat somber.

Zhang Wei looked at Lin Wei and suddenly said, "Lin Wei, do you have any ideas? You're a designer, you deal with materials all the time, you should know a lot about this."

All eyes turned to Lin Wei.

Lin Wei looked up, adjusted her blue light blocking glasses, and said calmly, "I'm listening to what everyone has to say."

"What do you think?" Zhou Jianjun asked.