Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

In mid-April, Lin Ying returned to Hong Kong.

I've been living in the villa on Kadoorie Hill for over two months now, and everything is going smoothly. In the garden, He Dazhu's vegetable patch is sprouting green shoots, and the loofah trellis is set up quite nicely.

The first thing Lin Ying did upon returning to her study was to pull out her Cambridge address book. She turned to the page for L, where Lucas Bennett's address was written in a crooked hand, an apartment number in Boston, with a line added in pencil afterward; it was his new address in New York after graduation.

Lin Ying sat at her desk and thought for a while.

She knew that Lucas went to work as a quantitative analyst at an investment bank in New York after graduation. Last Christmas, he even sent a card to Taikoo Shing, which read, "I'm calculating numbers on the screen every day, which is no different from being in Cambridge, except that the salary is twenty times higher and the lunch is thirty times worse."

Lin Ying took out a piece of letter paper and wrote a page and a half.

The content is simple: she invested in a toy factory in Guangzhou, and the first batch of products has already rolled off the production line, including scooters, Rubik's Cubes, Rubik's Rulers, and early education playhouses. Since they sell well in the domestic market, she now wants to do foreign trade. She has researched the children's toy market in the United States, which is worth tens of billions of US dollars a year, and the entry barrier is not high.

They asked Lucas if he was interested in becoming an agent in the United States.

The letter ended with the line: "If you get tired of Wall Street, you might consider switching tracks. Anyway, your math isn't all that great, so why not sell toys?"

After finishing writing the letter and folding it, I took out the product photos that Lin Weiqiang had taken last week from the drawer; they were developed using colored film, and six different scooters were lined up in a row, their colors vibrant and their designs beautiful.

Place the photo in the envelope, seal it, and affix an international stamp.

It was mailed out the next morning.

International mail takes about two weeks to reach New York, so Lin Ying didn't just wait around. That afternoon, she called Claire.

"Claire, there's something I want to ask you."

"Speak," came the sound of files flipping through Claire's computer; she was always working.

"Among your investors, are there any involved in import/export trade? Or related to European retail channels?"

"You're finally going into manufacturing?" Claire's voice perked up. "In what direction?"

"Children's toys".

"Toys?" Claire was a little surprised. She loved math so much, yet she didn't work in a math-related field. "Lynn, you've really gone in a big direction."

"High profits, low barriers to entry, and a largely untapped market – there's no reason not to make money this way; we're already in mass production domestically, and now we want to expand into the European market, so we need distributors."

"Fax the product information over here, I'll take a look first."

"Okay, I'll send it to you this afternoon."

Lin Ying hung up the phone, compiled the product images, specifications, and ex-factory price list into three pages, and faxed them to Claire's London office at 2 p.m.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Three days later, Claire called back.

She wasn't the only one making the call; Benjamin and Matthew could be heard on the other end.

"Lynn, are you there?" Claire's voice rang out.

"exist."

"I showed your information to Benjamin and Matthew."

Benjamin's voice chimed in: "Lynn, I saw the photos of your scooter, and the design is really good. This kind of thing definitely has a market in Europe. I have connections with Argos in the UK, Carrefour in France, and Toys "R" Us in Germany."

Lin Ying held her teacup without saying a word, waiting for them to finish speaking.

Matthew's voice came through: "Lynn, I looked at the blueprints for your early childhood playhouse. Did you incorporate color psychology into it?"

"You can tell?"

"I taught you in Beijing for a semester, after all. Do you think I can't see through your thought process?"

Claire interrupted them: "Let's get down to business; Lynn, my advice is this: you don't need to look for any agents."

Why?

"Because the three of us can do it."

This time, Lin Ying was the unexpected one.

Claire continued, "Benjamin has been in the trade business in Hong Kong for so many years, he can handle import and export procedures, customs declarations, and logistics with his eyes closed; I'm in charge of finance and contracts; Matthew is in charge of..."

Matthew chimed in, "What am I responsible for?"

"You're in charge of shutting up and moving the goods," Claire said.

"Me, a Cambridge physics PhD, doing you a favor by moving goods?"

Benjamin laughed: "Matthew, isn't your lab on holiday right now? You're just killing time anyway."

"I'm not idle; I'm writing my thesis!"

Listening to their argument, Lin Ying couldn't help but exclaim, "Are you serious?"

Claire's tone turned serious: "Lynn, I'm very serious; I've looked at your product, and it's priced forty percent lower than similar products in Europe, the quality is just as good, and the design is even better; parents in Europe are now spending money on toys as frequently as they buy groceries, so your product will sell as soon as it hits the market."

Benjamin added, "I just went to the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany last month, you know the world's largest toy fair, right? There were tons of cheap plastic toys from Southeast Asia there, but very few that were well-designed, met safety standards, and were reasonably priced. Your product happens to fit into that gap."

Lin Ying thought for a while on the other end of the phone.

The advantages of having Claire and her two partners act as European agents are obvious: the distribution channels are already in place, the foundation of trust is there, and there's no need to start from scratch. Not to mention Benjamin and Claire's extensive network.

The only problem is the division.

"How is the agency fee calculated?" Lin Ying asked.

Claire had already planned it out: "We'll cover the factory price plus a 15% commission for distributors, and we'll handle the logistics and customs clearance costs ourselves; the retail markup goes to the distributors, it's none of your business."

"Fifteen percent?"

"The industry standard is 20% to 25%," Claire said. "I'll give you a friendly price."

"Twelve percent," Lin Ying countered.

Claire didn't hesitate: "Deal."

Benjamin remarked from the side, "I knew she'd haggle."

Matthew's voice came through: "Lynn, so what am I supposed to do? You can't really expect me to move goods, can you?"

"You'll be in charge of product quality inspection," Lin Ying said. "Safety standards in Europe are stricter than in China. You're more familiar with CE certification and EN71 testing than I am."

Matthew was silent for two seconds: "Did you already have this planned out?"

"No, I was just thinking about it."

"You're kidding me."

Claire interjected, "Then it's settled. Lynn, send over the first batch of samples, and we'll use them to reach out to distribution channels. I'll draft the contract and fax it to you for review within a week."

"it is good."

"There's one more thing," Claire continued. "If your product is going to enter Europe, you need to come up with an English brand name, because nobody there will understand the Chinese name."

Lin Ying thought for a moment: "Let's call it NovaTots, the Rising Star Toy."

"NovaTots, a rising star in children's toys? Easy to remember, easy to pronounce, and kids will love it."

Benjamin read it twice: "NovaTots...not bad, catchy. I'll check if the trademark has been registered yet."

"Tell me when you're done investigating."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Ying sat at her desk for a while.

The production line in Guangzhou is running, and Lin Weiqiang and Factory Manager Zhou are keeping an eye on the domestic orders; they are waiting for Lucas's reply in the United States; and Claire and her two colleagues are taking over the European side.

Push all three lines simultaneously.

She picked up a pen and wrote a few numbers on a piece of paper.

The cost of a scooter is 38 RMB, the domestic retail price is 120 RMB, and the wholesale price is 85 RMB. If exported to Europe, the ex-factory price is converted to US dollars and it is about 5 USD per unit. Including freight and customs fees, the landed cost is no more than 8 RMB.

Similar products retail for $20 to $30 in Europe.

Even if she leaves 40% of the gross profit to the distributors, she gets five dollars from the factory price, making a net profit of more than three dollars per car.

Producing 2,000 units a month, that's over $6,000 a month just in the European market. What if we could produce 10,000 units a month once capacity increases?

This is just one category of hoverboards.

Lin Ying put down her pen. With an investment of five million RMB, at this pace, recouping the investment within a year wouldn't be a problem.

After calculating, I put the documents on the table into a folder and locked it in the safe.

When I came out of the study, He Dazhu was squatting in the garden watering the loofah, humming a Cantonese opera tune from some unknown era.

"Old Dou".

"Um?"

Do you have any extra material on hand?

He Dazhu stood up: "Yes, plenty; what's wrong?"

"Could you carve five more small trinkets like dragons and pixiu for me? I want to send them to my friends in England."