2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 413 GXG's Annual Goals

Year after year, time seems to pass faster and faster in the midst of our busy lives.

Before we knew it, it was Labor Day 2007.

The May Day holiday in 2007 was the last legally recognized seven-day holiday. Tan Jincheng clearly remembers that starting next year it will be three days.

Although many people have never enjoyed it, including Tan Jincheng.

Adding one day each for Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival actually results in one less day of holiday. Moreover, most companies don't give a holiday for Dragon Boat Festival, and as for Mid-Autumn Festival, it's basically combined with National Day, so the holiday calculation is misled.

Flash Group employees get three days off. Although Tan Jincheng knows this is the last seven-day holiday and production capacity is sufficient, he is not generous enough to give employees the full seven days off. The cost would be too high.

If factory workers were given a seven-day holiday, the whole internet would probably explode. In reality, many factories don't really have the concept of holidays back then. Things only got a little better after 08 when various systems started to become more standardized.

Anyway, I've never enjoyed a full seven-day May Day holiday, and everyone's the same.

I don't have an umbrella, and I've taken yours too. Let's all get wet in the rain together.

Several companies' financial reports for April have already been delivered to his home. During the May Day holiday, Tan Jincheng spent his time at home processing documents and attending various business activities.

Bigwigs actually have a lot of activities during major holidays, including business district events, government events, and all sorts of other events. In the past two years, Tan Jincheng rarely had the opportunity to participate in such events.

Since his rebuttal in April, Tan Jincheng has received numerous invitations to various events, which can probably be considered a form of recognition.
The most important data in Flash Technology's financial report is still monthly sales. With the weather warming up, especially in the southern region, Flash's sales have also begun to rise, reaching 9.16 units in April.

This marks the first time that the monthly sales of the Flash have exceeded 90,000 units, which is much faster than expected. If nothing unexpected happens, sales in May should easily surpass 100,000 units.

The majority of the 9 units sold were concentrated in the warmer southern regions, especially Guangdong and Guangxi provinces and Zhejiang province. Most of the newly hired employees have already received their salaries or saved some money, making it more convenient for them to commute to get off work by buying an electric vehicle.

This phenomenon is not limited to the Guangdong and Guangxi regions; it occurs in any coastal area with many factories, especially in Zhejiang Province where many factories do not provide meals or accommodation.

Most migrant workers return after the Lunar New Year with only enough money for the journey and about a month's living expenses. The older employees are better off, as they receive a salary, but the newcomers have a tough time.

Taking Zhejiang Province as an example, it's better for new migrant workers to find factories like Flash Factory that provide room and board, as they feel safer.

If it's a job that doesn't include food and accommodation, you'll have to rent a place and buy household items, leaving you with very little money. You'll barely have any left over after the first two months.

In addition, commuting to get off work without meals and accommodation is a hassle. Living closer to home often means higher rent, so relatively distant villages become the choice for migrant workers. At this time, an electric scooter is almost a necessity.

In Ningbo, most of the dozens or hundreds of employees are not provided with accommodation. Even if they are, they rent houses in remote villages. During rush hour, the army of electric bikes is quite a sight.

The majority of consumers of low-end brand electric vehicles from all companies are this group of people, and Flash is no exception.

The doubts about FlashCare in April will not affect these people at all. As long as it is cheap and easy to use, that's all that matters. After several rounds of updates and iterations, the lowest-end FlashCare model, although not particularly cheap, is definitely the most cost-effective one on the market.

The preferential policies have been subsidizing retail stores and self-operated stores in various regions. The actual price of 1999 yuan is roughly 1600 yuan. At this price, you can buy a first-tier brand, which is no less than the price reduction of Xiaomi 1.

The configuration, battery life, and quality are all up to standard. Some people who don't understand might even think that Flash is losing money to boost sales, but it's definitely not losing money.

Have any people lost hundreds of millions of dollars?
In addition to FlashTech's financial report, Jinpeng Industry's financial report was also sent over. The foreign trade business is not bad this year, but it will definitely be affected next year. I remember that foreign trade enterprises in Zhejiang Province were hit hard in 08.

It seems that thousands of pure foreign trade companies in coastal areas have gone bankrupt. Jinpeng and Jinyi do not plan to make any investment in foreign trade this year; they will just maintain their current scale.

Next year, at most, profits will be impacted, but the expansion will not cause any substantial losses to the company. We can just survive.

GXG's stores have expanded from 8 before the Lunar New Year to 48, with an average of 10 stores opening every month. Jinpeng Industrial plans to open a total of 100 GXG stores across the country this year.

"Old Zhang, you guys are opening stores a bit too slowly. You need to get the remaining 52 stores sorted out by the end of the first half of the year. We can't miss out on summer clothing sales." Tan Jincheng was somewhat dissatisfied with the pace of store openings. This efficiency was really a bit slow. Not to mention the speed at which Luckin Coffee opened stores in later years, averaging only 10 stores a month. It's not like we don't have the money!
There are only 100 stores in total. If you remove the 8 stores from last year, there are only 92. If you can buy, buy; if you can't buy, just rent. The lease term can be longer, 10 or 20 years is fine.

If that doesn't work, we can partner with shopping malls like Yintai and Wanda, contact their management companies, and see which cities offer the best opportunity to open stores quickly. We can expand our store network as fast as possible and open for business as soon as possible.

During such a prime time like May Day, only 48 stores were open. How can they possibly achieve an annual sales volume of 1 million?

GXG's goal this year is to open a total of 100 stores and achieve an annual turnover of 1 million yuan. This goal is already quite generous for Jinpeng Industry. It means that each store only needs to sell 8 yuan worth of goods per month.

As a mid-range clothing brand, the products are priced above 300 yuan. Based on the lowest standard, a store only needs to sell an average of eight pieces of clothing a day to meet its KPI.

Such lenient KPIs are designed to take into account the speed of store openings and the team's experience; if these cannot be achieved, then it is simply unacceptable.

"Goodness, this is slow? I have to travel to 10 cities a month, which is an average of one city every two or three days. I can't keep up with opening 52 stores in two months."

Zhang Xupeng has traveled all over the country. He doesn't have to visit every city, but he definitely makes sure to visit the key cities in person.

To be honest, if we follow the steady and pragmatic approach of traditional businesses, opening 10 stores a month on average is not slow at all. However, Tan Jincheng is not aiming to be a traditional business; he is all about efficiency.

A slow-paced store opening model is definitely not suitable for Jinpeng Industry.

"I don't care. A sales target of 1 million is already very low. If we can't even sell 1 million this year, then we might as well stop doing it. Besides, you're the general manager now. You don't need to do everything yourself. Send your team members out, and you can also talk to shopping malls like Yintai and Wanda about cooperation and use their resources to negotiate deals."

With 52 stores, if we reach an agreement with the headquarters of a large shopping mall, we can set up the layout all at once without much trouble.

However, these shopping malls generally don't sell their shops, which is a bit of a hassle and doesn't quite align with the idea of ​​getting a good deal on shop prices.

Owning its own stores is an important strategy for Jinpeng Industrial to expand and mitigate risks in the future. This is only due to the risk of declining profits for apparel companies, and not to take advantage of the real estate industry.

If you're looking to buy a house, this year and next year are the best times. Once the 4 trillion yuan stimulus package is implemented, housing prices will rise rapidly. By then, even ordinary people will know about the upward trend in housing prices, and it will be too late to make a purchase.

In 2007 and 2008, housing prices were actually quite average. Although the economy was developing rapidly, houses did not seem to be easy to sell. I remember that in the first half of 2008, due to the impact of the financial crisis, there was a period when houses in Beicang could be bought with zero down payment.

Before the 4 trillion yuan stimulus package was introduced, buying a house was quite a good deal.

"Do you think I don't know? The problem is that these shopping malls don't sell their shops, and the lease terms are hard to negotiate. These shopping malls are too powerful."

"There's nothing I can do about it. You have to speed things up. It's already May, and we haven't even reached half of our target of 100 stores. If we keep going at this pace, we definitely won't be able to meet our year-end sales target. Don't blame me for being ruthless then."

Once KPIs are set, they must be met. If the year-end KPIs are not met, all members of the GXG project team at Jinpeng Industrial, including Zhang Xupeng, will be in trouble. There is no room for negotiation on this point.

"Okay, I got it. I'll speed things up," Zhang Xupeng sighed on the other end of the phone. Actually, he was also a little anxious about the speed of opening the store; if it was too slow, he really wouldn't be able to meet his KPIs.

He knew Xiao Tan's style; the tasks assigned wouldn't be too demanding, leaving room for the employees. But if they still couldn't complete them, then he shouldn't blame him for turning on them.

The same applies to myself; if I don't complete the task, I won't hold back when I should be scolded.

To be honest, it can be quite awkward at times, but he always focuses on the issue, not the person, and once it's over, he forgets about it and can still chat carefree with his employees.

Another point is that he gives so much that you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't work your butt off.

Take Zhang Xupeng himself as an example. He not only holds 49% of the shares in Jinpeng Industrial, but also has shares in the parent company. In addition, he receives a salary as the general manager of Jinpeng Industrial, with an annual salary of 60 yuan. This kind of treatment is extremely impressive even on a national scale.

"That's settled then. You'll only have two months. All 100 stores must be open by July, not one less. The entire GXG project team will have their performance bonuses reduced. If you don't reach the 1 million sales target by the end of the year, I'll have to consider whether you're qualified as general manager. If you need any help, just let me know."

(End of this chapter)