2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 427 Boss Tan's Daily Life

Those who frequently trade stocks should know that a lot of news tends to accumulate in society during long holidays, including policy, people's livelihood, and social news, among other things.

Based on this accumulated information, retail investors choose which stock to target for potential losses in the next period.

However, based on Tan Jincheng's limited experience as a retail investor, the market in May is generally still acceptable, as the annual reports from the end of last year and the quarterly reports for the first quarter were basically released by the end of April.

Companies that haven't released their annual or quarterly reports by May don't need to anymore. Most of the potential problems have already been exposed, and all the positive news has been released. It's a better time to reap the rewards with a lighter burden.

From May of this year up to now, Tan Jincheng believes that both policy and social news have been relatively peaceful. There are two pieces of news that are particularly attractive to Tan Jincheng.

One of the points concerns the mobile phone industry. The Ministry of Information Industry announced the number of mobile phone users as of January this year, with a total of 4.8 million mobile phone users nationwide, an average monthly increase of more than 652 million.

According to statistics, there are an average of 35.3 mobile phones per 100 people, which is a very encouraging figure, but the peak period is still far away.

"This must have been Nokia's most glorious period."

These messages were collected by the relevant departments of the company. Tan Jincheng was unaware of other companies, but he cared a lot about these messages because many of them could be corroborated with information from later generations.

After all, some information may be vague in our minds, but we won't remember it forever. Having official data or information reminds us makes it easier to recall.

Nokia's peak period should have started in 2003, and its golden age was around 07 and 08, with very good sales. Tan Jincheng currently has two mobile phones for personal use, but he no longer uses the first Nokia he bought.

From a personal aesthetic point of view, Tan Jincheng prefers Motorola products from this period. Compared to Nokia's brick-like design, Motorola's industrial design is more in line with Tan Jincheng's aesthetic.

Many of the electric vehicles produced by Flash Motors actually referenced various color schemes from Motorola, including the initial black model.

Feature phones will remain popular for a few more years, and making batteries for feature phones can be quite profitable. The technological upgrades in the electronics sector have been quite good. Shenzhen, whether now or in the future, is a technologically advanced city in China.

The electronics industry is highly developed, with many large factories. As long as you have the money and are willing to invest, and you also have the technology, this kind of transformation is quite easy.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Flash Group's mobile phone battery business should be able to launch next year. With this plan in place, next year is truly going to be a year of explosive growth for Flash Group.

The Tianjin factory is fully operational, the Wangjiang Industrial Park is partially operational, the mobile phone battery business has officially started, and the automotive battery business has also entered the testing phase. GXG plans to open 100 stores this year.

In addition to fully launching its e-commerce business next year, GXG will also expand its offline stores. Jinpeng Industrial plans to add 120 new stores for GXG next year, bringing the total number of offline stores to 220.

This year, GXG's sales are expected to exceed 1 million yuan, and next year's expectation is to exceed 3 million yuan. This is not an overambitious plan, but a realistic and feasible one.

You can simply reinvest the profits.

GXG's ultimate goal is to enter the top 20 domestic apparel brands. Although sales are mainly online, they also plan to open 1000 physical stores.

Of course, it's impossible for 1000 shops to have been built in just a few years. Times are changing, and cities are changing. The current central urban area may not be the future central urban area. Take Beicang District for example. The current central urban area is the area around the Post and Telecommunications Building and Songshan Road.

The night market is bustling with people every night, but it will be gone in a few years. The city center has been moved to the Minshan Road area, which is near the house that Tan Jincheng bought in his previous life.

"In the early stages, GXG mainly sold these shops by buying, but later on, they could only be rented because the property prices rose too fast," Tan Jincheng sighed.

"The prices have risen quite quickly. In the past two years, housing prices have increased significantly compared to when we first came back," Zhang Xupeng remarked, having finally managed to return home.

From the second half of 07 to the first half of 08, housing prices will experience a period of slump, but even at this low point, they will still be much more expensive than in previous years. In the first half of the year, some properties in Beicang were already priced at 6500, and the average price in the city center was around 4500.

The price increase is quite significant. Taking the 100 units in Tan Jincheng as an example, the average price increase is about 30%. The price increase is particularly significant in an industrial city like Ningbo. In places like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that the price changes every month, but it's definitely true that the price changes every six months.

It's practically impossible to find one that's extremely cheap now.

The seaside? The seaside is even more expensive. These past few years have been the peak season for hype surrounding sea-view properties. Take next year for example, houses in Beicang city center will be deserted, while so-called sea-view villas in Chunxiao will sell for 12,000 yuan per square meter, and they'll be scrambling to sell them.

"I'll still buy them. I don't expect GXG to make much money in the next two years. I'll just invest all the money GXG earns back into the market. Although our sales are mainly online, if we don't have enough physical stores, it's hard to build brand awareness." There are brands that rely solely on advertising and online sales and don't have many physical stores, and many of them are very successful. But these brands will disappear in a few years. Besides the reason that their styles are outdated, the main reason is that they don't have enough influence.

Clothing is a bit different from other things. The main consumer group is women. Even though many men's clothes are still decided by women, they can buy clothes online, but they still really like to browse in physical stores.

"Alright, it's good to invest a little. Anyway, the gross profit margin of this stuff is too high. If we don't invest, the taxes will be painful enough." Zhang Xupeng shook his head.

While others develop beer bellies and become greasy after becoming bosses, Zhang Xupeng is different. Compared to when he first started working, Zhang Xupeng is noticeably thinner. Tan Jincheng is also similar, but Zhang Xupeng's difference is more pronounced.

While on the ship, unlike Tan Jincheng who was preoccupied with his rebirth, Zhang Xupeng, having already decided what he would do after going ashore, worked carefree and drifted through life.

The food on the cruise ship was very good. Zhang Xupeng, who had worked in the kitchen for a while, gained a lot of weight and looked quite chubby. To be honest, the two of them didn't look very good when they first came ashore.

Tan Jincheng at least has a face, while Zhang Xupeng just looks like an ordinary person.

However, since starting their business, the two have been traveling around a lot, and Zhang Xupeng has been doing more dirty and tiring work. His weight has quickly returned to the level of a normal young man. This is especially true this year, as he has been traveling all over the country on business and has really had no time to gain weight.

However, his image has improved a lot. Now that he is frequently interviewed, he has learned to dress up and has started to pay attention to his image, giving him a bit of the air of a young entrepreneur.

Tan Jincheng looked at Zhang Xupeng's slightly thin face and smiled, saying, "If you work hard for another month and a half, you'll be able to relax a bit in the second half of the year. The reason you said that on the phone last time was because you were anxious, so don't take it to heart."

"Give me a break! Last year you told me there was only the GXG project, and I've been busy with that for half a year already. There's also the Orange Technology warehousing park and the outlet operation that we need to contact. Do you expect me to be free in the second half of the year?"

Zhang Xupeng rolled his eyes at Tan Jincheng and said that as for what Tan Jincheng said about the last phone call, he had long since stopped caring about it. Work is work, and if you want to maintain a good friendship, you can't bring work-related emotions into your personal life.

The profit distribution had already been agreed upon, with everyone splitting the money according to their shares. Besides, neither of them is short of money now, so from a financial perspective, it's impossible for things to escalate to the point of discord.

In terms of position, Tan Jincheng was in charge, and Zhang Xupeng was his assistant. He had already thought about this arrangement when he decided to merge Jinpeng Trading into Shanchi Group for restructuring. He preferred to work with Tan Jincheng rather than be the boss himself.

Although this guy is a bit annoying, he always feels a little lacking when he's working alone. Compared to the time when he managed Jinpeng Trading on his own, he still misses the days when the two of them pooled their money and worked together, discussing how to save money when they went to the Canton Fair.

Although that period was indeed very enjoyable, with plenty of time to play games in the office.

"Haha, I've found a helper, I'll have him assist you later."

"You mean Huang Ming? Isn't he in the internet technology field? Is he capable of building warehouses?"

“Don’t underestimate him. These days, anyone who makes a name for themselves has some skills. He’s been running his own business for so many years, so his management experience is actually better than ours. We’re just a makeshift team. We may not make any big mistakes, but we often make small ones too.”

"That's true. When GXG first bought the store, he almost got scammed. It's really embarrassing to think about."

Learning from each small mistake is something that not only Tan Jincheng does, but Zhang Xupeng does as well.

Before April, GXG's stores were opening relatively slowly, but after Tan Jincheng's warning, Zhang Xupeng quickly adjusted his plans. He still focused on buying, but learned to delegate authority and cooperate.

GXG has already reached cooperation agreements with Yintai and Wanda. The core stores inside the malls are still mainly leased, but the stores on the periphery are still negotiable.

"You've finally come back, come over for dinner tonight; by the way, have you found a girlfriend yet? Your mom called me again."

"Are you out of your mind? We were having a perfectly good conversation, and now you're bringing this up again? Do you think I have time to find a girlfriend? Give me a month off, and if I can't find a girlfriend, I'll cut Kun Kun up."

"Damn, such a vicious oath? We can't take a holiday then, what if it comes true?"

"roll roll roll."

(End of this chapter)