Traveling to an ancient peasant family: I got rich by doing business

Li Yu’s solution was to hold a competition.

The cotton dolls compete in making clothes, and the one who completes the clothes the best within a fixed time wins. The building blocks compete in building blocks, and the one who builds the corresponding shape in the shortest time wins.

Since it is a competition, there must be rewards.

Here, the cotton dolls are divided into male and female doll teams because there are both male and female dolls. The top three winners of each team can get eight taels of silver, seven taels of silver, and six taels of silver respectively. The fourth to tenth place can get a toy gift package from the store. If you don't want the toys, you can convert it into four taels of silver.

Then the eleventh to twentieth people will each get a portion of braised meat, and the twentieth to thirtieth people will get a portion of dim sum.

The rewards for the building block competition are slightly lower than those for making clothes. The first to third places are six taels of silver, five taels of silver, and four taels of silver respectively.

The third to tenth place will receive two taels of silver, and the reward for the eleventh to twentieth place and the twenty-first to thirtieth place will be the same as the reward for making clothes.

*

Mr. Xiang was silent for a moment after listening to Li Yu.

"That's a good idea, but when it comes to making clothes, who will provide the fabric and needles and thread for the trial?"

"Of course we provide it." Li Yu said, "The cotton doll is not big, so it doesn't take too much fabric to make a set of clothes."

"But if there are many people, it will cost a lot of money to buy these two things. Madam Li, you have to know that this competition rewards silver. Once the news spreads, it will definitely attract women in the city who are good at embroidery to sign up."

Li said calmly, "Mr. Xiang, you can rest assured about this. There are preliminary and re-examinations in the competition, and only those who have bought cotton dolls in our workshop can participate!"

Mr. Xiang's eyes lit up, "Only those who have bought dolls can participate?"

Li Yu nodded. "When Tingyu Handicraft Workshop opened, I asked my husband to instruct the staff to write down the names of customers who bought cotton dolls according to their last names, just to make it easier to do this."

When registering, it is easy to tell who has the genuine doll and who has the pirated doll by checking the records.

Before today, Mr. Xiang didn't understand why Li Yu insisted that the waiter remember his name. Now he suddenly understood and couldn't help but admire Li Yu.

In any case, anyone who wants to participate in the clothing-making competition must buy cotton dolls. If a lot of cotton dolls are sold, the profits can completely cover the expenses of the competition.

That’s not all. Through competitions, the workshop can be further promoted.

Good.

*

“For the building blocks, only those who have bought them in the store can participate?” Mr. Xiang asked.

"Yes." Li Yu said, "For the building block competition, we should do the most difficult one. There are dozens of building blocks. It's not challenging if it's too simple. But it's more troublesome to hold a competition. There are many things to prepare and we need people. We have to do it one by one. How about the "clothing making" competition first?"

Mr. Xiang: "Okay, when I get back today, I'll write down the process of the competition and post it at the entrance of the workshop."

Li Yu: "We can also find some beggars to spread the information around the city. It would be best if everyone in the capital knew that we were going to hold a competition.

There is one more thing. Before we spread the information about our competition, we must have at least 200 cotton dolls in stock. Otherwise, when the news gets out, customers will come to buy cotton dolls but won’t be able to buy them.”

Mr. Xiang: "Okay, let's arrange it this way."

*

Mr. Xiang acted quickly. After he finished talking about it that night, he finalized the basic content of the competition the next morning.

The name of the competition is "Cotton Doll Clothing Contest" and the content is to make clothes for cotton dolls. The competition will be held on March 30th. The venue and judges of the competition have not yet been determined.

As for the other rules of the competition, they were all written according to what Li Yu said last night, for example, only those who had bought cotton dolls in the store could register. There was no limit on the number of people who could register for the first round. After these people registered, they would participate in the competition, and thirty people would be selected for the second round.

In order to attract more people, Mr. Xiang deliberately wrote the award very clearly.

Li Yu read it twice and felt there was nothing wrong with it.

"The next step is to wait for the cotton dolls to be made. Once there are enough cotton dolls, immediately post the competition rules outside the store."

Mr. Xiang nodded.

*

Elsewhere in the capital.

In addition to the grocery store that Aunt Tian saw, several other stores also sold cotton dolls.

Some stores even took advantage of the popularity of the novel "Feng Yue Hua" and said that their cotton dolls were related to the male and female protagonists of the novel.

However, many people who read "Feng Yue Hua" have become more cautious after experiencing the teahouse co-branding incident. After entering a store, they first ask the store owner to provide evidence to prove that their store is connected with the author of the story, Mr. Zhu Yu, also known as Xie Youlan.

The shop owner hadn't even finished reading the storybook, let alone met Xie Youlan, so he was hesitant to take it out.

When the guest saw that there was still something he didn't understand, he immediately turned around and left.

They really like the storybooks, so if they were going to buy them, they would buy the cotton dolls that Mr. Zhuyu had definitely seen. They didn't want any that had nothing to do with Mr. Zhuyu.

Some stores did not take advantage of the popularity of the storybooks and sold dozens of them at low prices.

Li Yu listens to reports on the conditions of these stores every day and remains as calm as ever.

This was an era where everything was done by hand, and the things made were not difficult, so it was easy for them to be imitated, and she had no way to stop it.

Instead of getting angry about being imitated, it is better to start from other places and surpass these imitators.

*

On March 18, after having enough cotton dolls in stock, Mr. Xiang had the relevant announcements of the "Cotton Doll Clothing Contest" posted everywhere in the workshop.

At the same time, he found a group of beggars and asked them to shout about the competition process everywhere in the capital. In return, he would give each of them 500 coins after three days of promotion.

That works out to more than a hundred coins a day, which is extremely generous. The little beggars were extremely excited. After Mr. Xiang finished speaking, they took some promotional papers and ran to the area they were responsible for without looking back.

The capital city is big, but also small. Less than an hour after the process was posted, Tingyu Workshop was crowded with women.

"The first place winner will get eight taels of silver. You are not bluffing, are you?"

"Why do I feel like you guys are liars?"

"Do I have to buy dolls in the store to participate? The dolls in other stores are no different from your cotton dolls, so why do I have to buy them in your store?"

......

The shopkeeper was a kind old man named Sheng. After everyone had talked for a while, he raised his hand to signal for silence.

"The competition is real, and the first place winner can indeed get eight taels of silver. As for why only those who have bought dolls in our store can participate in the competition, this is a rule of our boss, and the boss didn't tell me the specific reason. Everyone asked me, but I don't know either.

Next, are there any people who want to sign up? Those who have signed up should line up at the counter. "