Reborn in 1999: Starting as a black marketeer

February 5th is the Lunar New Year.

Just as Wang Feiyang said, the Chinese students got together for a meal and treated it as if it were Chinese New Year.

The next day, everyone went about their business as usual. Hu Xiaoyun and Liu Yingying went to class as usual, while Wang Feiyang went to the company early in the morning.

Being abroad, the festive atmosphere of the Lunar New Year has faded.

The second batch of goods I ordered arrived after the Chinese New Year. From ordering to receiving the goods, it only took about twenty days.

This shipment arrived just in time, because if it hadn't arrived, the company would have had nothing left to sell...

The goods totaled 250 boxes, 200 of which were jeans, and the other 50 boxes were all sorts of trivial items, such as roll-up banners, posters, brochures, and tote bags, all of which were included at Wang Feiyang's request.

After all, all the sales outlets are selling under the Levi's name, so the appearance still needs to be done well. The store decoration can't be as luxurious and grand as a Levi's counter, but the accompanying accessories must keep up.

Don't underestimate these things; they can really bring a lot of emotional value to consumers. Store sales staff can also be more assertive when promoting their products, insisting that they are selling genuine Levi's, just that they don't have the brand's authorization and are just leftover stock directly from the factory.

Otherwise, how do you explain the numerous posters, brochures, and tote bags that are only available in department stores? You can't possibly sell a few pairs of counterfeit jeans and then specially order a batch of materials yourself...

This is exactly the same excuse used by those shops selling counterfeit goods in China back then, and it did manage to fool many consumers. After all, most consumers are not experts. They see that the jeans are of good quality and style, obviously much better than those sold in other shops. Although the price is high, they can accept it. In addition, with the halo of a big brand like Levi's, and the complete set of posters, catalogs and tote bags "proving" that they are indeed genuine, they will basically make an impulse purchase.

The first batch of goods didn't come with many materials, but we still managed to give some to each customer. It was only after receiving feedback from these end customers that we realized the effect of these free materials in actual sales was far stronger than we had imagined!

So when ordering the second batch of goods, Wang Feiyang specifically instructed General Manager Gu to send over more materials and accessories. General Manager Gu was a straightforward person and sent over fifty large boxes directly!

In terms of domestic production costs, these fifty boxes of materials are actually not worth much money; they were given away for free. But in Russia, they would be worth a lot of money.

How could the goods sold in a large market possibly come with brochures, posters, or tote bags? You'd be lucky to get a cheap garbage bag.

This is differentiated competition. It's not just about leaving the big market and starting a company to sell products at high prices. It's about differentiating yourself from what's sold in the big market in every aspect.

From product quality to company image, to after-sales service, and even the free brochures, posters, and tote bags.

If you do all of these things well, your products will naturally sell for a higher price, and customers will find it easier to resell them after taking them home, and then come back to buy more...

This creates a virtuous cycle: loyal customers can earn more money by helping you sell goods, so they will naturally keep coming back to restock.

And more new customers will come running, making your company's customer base grow continuously!

Wang Feiyang's company is on the right track!

…………

"Anton, Sergei, sort this batch of goods by model. Put the men's sizes in the left warehouse and the women's sizes in the right warehouse. Don't rush to unpack and put them on the shelves, but those materials need to be organized as soon as possible..."

Anna was directing two warehouse managers as they worked, then turned and beckoned several female employees who were temporarily off work to come and help with the sorting.

After everyone got busy, she rushed to Wang Feiyang's office, knocked on the door, and went in.

"Boss, I checked this batch of goods, and the style and quality are fine, just like the first batch."

Wang Feiyang smiled and nodded. He trusted President Gu's character, which was an important reason why he chose to cooperate with him. If he had chosen a partner he didn't know, he would have had to fly back to order and inspect the goods, which would have been incredibly troublesome.

Otherwise, if they send you a batch of inferior goods, you won't be able to resolve the issue.

"By the way, boss, I think we should continue with the company's GG (Growth Processing) service. You saw the results last time, and it was quite good. However, we've been getting fewer new clients lately, which means the GG's effectiveness is waning. So I think we should start a new GG," Anna continued.

The last time he did GG, it cost a total of eight thousand US dollars, which was two magazines and four newspapers. They were all one-off deals. If you want a continuous stream of new clients, GG can't be stopped. Wang Feiyang understands this principle.

He readily agreed, saying, "Go and negotiate with them about the $20,000 budget this time. Continue working with those companies that had good results with GG last time, and let's just forget about the others that didn't."

Anna and her team made a point of asking each new customer how they learned about the company, specifically which magazine or newspaper they saw it in. By doing this, they could easily see which magazines and newspapers were the most effective.

"Yes, there are statistics on all of this. Those two fashion magazines are the most effective. Only one newspaper is decent, the rest are not good. This time, let's focus on doing the dating ads in fashion magazines or women's magazines. The results should be better..." Anna spoke logically, and her smile never faded.

The company had just paid salaries, and as the business director, she naturally received the highest salary in the entire company: a base salary of $800 plus a sales commission of $600, for a total of $1,400!

Vera Sofia and the other woman each received more than 800 US dollars, all in rubles, and each of them received a thick wad of cash!

The new colleagues who came after them had only been working for a few days, and their salaries would have to wait until next month. However, everyone was equally excited to see how high Anna and the others' income was.

After all, a company that makes money and whose boss is generous is the kind of company that inspires passion in its employees.

…………

The company doesn't even have a finance person right now, so the accounting work can only be done by the boss, Wang Feiyang.

He calculated that the first batch of jeans sold out almost completely, with total sales reaching 600 million rubles (approximately 23 US dollars, or 200 million RMB).

It looks like they made a lot of money, and in reality, they did make quite a bit...

However, the company has also incurred considerable expenses recently. When calculating the actual profit, in addition to purchasing and logistics clearance, we also need to add labor costs, labor costs, and company premises costs.

In reality, the actual cost of the first batch of goods should be 600,000 RMB, with a net profit of 1.4 million RMB...