Lin Fan said with that bitter smile, “Let’s talk in the back.”
Yue Lan was surprised, but she quickly gave some instructions to her workers before bringing Lin Fan to her office.
After they sat down, she said, “Well, tell me what’s wrong.”
Lin Fan asked, “Why do you think that something is wrong?”
Yue Lan revealed a smile before saying, “Well, you’re not really good at hiding your feelings unless it’s a dangerous situation.”
Lin Fan didn’t really understand what she meant by this. He had thought that he had hidden his emotions quite well, but now she was telling him differently.
But that wasn’t important.
Lin Fan took a deep breath before telling Yue Lan everything that had happened.
After he was done, Yue Lan fell into deep thought as she stroked her chin and said, “So you’re saying that you need money…”
As she let her voice trail off, Lin Fan became worried and said, “I’ll also be doing missions to get some money, but I’ll also need your help gathering some money since they told me that I need as much money as possible. I know it’s hard with your store just opening, but…”
Before he could continue, Yue Lan had raised her hand to cut him off and said with a serious look, “Master, there’s no need for you to say any of this.”
Lin Fan was caught off guard by this and before he could react, Yue Lan continued with her reprimand.
“Master, you have to remember that this store and I belong to you, so if you need something, you just need to give an order and we’ll do it. There’s no need for you to take this kind of tone with me or any of the workers.” Yue Lan said in a strict voice.
Lin Fan knitted his brows and said, “But, you know that I don’t see you and this store like this.”
A trace of warmth appeared in Yue Lan’s eyes, but then she quickly returned to the strict look and said, “Master, that’s not important. What’s important is that there are now other workers in the store and no matter what, you are the owner of this store in name. If you act this way, it will set a bad example in front of the other employees.”
Lin Fan still had knitted brows, but he could understand what Yue Lan was trying to get at.
This was a professional environment and without clear marking boundaries in the hierarchy, there would be problems that would occur with the workers.
If he as the owner were to show weakness, it would become something that the workers would exploit. For example, they would take advantage of his kindness to make excessive demands knowing that he would agree in the end.
This would be fatal for the business.
So Lin Fan as the boss had to show his tough side or the business would fail.
Lin Fan just sat silently there for a bit before giving a nod and saying, “I understand.”
Then after another pause, he asked, “How confident are you in gathering the money?”
Yue Lan stroked her chin again before saying, “Well, it is a new store so it will be hard…” As she let her voice trail off, she paused for a bit before turning back to Lin Fan to say with a smile, “But with your products, I’m quite confident.”
She didn’t waste any time as she stood up and walked out of the room, waving her hand behind her for Lin Fan to follow along.
Lin Fan didn’t say anything as he followed her to the warehouse where he was surprised by what was inside.
Inside of this giant warehouse, there were many sets of Othello and Jenga prepared. It was so much that it almost took up half of the space inside of the warehouse.
Lin Fan knew that Yue Lan had planned on ordering a large supply of these games, but he never expected that she would order this much.
While he knew that these games would be popular with time, he was worried that she wouldn’t be able to move out all these units in a short period of time since these were new things. People were hesitant to try out new things, so ordering this much would hurt them instead of helping them since all this stock would be stuck in the store, taking up space that they could use for other products.
Yue Lan naturally knew what Lin Fan was thinking from the look on his face and she said with a smile, “You don’t have to worry about a thing. These are all orders that we’ve already received and have received the money for. The only thing we have to do is send these units out.”
Lin Fan revealed a shocked look as he asked, “How did you already receive this many orders?”
Yue Lan said with a shrewd smile, “Well, I had my subordinates place a few of these games in local bars and it didn’t take long before we started receiving orders.”
Lin Fan was once again shocked when he heard this.
It had been no more than two days since Yue Lan started working with her staff and she already accomplished this much…
He really couldn’t help admiring her business skills…
Lin Fan also couldn’t help asking, “Just how much have you already made on these?”
Yue Lan raised a single finger in response to this.
Lin Fan could see the confidence on her face, so he gave her a large estimate, “A hundred?”
Yue Lan shook her head with a smile and said, “Ten times that.”
“A thousand gold coins?” Lin Fan said in a loud shocked voice.
These were things that could be carved from a few pieces of wood, how could they be selling for this much?
Lin Fan estimated that each unit would sell for no more than two silver coins, but now it seemed like that wasn’t the case.
There were around a thousand units or so, so that meant that each unit was selling for around one gold coin.
Who would buy something made from a few pieces of wood that cost no more than a few copper coins for one gold coin?
That was just crazy!
However, that was what Yue Lan was doing and she was able to get away with these prices!
Seeing the shocked look on Lin Fan’s face, Yue Lan had been standing there with a confident smile, but she still explained in the end, “It’s not considered much since we’re mainly selling these to people like mercenaries who have the money to afford these kinds of things.”
Seeing that Lin Fan wasn’t convinced by this, Yue Lan added, “Right now there’s a short supply of this, so we should aim to make as much profit as we can from this during the short time that we have exclusivity with it. Once the fakes start showing up, I have a plan to split the games into a cheap version for commoners and a fancy version for nobles, rich merchants and mercenaries.”
Lin Fan couldn’t help asking, “Won’t the people who bought the Othello and Jenga games early be angry if you do this?”
Yue Lan raised a finger and shook it, “No, no, I’ve already taken precautions for this. I’ve already added special marks on the current games that we are selling that will identify them as first editions.”
Lin Fan still couldn’t help asking, “But there will be people who fake these markings as well.”
Yue Lan gave a shrug, “So what if they do? We’ve already done enough by adding the marks to make the customers feel better. We can’t do much more than that to make these ones special since it would take too much time and effort, which would be counterproductive.”
Lin Fan thought about it before giving a nod of agreement.
She was right, as long as they took some action, people would have to accept it. However, you shouldn’t go out of your way to please people since you will never be able to please everyone.
Lin Fan then asked, “What are you planning on doing with the profits?”
Yue Lan looked at him and said, “I was planning on investing them back into the products, but since you need money…”
She let her voice trail off, but the meaning was clear.
Lin Fan shook his head and said, “Keep half the profits to invest back into the store and give me the other half. Half should be more than enough investment to keep the store growing at a healthy rate.”
Yue Lan gave a nod of approval in response to this.
This was already the plan that she had, but since Lin Fan was the boss, she could only listen to him. While she could have just suggested this herself, she wanted Lin Fan to suggest it himself so that the others could see that he wasn’t just an empty figurehead.
However, she was surprised and impressed by the fact that Lin Fan could calculate half.
Half was just the right amount that they needed.
If it was less, they would have to cut on certain things and if it was too much…Well, too much money was never a good thing.
Lin Fan then suddenly thought of something as he said, “Let’s head back to your office, I have something that I want to show you.”
Yue Lan revealed a surprised and confused look, but she followed Lin Fan back into the office.
Once they were there, Lin Fan took a piece of paper and a pen from the side before he started to draw something.
Yue Lan’s eyes followed Lin Fan’s hand when he drew this thing and her eyes lit up when she saw the complete product.
“This is!”