Chapter 87: Business Plan
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After 2008, there were not too many ways to strike it rich.
The two worlds were slightly different, but the general direction of developments remained unchanged.
Ten years from now, earning money came hand in hand with the property market, the Internet, smartphones, and other related businesses.
Fang Ping could not delve into the property market right now, and it was not very practical either.
He could not even buy houses to sell, because even now, Fang Ping only had about 600 thousand on hand.
It was even harder to get a finger in that pie in this world of martial artists, and Fang Ping had yet to earn that right.
Cellphone manufacturing was an even more distant dream. By now, smartphones were already coming into the market, and some others were even manufacturing the first ones. There was no way Fang Ping could interfere now.
In comparison, Internet businesses were simpler, and the entry requirements were lower too.
As for the limitation on martial artists, he was in Magic City now. The fact that non-martial artists could not transcend city boundaries barely mattered anymore.
Besides, Fang Ping was now enjoying the privileges of a Rank-1 martial artist, so there were no restrictions on him at all. As for how only Rank-4 and above could transcend province boundaries, that was still a long way in the future for Fang Ping.
Still, doing business on the Internet required some skill. Not anyone could just jump right into it.
In terms of online shopping, although Raccoon was not particularly well-known yet, in truth it had already expanded to quite an extent. Rumor had it that Old Ma had reached Rank-7, too.
While it was not impossible to venture into the online shopping scene right now, it was still difficult to make it too big.
Of course, he could try another route and only sell branded goods, like Vipshop.
Still, that was not a very viable option for Fang Ping either. He did not have the channels for it, because Vipshop worked on a complicated network of sales connections. It was not something he could get a hand on in an instant.
There were other sectors, like online banking, social media, online games, search engines, video sharing sites...
All of them, however, were unsuitable for Fang Ping as he was right now.
In truth, Fang Ping had given his future business plans a lot of thought over a very long time. He had been considering it since the moment he transmigrated.
When he thought of the tycoons that made it big after 2008, Fang Ping realized that very few tycoons only began after 2008. The more popular ones among them were the two companies that specialized in online food delivery platforms.
Be it Ele.me or Meituan, both of their founders had only gotten their businesses on track after 2008.
When they first started, both of them did not have much to go on with. They practically started from zero.
Over a few short years, they had accumulated vast amounts of wealth. Of course, most of it was in the material sense.
Aside from the food delivery services, there was another sector that blossomed after 2008, and this one did not involve a high degree of skill either, so it was not too difficult to start. That was the package delivery service.
Actually, the parcel delivery service was quite closely related to its food delivery counterpart. The rise of the package delivery sector was even more reliant on the advent of the online shopping industry.
The man from Raccoon was still lying dormant, but Fang Ping knew that Raccoon’s online shopping platform would soon take the country by storm.
Fang Ping had never considered challenging the Great Brother Ma head-on. He was afraid of being beaten to death by a Grandmaster.
Still, he knew perfectly well that he should ride the waves and follow the footsteps of these giants.
In the future, aside from the property and Internet moguls, those from the package delivery industry tend to make it onto the list of the wealthiest personages as well.
This was especially true for those dealing with online businesses!
Right now, many package delivery companies were based in Magic City, but most of these were still prioritizing regular parcels while sales companies relied on large-scale transport.
Not a single company was putting their main focus on the online market!
After many months of planning, Fang Ping narrowed his options down to online shipping and F&B platforms.
The two businesses did not have to be separate, either. They could easily complement each other.
He could also run this like an offline business for now, even the F&B platform. Both could operate physically as well as virtually, and there was no need to expand too much too quickly.
He could just start by setting up a few delivery outposts, hiring a few delivery workers, and starting a simple localized food-ordering website.
These would not cost too much, so Fang Ping was still within budget.
If possible, he could discuss a delivery deal with Raccoon’s Magic City office, but this was ruled out for now.
Right now, Fang Ping was not a martial artist, and his position in society was not high enough yet. If he went there to negotiate a deal, they might not give him their time of day.
Once he became a martial artist, however, he could approach them as a student of Magic City Martial Arts University. Under those circumstances, they probably would not mind handing a contract to one more delivery company.
Right now, the delivery companies working Raccoon usually had the upper hand in the relationship.
After all, online shopping was only a small part of their market, so most people did not really care about Raccoon. This was soon about to change, however.
Fang Ping had to strike a deal with Raccoon before the others could adjust their mentalities. This way, he could become Raccoon’s main partner in Magic City.
...
Now that he had decided on a course of action, Fang Ping did not hesitate.
On the second day, Fang Ping borrowed a car from the hotel. Instead of accepting a chauffeur, he drove out of the hotel himself.
Although he did not have a license, Fang Ping was not unduly worried.
He mentioned to Li Chengze that he did not have a license, and the latter had advised him to show his martial arts license should he get pulled over.
Although the martial arts license was no replacement for a driver’s license, he would not get in trouble as long as he did not get into any accidents.
Of course, if anything did happen, all the blame would fall squarely on Fang Ping’s shoulders.
Still, that was one way to a martial arts license. As a self-proclaimed experienced driver, Fang Ping would naturally take advantage of that, driving himself out instead of letting someone else take the wheel.
...
Fang Ping’s first destination was the university city.
The university city was one of Magic City’s 6 districts, and it was close to the school as well, which made things more convenient for Fang Ping.
Although Magic City Martial Arts University was the leading name in the university city, martial arts university students were still the minority. Most of the population still consisted of normal students.
They were also Fang Ping’s target audience.
Ordering food online and e-commerce were things that university students could easily adapt too. In fact, white-collar workers and university students were the most versatile types of people.
Besides, online shopping had existed for quite a few years now, so it was no longer completely new.
In a large metropolis like Magic City, many students had even started their own online businesses ages ago.
If Fang Ping tried something like this in Sun City, his plans would be dead before they even started. Here in Magic City, however, this was the best course of action.
...
The university city had a total of 64 universities of different shapes and sizes!
There were specialized martial arts schools like Magic City Martial Arts University, and there were schools that had a martial arts course, like East Sino Nation Normal University and Magic City Transportation University 1. There were also universities that focused fully on social sciences.
These normal social science universities had the largest student populations. Over four cohorts, they could have twenty to thirty thousand students. Add in the teachers, their families, and the staff, and it was perfectly normal for a university to have forty or fifty thousand members.
Even the smaller ones, like Magic City Martial Arts University, could have close to ten thousand members.
Since the 64 universities were gathered together, that meant that all the students and teachers of these universities added up to almost two million people. That was almost equivalent to the total population of a prefectural-level city.
That was just the schools, too. The gathering of all these institutions also meant that many other businesses flourished here, and the place was also quite commercialized.
There were not many high-end department stores because students were not the core market for those.
However, there were more regular stores than one could count.
According to his estimates, the entire university city had a total population of more than 4.8 million people!
That was ten times the population of Sun City!
A single university city had more than five million people. To Fang Ping, this was the best place to start a business.
...
On August 1st, Fang Ping drove around the university city.
With that, he also gained a preliminary understanding of where the universities were located.
If he looked at the university city as a whole, Magic City Martial Arts University was on the north end, next to the sea. In truth, since Magic City Martial Arts University took up 30,000 mu, he could actually see the sea from inside the campus. For now, though, Fang Ping did not know that.
There were more than ten universities around Magic City Martial Arts University, but most of them were social science universities. Martial arts universities tended to be quite far from each other, possibly because they repelled each other.
Of the dozen or so universities, their students, lecturers, and their families added up to over 300 thousand people.
They were located around Magic City Martial Arts University, too, so it made things much easier for Fang Ping.
Since he had limited funds, Fang Ping did not intend to aim for the entire university city at once. He planned to start with the southern side of the university city and slowly spread from there.
“I’ll rent a slightly larger office to start the food delivery platform. It’ll be my temporary HQ too.
“The dozen or so universities are spread pretty far, so if I want to cover all of them, I’ll need to set up at least 5 delivery points. Each point will cover orders from 3 universities.
“As for manpower, each delivery point will be in charge of 3 universities, so I’ll need at least 10 employees.
“1 office, 5 delivery points, 50 delivery workers... Maybe I can reduce that slightly. Aren’t 50 people too many?”
Fang Ping calculated what he had to do next while he was in the car, driving around to find a suitable location.
Magic City had a high cost of living, so the average salary was not particularly low, either.
In Sun City, he could hire someone with 800 bucks.
In Magic City, even now, not many would accept a low-level position with a salary of less than 3000.
Even if he took 3000 as a placeholder, that meant the delivery workers’ salaries alone would cost 150,000 every month.
That did not include the manpower needed for customer service, call centers, and technical labor to start the platform. Later, he would need people in charge of operations, and a marketing department to pave the way into the market...
The initial stages should be simpler, so he could set aside finances, management, production, development, logistics, and human resources for now.
Still, once he added up the odds and ends, Fang Ping felt like he still needed about 20 people to get this platform started.
Back then, Ele.me could break some ground with only a few people, but then again they were only operating within a school.
Besides, Fang Ping did not want to spend too much of his time on this, so he had to hire more people in order to satisfy his demands.
These 20 people required an average salary of 5000, at least.
That meant that he would have to spend more than 250,000 in salaries alone every month.
However, the salary was not the biggest of his concerns. In a purely IT company, the employees’ salaries took up a large chunk of the company’s expenses, but Fang Ping did not want a fully IT company. In his case, the salaries should only come up to 40% of his total expenses.
In other words, he had to spend over 600,000 a month.
The startup period would cost even more because office rentals were rarely monthly. Seasonal payments were considered short, and that was not including the deposit.
He had 1.6 million now, but that might not even last the month.
These businesses would not earn much in the beginning, either, since he had to break into the market before he could take any orders. In other words, the early stages only involved investing without return.
“Should I join a delivery company as a franchisee?”
Fang Ping considered it. If he joined a franchise, he could enter the market quickly and take some jobs.
He had to pay an extra franchising fee, but after that, he would earn his returns much faster too.
Still, if he joined a franchise, it would extremely difficult for him to make his own name in the market. Fang Ping did not intend to work for another forever.
“Whatever. For now, I’ll decide on a location and start hiring. Oh, I also need someone who’s smart enough and can handle most matters while I’m away.”
He was not worried about candidates for all the other positions. If there was one thing Magic City had in excess, that would be manpower.
Take a walk around a job fair, and you could find as many people as you wanted.
When it came to a general manager, however, he needed a little luck. If he was unlucky, Fang Ping might only be able to find a halfway decent candidate, in which case he would have to spend a little more time and effort on management.
After a day of scouting, Fang Ping had taken a few rounds around the southern part of the university city.
He had more or less decided where he would set up the delivery posts and the office, so all that remained was to officially start work.
“I’ll complete the preliminary preparations within a month and start spreading the word once the semester starts. I need to start earning back on my investments ASAP.
“I wonder if 1.6 million is enough. Maybe I can take a loan, if possible...”
That night, upon returning to the hotel, Fang Ping went through his usual cultivation routine and then began drafting his recruitment ad.
The first step was always the hardest, and Fang Ping did not mind putting in some effort. Success never came easy.
He did not want to end up like Old Wang, raiding Magic City Martial Arts University and running all over the country on his missions, all for a handful of resources.
Fang Ping did not mind doing quests, but running all over the place for a measly ten or twenty thousand added up to a lot of wasted time.
This was just the beginning, too. Once his martial arts rank increased, he would need even more resources.
Could simply doing mission fulfill all of his needs then? Of course not.
These days, every Grandmaster controlled a vast socioeconomic empire of their own.
One’s prowess in martial arts hinged on more than just talent. Other skills came into play as well, money-making being one...
If you could not earn enough money, you could work with the government, but the government did not need anyone who was merely hired muscle, either.
The many governors all over the country were strong, yes, but they also had to be exceptional at management.
They could earn resources because they could manage a province well. Jin Keming, for example, lacked this ability, and so he was nearly kicked out of office.
Martial arts never existed in a vacuum.
Any person needed food in their bellies and a roof over their heads, and that went for martial artists as well!
Martial artists were growing stronger and stronger precisely because they improved on all fronts at once.
“Old Wang will probably take a government job in the future, huh?”
That thought occurred to Fang Ping. He had no such intention, which was why he was starting his own business now.
Working with the government came with too many restrictions, and it did not suit someone like him.
Footnotes:
Ch 87 Footnote 1
Literally Magic City Jiao Tong University, so probably based on Shanghai Jiao Tong University in real life