pjbooks Chapter 89 [Profit Sharing]
Chapter 89 [Profit Sharing]
Chapter 89 [Profit Sharing]
"Boss Liu!"
"Boss Liu, how's the stall doing?"
"Has the person who reported us been caught?"
At the entrance of a beef kueh teow soup shop on the street, Liu Zhuohao and his group had just gotten out of the car and were about to walk in when the owners of several nearby shops and regular customers recognized them. They all stood up, cupped their hands in greeting, and asked him all about the previous rights protection incident.
Liu Zhuohao quickly stopped, cupping his hands in return while explaining loudly with a smile, "The stall will be closed for a few days. Don't worry, it's not because we've been reported again, it's just that we're too busy with other things!"
"Yes, the person who reported us has been found and we are cooperating with the investigation, so we haven't been able to set up our stall recently."
"The results will be clear soon. Thank you for your concern. I won't let you down."
He responded to this concern in just a few words.
"The results are out? So fast?" Chen Youyin, who was standing next to him, was genuinely surprised to hear this, as even he was unaware of it.
His niece, Chen Min, looked over curiously from behind.
"Well, we'll see the local news tonight for the details." Liu Zhuohao exchanged a knowing glance with Crow and Fat Cat.
Chen Youyin was unaware of this news, but the two people on Bilibili already knew about it in advance and had even seen the sample video that he was about to release.
"On the news again? And on a local news program?" Chen Youyin's voice rose slightly, filled with regret. "Boss Liu, you've closed your stall?"
"Oh dear, it breaks my heart to hear this! With such great momentum, it's such a waste that you're not taking advantage of this opportunity to open your shop!"
Liu Zhuohao glanced helplessly at the even more gazes cast his way around him, and quickly pulled Chen Youyin's arm to lead him into the store: "Where's the private room? Let's go in first, don't let us get surrounded here."
"Boss Liu, you're not a big star, it can't be that serious, can it?" Crow said with amusement, thinking that the statement was a bit exaggerated.
Even if she trended on Weibo, it shouldn't be enough to get recognized in public, right?
Even celebrities, only the top-tier or second-tier stars, have a chance of being recognized by passersby on the street, right?
"Yes, yes, let's hurry up and go into the private room. I was mistaken." Chen Youyin immediately chimed in, lowering his voice as he explained to the two, "Boss Liu's reputation is quite famous in our little town now. When I go out for tea with friends lately, everyone who mentions him says they know him!"
"You're from big cities, you don't understand the significance of making the local news in a small city like ours!"
Upon hearing this, both the crow and the fat cat were stunned, seemingly confused about their own identity.
In their eyes, he should just be an ordinary person from an ordinary family who set up a stall to pay for his tuition after graduating from high school and became a somewhat famous blogger.
"Hurry up and go in, you'll find out soon enough—" Before Chen Youyin could finish speaking, a shirtless man...
A man with a towel draped over his shoulder approached with a smile and patted Liu Zhuohao on the shoulder familiarly: "Boss Liu, I heard you've got it all sorted out again? You're going to be on TV?"
Before Liu Zhuohao could answer, he lowered his voice and asked with a hint of a smile, "Oops, by the way, Boss Liu, what's your zodiac sign? My wife insists I ask her, saying she wants to know what your Chinese zodiac animal is—"
Liu Zhuohao:
'
Chen Youyin glared at him, half-jokingly and half-seriously shooing him away: "Beef vendor, go cut your meat, don't come here talking nonsense. You've really gone crazy buying lottery tickets! If you ask any more questions, I won't leave you any good meat next time!"
"Our factory is nearby. We can take you two to have a look after we finish eating."
Once inside the reserved private room, everyone took their seats. Chen Youyin, as the host, warmly greeted them, "Try something first. You can't find beef like this anywhere else."
"Xiaomin, you blanch the meat, and prepare the sauce according to our local customs—"
After some polite refusals, Liu Zhuohao was invited to the head seat, sitting right between Chen Youyin and Xiao Bizhan.
The conversation started with beef and food again —
The three of them had already discussed things a little over an hour ago, and now that Chen Youyin had joined them, they had another round of conversation.
But unlike before, the three of them were just chatting and didn't actually eat anything.
This time, they ate and chatted, and the two of them quickly gained a very intuitive understanding of why the beef here is famous.
Chen Min worked swiftly, using a slotted spoon to dart up and down in the bubbling beef bone broth, evenly distributing large, slightly pink slices of beef into the four people's bowls.
Pick it up with chopsticks, roll it in the satay sauce, and put it in your mouth. It's fresh, sweet, tender, and smooth, melting in your mouth with almost no chewing, leaving a fragrant aftertaste.
"It really is different." Crow swallowed his second bite and couldn't help but mutter, "I've also eaten Chaoshan beef hot pot in Shanghai, at famous restaurants, and they're not cheap, but the taste—why does it just not feel as authentic as this?"
"The ingredients, the knife skills, the timing—if any of these are off, it just won't taste right," Chen Youyin explained with a touch of pride. "It's like you guys in the internet industry; if any one of these aspects goes wrong, all the users will leave."
The fat cat smiled and nodded, but its attention didn't completely leave the bowl in front of it.
Less than ten minutes after we sat down, the three plates of meat were already empty. There was quite a lot in each person's bowl, but our stomachs still felt empty, and we felt even hungrier.
"Uncle, shall I ask them to cut a few more plates, and add some meatballs and offal?" Chen Min stood up at the right moment.
"Cut more, bring more flank, chuck, and tenderloin, and also the brisket, it smells so good!" Chen Youyin instructed. "And bring two more bottles of wine."
"Understood." Chen Min replied and left, the door to the private room closing gently behind her.
Fat Cat put down his chopsticks and sincerely praised, "Delicious! Once you have this appetite, I feel like I can keep eating forever."
At this moment, Chen Youyin stood up, took the brandy that the waiter had just brought in, opened the bottle with practiced ease, and poured a small half-cup into each of the four glasses on the table.
The amber-colored liquor slowly clung to the glass.
"Come on, let's have the first drink to welcome our two friends who have come from afar, and to wish us all the best in our upcoming talks!"
He was the first to raise his glass.
Crow and Fat Cat immediately raised their glasses, as did Liu Zhuohao.
The wine glasses clinked together gently, making a crisp sound.
The moment the wine is poured and the glasses clink, the atmosphere subtly shifts.
Just now, when we first met, it was purely about food and pleasantries.
At this moment, an unspoken consensus permeated the air: the appetizers were over, and the main course was about to begin.
When discussing business, one cannot do without a meal, and even more so, without a drink. This principle applies to all places, from north to south.
Chen Youyin downed half a glass in one gulp, let out a long sigh, as if the drink had given him the energy to start the formal conversation.
He looked at the crow and the fat cat: "Boss Liu has been bringing up this collaboration with me for a while now, hasn't he?"
Liu Zhuohao picked up the conversation, also looking at Crow: "Yeah, from the first time I posted a message on the site to now, it's been about a month, almost two months?"
"—Yes, more or less." Crow put down his glass, his tone becoming more formal. "The platform has always been quite encouraging and supportive of this new cooperation model with local physical brands."
He put it rather tactfully, and his expression wasn't very natural.
In fact, when he first tried to explore the platform, the feedback was quite lukewarm. It wasn't until his videos of random street food gained some popularity that he sent over the site manager's contact information.
It wasn't until recently, when his videos of defending his rights went viral and even brought some new users to the website, that the platform's attitude towards him changed.
However, there's no need to delve into the past now.
"Yes, the site manager has personally communicated with me several times and attaches great importance to it," Liu Zhuohao said, then turned to Chen Youyin to explain, "The site manager is the founder of the website, and the website has now started to raise funds and is developing very well."
"However, for this reason, the station manager can only be considered one of the bosses."
1
"But it already carries considerable weight."
"Financing?" Chen Youyin's eyes lit up. He understood the term; it meant that the business was expanding and that there was capital backing it.
This gave him a more intuitive understanding of the importance of the platform for cooperation.
Fat Cat glanced at himself with some surprise, seemingly not expecting that he was also paying attention to the capital dynamics behind the website.
"I think that since we're all sitting here today, we definitely have a cooperative intention." Seeing that the atmosphere was right, Liu Zhuohao lightly dipped the end of his chopsticks into some sauce and steered the conversation to the core issue, "The rest is just two things: how to divide the profits and what each of us should do."
He paused, and seeing that both sides nodded slightly, he continued, his tone calm but clear: "To put it bluntly, this matter can be seen as three parties partnering to do a business."
He dipped his chopsticks in satay sauce and drew a triangle on the tablecloth.
"A platform is like a prime shop; it provides a stable flow of customers and a safe environment for people to buy things."
"We can discuss the value of this portion through rent," which is essentially a fixed GG fee to buy out the location and time.
"But I think what's more in the long run is a commission based on revenue, that is, a percentage of profits. The platform definitely prefers the latter, right?"
He looked at the fat cat.
"certainly."
Fat Cat nodded without hesitation. A one-time buyout cannot predict long-term value; revenue sharing is the only way to achieve a deep partnership and share in the growth dividends.
"Okay, let's split it up then."
Liu Zhuohao moved his chopsticks to the other corner of the triangle. "This side of Boss Chen's shop is where our supplies come from and where the kitchen is located."
"You have complete control over the quality, taste, and supply of the beef balls."
"This part can also be discussed: whether to have a fixed purchase price or to split it with sales revenue. However, Boss Chen would definitely prefer a split, because if the meatballs sell well, you will earn more and be more motivated to make the quality the best."
He looked at Chen Youyin.
"Absolutely! We'll definitely split the profits!" Chen Youyin immediately declared, his voice booming. He understood the principle that only by aligning interests could things last.
Liu Zhuohao nodded, his chopsticks finally pointing to himself, landing at the last corner of the triangle, the side connecting the shop and the source of goods: "Lastly, it's me. I'm probably like—the shopkeeper, the salesperson, right?"
He put down his chopsticks and looked honestly at the two people on either side of him: "My job is to take advantage of the good location provided by the platform to attract customers, and rely on their trust in me to sell the high-quality goods provided by Boss Chen in a real and practical way."
"I neither produce anything nor am I part of the platform, but I am responsible for connecting the two sides, turning traffic into real sales, and delivering products to customers who appreciate them."
"But at the same time, I definitely bear the greatest risk. I guarantee with my name and reputation that if there's a problem with the product, the customer will definitely come to me first, right?"
After he finished speaking, the private room was quiet for a moment, with only the soft bubbling of the hot pot broth.
"Hehe, Boss Liu is absolutely right." Fat Cat spoke first with a smile, his tone tactful. "But then again, the platform also bears considerable risks."
"We'll push your streams, feature you on the homepage, allow and even encourage you to embed Google in your video content, and we may even develop technical support later, such as a small feature to make it easier for users to jump to purchase—all of this is backed by our platform's credibility and user experience."
"From the users' perspective, we're all in this together; to some extent, we share the risk —"
When he responded, Chen Youyin was equally unwilling to back down.
He put down his wine glass, his voice rougher than Fat Cat's, carrying a hint of江湖气 (a kind of江湖江湖气 is a Chinese term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry): "Our factory also faces considerable risks! Boss Liu deals directly with customers; before you buy anything, he's using your reputation as a guarantee."
"But once the goods are sold and in someone else's hands, that's a guarantee from the reputation of our Chen family's factory, built up over decades!"
He emphasized, "The packaging will definitely have our factory's address and phone number printed on it, showing that the factory is actually located there!"
"If someone really has a problem with the food, or feels something is wrong, they can come looking for it at the address!"
"Our factory, our Chen family's brand, can't be moved or shirked! We'll take the risk!"
Everyone talks about the risks, but nobody talks about profit sharing, yet everyone talks about profit sharing.
"Besides, I'm a rough guy and don't really understand the intricacies of your website."
Chen Youyin said bluntly, "But in my opinion, even if Boss Liu doesn't call us 'GG' (a derogatory term for someone who works at a certain company), as long as his videos are good and get high views, shouldn't your website still promote them?"
"Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to other bloggers, right?"
"So, is this streaming service an extra cost you incurred for the partnership, or is it something your platform should have provided from the start?"
The fat cat stopped abruptly.
The crow chimed in at the opportune moment: "Regarding streaming, it really depends on the video quality—"
"So!" Chen Youyin interrupted before he could finish, raising his voice slightly and making his Chaozhou accent more pronounced, "The platform can only contribute a limited amount for this collaboration, or rather, much of it is what you should have done anyway, right?"
As he spoke, he glanced at Liu Zhuohao before turning back to Fat Cat and striking a pose: "Since we're splitting it up anyway, let's just call it ten shares."
"Logically speaking, it's a 40/30 split, so one person should take the lion's share (40%). I don't want that lion's share."
He waved his hand generously, appearing very righteous, "I think Boss Liu should take it. He's on the front line, directly facing the customers, he's a real salesperson, and he faces the most pressure."
"Moreover, he's quite famous here now. Many people may know Boss Liu, but they don't know about our Chen family's small factory."
"After all, I'm not the only one in our area that processes meatballs."