Chapter 101: Grew Several Inches Taller

  The school has started, and Ning Qingmeng is busy as usual. It's already Friday afternoon, and she needs to go to the wholesale market. The autumn clothes that need to be put on the market are arriving, and the goods ordered by customers also need to be shipped out one after another. Her mobile phone rings non-stop all day long, and if she doesn't go, Zhang Yu will probably go crazy from busyness.

  "Boss, you're here!" Zhang Yu was busy and looked up to see Ning Qingming coming in, both surprised and delighted. "Just now the factory called and said that a customer had ordered goods, specifically requiring matte beads, but there are no domestic supplies of matte beads, so we have to use imported ones. The imported ones need to include transportation costs, so I need to negotiate with the customer and raise the price. I called the customer, but they insisted that the original contract specified matte beads, and didn't mention a price increase."

  "Ah, that sample's sand-beaded embroidery was originally leftover from the factory's collaboration with another company. I thought it looked good at the time, so I had them sew it onto the clothes. But when we calculated the costs later on, the factory forgot to include the transportation costs. What are we going to do now?" Ning Qingming furrowed her brow. The beads themselves weren't expensive, but the transportation fees were more than the cost of the beads themselves. If they didn't factor in the transportation costs for the sand-beaded embroidery, this batch of goods would definitely be a loss.

  Ning Qingmin thought for a moment and personally called the customer to communicate, but the customer said that because the sample received at the time was very beautiful, it was hung out for pre-sale, and several small wholesalers had already placed orders. If the price is changed at this time, the small merchants will definitely not accept it, and their own reputation will also be affected, and they cannot accept Ning Qingmin's opinion.

  Ning Qingmin hung up the phone and sighed to Zhang Yu: "This batch of goods can only be lost with a smile."

  "It's a good thing he ordered this item early, otherwise when others placed their orders, I would have already adjusted the price." Zhang Yu sat in front of the computer inputting the price list and sent a new price list to each customer's email. Then she turned her head to say to Ning Qingmin who was checking the accounts: "Boss, there are three items that foreign customers ordered with increased sizes, so I also raised the prices accordingly. The factory said that the raw material prices have gone up a bit since you last asked them to order raw materials from the supplier. If not for this large quantity of goods, we might only make enough money to cover the increase in raw material prices."

  "Director Li heard that you're in school and was afraid of disturbing your studies, so he didn't call your cell phone. Instead, he called the landline many times to ask if you've arrived here and said he wants to treat you to dinner."

  "He didn't want to eat, he just wanted to discuss with me whether to stock up on more wool or not." Ning Qingming smiled "Li Zili is also a person who has been rolling around in the business world for so many years, and regarding this sudden price increase of wool, he also has some ideas. I reckon he wants to hoard and speculate, but isn't sure about the situation in the second half of the year, so he wanted to have dinner with me to discuss this matter."

  "The boss is really clever, he guessed his intention at once." Zhang Yu skillfully stored some things in the file and smiled: "I didn't expect that taking computer lessons would teach me to type what I had already learned by myself sitting here fiddling around and figuring it out. What a waste of money."

  "Haha, at first you were afraid to touch the computer in case it broke down. Now you're messing around with it? Just be careful not to lose the new sample pictures." Ning Qingmin looked around and saw that Sun Wen was not there, so she asked: "Where did Ah Wen go?"

  "He drove to the client's company to pick up the pendant." Zhang Yu stood up and organized the order, handed it over to Ning Qingming for review. Stretching his waist, he said: "Foreign merchants still need to use their own pendants. They say our brand is not registered in their country. Our brand is useless even if we have a car."

  "Some of them will also register our brand in other countries. The cost of registering a brand is not much, mainly because the brand has been registered. Then we must have a brand awareness to protect this brand. To make this brand develop, every product must have quality assurance. There are some small problems. We can only sell after removing the brand. Ning Qingming looked at the order and rubbed his head, saying: "All require shipment before National Day as much as possible. The factory is busy during this period! Overtime to rush for shipment, of course, can be shipped on time. But the overtime pay for workers is double. This labor cost is calculated in the clothing gross profit. We earn less again. If there are more orders, you have to negotiate with customers to delay the time a bit. Can't rush together."

  "But, the National Day holiday is just around the corner. It's the peak sales season. All clients want to launch new products during this time to dominate the market." Zhang Yu saw Ning Qing sitting on the sofa, looking a bit tired. She quickly got up and poured her a glass of water, handing it to her as she sat down beside her to look at the orders together. Smiling, she said: "So, having too much business can also be a worry!"

  Ning Qingmin looked at him and pulled out two orders, saying: "These two customers are located so close to each other. To prevent a vicious price war, try not to let them order the same style next time."

  "Alright." Zhang Yu took the order and walked to the computer. He entered the order number and made a note. As he spoke, "Boss, their branded goods all have fixed prices. We do wholesale, so we have to give discounts to let customers pick up the goods. But they distribute them to small wholesalers. The small wholesalers then sell them to

  It's in our hands. Should be able to sell at the price on our signboard, right? How can we lose?

  "When wholesalers sell to small wholesalers, the price of the same product may not be the same everywhere. They will adjust prices according to different locations and consider the potential of their counterparts to make concessions. As a result, when the goods reach retailers, the prices they pay can vary greatly. If two large wholesalers are located close to each other and one sells at a lower price, small wholesalers will flock to that place. This will cause another wholesaler to be unable to sell his products, and since he knows the reason, he will definitely lower his prices. Both parties will then fall into a vicious cycle of competition. Next time they come to us to place an order, they will either ask to be our exclusive customer or try to drive down prices to their advantage in order to wage another price war. Either way, it's not beneficial to us." Ning Qingming explained with a smile, "However, as long as we have a good grasp of the situation, this won't happen."

  "Boss, I don't understand, we've registered the brand, why not just open a specialty store and sell our own clothes?" Zhang Yu looked up at Ning Qingmian and winked, saying: "Thinking about it, our clothes are also a specialty brand, I'm so excited."

  "Fool, opening a specialty store requires directly undertaking market risks, and also needs to have cash as support, and also needs corresponding supporting work, etc., which is not something I am currently capable of doing."

  Let the wholesalers sell the goods to all parts of the country first, and also let people get familiar with this brand. When we register a company ourselves and our strength is enhanced, we can set up a specialty store. By then, it will be natural. Ning Qingmin finished drinking water, feeling not thirsty, took out the tea tray from under the coffee table, boiled water to prepare for brewing Kung Fu tea.

  Zhang Yu hurried over to pick up the leaves and smiled: "Sometimes, Sun Wen and I get tired of eating lunch boxes at noon and will also drink a cup of Gongfu tea."

  Ning Qing saw Zhang Yu talking, but his sitting posture was a bit strange. He glanced at her and said: "You're almost as tall as me, how come you seem taller than me today? Are you still developing?"

  Zhang Yuhong's face turned red, and she said: "I used that thing, afraid of side leakage, used thick sanitary napkins, it felt like sitting on a mini cushion, feeling like the sanitary napkin lifted my butt by several centimeters."

  Ning Qingmin almost laughed to death, and said with a smile: "Xiaoyu, you've been out for so long, when buying this at the supermarket, are you still afraid to carefully select it? Sanitary napkins have come out with many new styles, and there are also thin and absorbent ones that are good!"

  "I went downstairs to the small supermarket that night to buy this, and before I even started picking, I saw Sun Wen's two brothers finish playing basketball and also go into the supermarket to buy soda. I was afraid they would see me, so I quickly grabbed a pack from another side and paid for it. Unexpectedly, what I picked up was again the super-thick kind." Zhang Yu pouted, "Boss, although Sun Wen is strong and has him with us, it's safe, but facing a man every day, some things are inconvenient!"

  Ning Qingmin was delighted, and before he could say anything, Sun Wen walked in with a bag of door hangers in one hand and a lunchbox in the other. Seeing Ning Qingmin, he smiled and said: "Boss, you're in luck! My car passed by a wine house, so I went down to buy a box of crystal dumplings, just right for your afternoon tea snack!"

  It was bought for Zhang Yu to eat, I just took advantage of it! Ning Qingmin didn't break the news either. When Sun Wen put down the box and went to the bathroom, Zhang Yu opened the lunchbox, picked up his chopsticks, and took out a crystal dumpling. After taking a bite, he suddenly burst out laughing.

  "Boss, what's so funny about this dumpling?" Zhang Yu saw Ning Qing smile and also took a closer look at the dumpling, then burst out laughing too, saying in a low voice: "It really does resemble!"

  "It's true, this dumpling is made just like that sanitary napkin with two small white wings sticking out. Ning Qing stared at the crystal dumpling and said: "If you keep talking, I won't be able to eat it anymore, so let's not talk about it."

  Just as they were eating, Sun Wen walked in. Ning Qing said: "Ah Wen, go get the nameplate. Does the translation miss have any other instructions? This is a new customer and we don't know if he has any special requirements for delivery. We need to ask clearly."

  "Boss, the translator said that because the goods need to go through Hong Kong, she hopes the Chinese characters used are traditional ones." Sun Wen smiled and said: "She gave me a bottle of shampoo, and the production place marked on it is Hong Kong. I reckon the client wants to pretend these goods are made in Hong Kong, so they want to use traditional characters!"

  Ning Qing nodded and said, "If we don't put our brand on it, then we're just manufacturers. As long as it's not a counterfeit brand, there's nothing else we can do about it. Because the quality of products made in Hong Kong is guaranteed, many customers like to pretend that their goods are from Hong Kong. There's no way around it, we can only follow suit."

  Just then, two customers came in and Ning Qing hurried over to greet them.