Chapter 345: Chapter 210: Recruiting the Stragglers! Help Me Ascend the Throne
「A short while later, in the office.」
Chen Jincheng looked at Ximeng. "You know, I was determined not to fool around in my own office. You’ve made me break my own rule."
Ximeng said in a sweet, coy voice, "Boss, you were clearly just guiding me on the secretary outfit I designed. We were only taking measurements."
Chen Jincheng chuckled. "Such a way with words. Your English teacher would be proud."
"Hmph!" Ximeng let out a playful snort, clearly quite pleased with herself.
After changing back into her original secretary outfit, she walked behind Chen Jincheng and began massaging his shoulders. In a saccharine voice, she asked, "Boss, that little game... ’When there’s work, the secretary does it. When there’s no work, you do the secretary.’ Do all you bosses love playing it?"
"Am I that kind of person?" Chen Jincheng retorted. "Ximeng, you’re the one who made me break my rule. I can’t be an upright gentleman anymore. It’s all your fault."
"Alright, alright, it’s all my fault," Ximeng cooed. "Boss, take me with you on your next business trip. We could even play the room-sharing game."
"What are you talking about? I don’t understand." ’I’m actually tempted,’ Chen Jincheng thought, then asked with a smile, "Ximeng, let’s do the math first. How much capital will your studio need?"
Ximeng grew serious at his words. "Boss, we don’t need too much at the start. I plan to begin by marketing the secretary outfit I designed. Right now, we just need to rent an office—one right here in the Jinmao Building will do—and find a contract manufacturer."
"Boss, aren’t you on good terms with President Li from Jinghong Women’s Clothing upstairs? We can just ask her to handle the manufacturing. The cost for one of my secretary outfits plus stockings is just over 30 yuan. If we produce 50,000 units, with a 10% down payment plus manufacturing fees, we’d need around 200,000 yuan. Add in the other startup costs for the studio, and a total investment of about 500,000 yuan should be enough."
"So, as long as you help me come up with a marketing campaign, Boss, and we make a good video ad, we can sell all these units. If we sell them at 200 yuan apiece, it’ll be enough to cover the final payment to President Li and even turn a huge profit. Then we can start expanding the team and hire a few more fashion designers to help me."
"It’s good you have a plan. And 500,000 is a small matter," Chen Jincheng said, looking teasingly at his beautiful secretary. "But you’ve been a car model for so long. You don’t even have 500,000 yuan?" Her strategy was sound; for an internet celebrity, creating a brand was all about monetizing fame and traffic.
Of course, the prerequisite was generating that traffic. Otherwise, Ximeng would be facing losses, unable to pay the final balance, or forced to pay a penalty for breach of contract.
However, generating traffic was also a small matter for him.
This was the real reason she had sought his investment and was willing to take only a 49% stake in the company.
Ximeng knew he had seen right through her, but she still put on a coy act. "Boss, I’m just a poor girl. You’re the only one I can rely on!"
A secretary with such masterful "tea art" really knew how to say things that people liked to hear.
He said, "Go register the company and prepare the contract. You’ll also have to talk to President Li yourself."
"Okay, thank you, Boss!" Ximeng happily gave him a kiss, then walked out of the office, her face beaming with excitement.
Chen Jincheng picked up his phone and saw a message from Lin Hao. It was a comparison of the foot traffic and sales performance between Radiant Square and Xinghe Plaza over the past few days.
It was clear that Xinghe Plaza’s foot traffic and sales had been utterly crushed by Radiant Square.
Lin Hao sent another message: "Lao Cheng, Radiant Square is now the most famous spot in Coastal City. The plaza needs to recruit a few internet celebrities as models for a promotional video. Aside from Zhu Ling, I’ll pick three from my side, and you pick three from yours. While it’s not a lot of money for us, it’s a nice windfall for the artists at our company."
"Got it. Let’s talk in person tonight," Chen Jincheng replied.
The promotional video model gig was just as Lin Hao had said. For an internet celebrity to shoot a video, the appearance fee, even for someone like Yinyin with over five million fans, was only about 200,000 yuan.
To him, 200,000 yuan really wasn’t a lot of money. He rarely streamed, but with his current popularity, he could easily earn more than 200,000 in virtual gifts from a single stream.
Besides, Extreme Bar was doing very well now. Not only did it have Cen Ning, a beautiful DJ with over five million fans, as a resident, but it also had Wang Qiqi, a singer with over three million fans. On top of that, internet celebrities from Second-Life Star would hold events there from time to time, making it the most famous bar in Coastal City.
Extreme Bar was even quite famous throughout the entire country.
When people came to Coastal City and wanted to go to a bar, they were usually recommended Extreme Bar, with the added comment, "The one opened by Chen Jincheng."
That simple fact immediately made Extreme Bar seem special, making people feel like they absolutely had to check it out.
Therefore, even with a 10,000-yuan minimum spend, the occupancy rate was still at 70%, and its nightly profit could now reach 350,000 yuan.
Thanks to his popularity, his traffic, and a series of marketing campaigns, Second-Life Star was also developing very well. Its daily commission revenue was even higher than that.
He could even leverage the SS-Class promotional boost Tiao Yin had given him to divert some of the hype to his company’s artists, increasing that revenue figure by another huge margin.
However, for artists like Yinyin, shooting a video for a 200,000-yuan fee was a great deal. They would still get to pocket 80,000 yuan from their 40% cut.
That was already more than what an average person earned in a year; in fact, the vast majority of people didn’t even make 80,000 yuan annually.
After finishing his chat with Lin Hao, he went online to browse the latest news when a particular headline suddenly caught his attention.
