In truth, Wang An already had a complete set of operational procedures in mind for trading mountain goods.
After all, the act of trading goods for profit was fundamentally the same regardless of the product; while the commodities differed, the process remained largely identical.
Furthermore, Wang An had built his fortune trading goods in his previous life, so he knew exactly how to conduct business.
However, Wang An still wanted to hear what Qiao Xiaohu had in mind.
Hearing this, Qiao Xiaohu frowned and said
"I want to set up a collection point in our county town, and then buy pine nuts and dried mushrooms every day. Besides that, I'll go door-to-door to buy them from the various hamlets."
After Qiao Xiaohu finished, Wang An instinctively asked
"And then?"
Qiao Xiaohu paused, looking a bit bewildered. "And then? There is no 'and then.' That's all I've thought of."
Wang An looked at Qiao Xiaohu with a face full of speechlessness.
"Holy shit, given the current situation, how are you going to go door-to-door? Oh, right, I have a four-wheel vehicle and a walk-behind tractor, so you'll just drive the four-wheeler around? Fuck, do you have any idea how much that costs? All the money you make will just go into the gas tank!"
Qiao Xiaohu was completely stunned by Wang An's barrage of questions. Looking lost, he said
"Then Big Brother, what should I do? I'll just follow your lead."
Wang An raised his glass and clinked it with Qiao Xiaohu's, saying
"I'm definitely not doing the business myself; I'm not doing business again in this lifetime. We'll do it like you do with those small commodities—I provide the money and teach you how to handle it, and I'll take a cut of the profits. How does that sound?"
Qiao Xiaohu's eyes widened as he asked
"Big Brother, I'm just puzzled. With your immense talent, wouldn't doing anything be better than farming? Why do you insist on sticking to that little mountain valley?"
Wang An smiled faintly and said
"What 'immense talent'? The way you put it makes me sound like some kind of immortal. Let me tell you, everyone has their own way of living. You think staying in that little valley is boring, but I think it's quite interesting."
Qiao Xiaohu said indignantly
"Anyway, I just feel like there's nothing you don't know how to do, Big Brother. You can do everything; you're just too lazy to do it."
Wang An ate a couple of peanuts and said while chewing
"Enough, stop talking about useless things. Probably by next year, or the year after, individuals will be allowed to start companies. When the time comes, the two of us will establish a company specifically for trading small commodities and mountain goods."
After Wang An finished, Qiao Xiaohu said
"I know about companies. There are already companies like that over in YW."
Wang An nodded.
"Mm-hmm, they already have them there, so it'll definitely happen here soon. I'll teach you how to set up a company when the time comes. For now, let's talk about this mountain goods collection..."
Following that, Wang An explained the operational procedures and methods to Qiao Xiaohu.
In reality, the method was quite simple: it was nothing more than contacting the village chiefs, small shop owners, or influential people in each hamlet and having them act as agents to collect these items.
Of course, to make them willing to do this, he had to leave them enough profit margin.
However, there was a prerequisite: they had to find a way to transport the collected goods to the county town and strictly control the quality of the various products.
This way, it solved the problem of manpower and transportation, and most importantly, the financial pressure wouldn't be as great.
When Wang An reached this point, Qiao Xiaohu proactively asked
"Big Brother, what if they don't trust us and refuse to collect the goods?"
To be fair, the question Qiao Xiaohu asked was actually quite critical.
Mainly, since they were strangers, no one would be willing to spend their own money to collect a pile of mountain goods and let them sit there. What if I finish collecting them, but you decide you don't want them, or you force the price down?
One must realize that for farmers, mountain goods didn't cost money; they only required a bit of hard work and diligence to gather from the mountains.
Furthermore, in this era, business had only just been liberalized. In the minds of the vast majority of people, trading was still a taboo.
After all, there was still a crime at this time called "speculation and profiteering."
After Qiao Xiaohu asked, Wang An explained with a smile and asked back
"This problem can be solved with one thing. Xiaohu, what do you think that thing is?"
Qiao Xiaohu thought for a long time, but eventually shook his head and smiled bitterly
"Big Brother, I really don't know, and I can't guess it."
Wang An didn't give the answer immediately. Instead, he gestured with his wine glass. Qiao Xiaohu immediately picked up his own glass, lowered the rim of his glass below Wang An's, and then clinked them.
After they both took a sip of wine, Wang An said with a chuckle
"That thing is money. Remember, Xiaohu, in business, there is nothing that money cannot solve. As long as the money is in place, anything can be settled."
Qiao Xiaohu couldn't help but ask back
"Big Brother, but they don't trust me, and I don't trust them. I don't even know them. If I just give them money directly, wouldn't I be too naive?"
It must be said that Qiao Xiaohu's mind reacted quite quickly; he instantly understood what Wang An meant.
Wang An said unhurriedly
"Giving them money directly for collection definitely won't work; I don't trust them either. We can give them a small benefit first to get them to encourage the villagers to gather more goods. Anyway, once the goods are gathered, even if they can't be sold in the end, the villagers lose nothing. Then, we set a collection date with them. When the date arrives, we only stay in that village to buy for one day. Once the time is up, we're gone."
Hearing Wang An's words, Qiao Xiaohu's eyes lit up. Just as he was about to speak, Wang An spoke again
"That's the general process, but there are many details you must pay attention to. For example, scales. Some scales are inaccurate, so you must prepare two or three extra."
"And then there's order. As soon as people gather in a crowd, all sorts of low-lifes and low-life problems will emerge. If you run into a few troublemakers, it'll be even more problematic. These are all things that must be guarded against."
Following this, Wang An listed a great many areas where things could go wrong and various ways to handle them; essentially, he laid out every possible scenario he could think of.
Qiao Xiaohu was truly diligent and actually pulled out a small notebook to record everything. It was one thing that Qiao Xiaohu's handwriting was ugly, but many of the characters were clearly just homophones.
Of course, since he was recording it for himself and not for others to see, it was fine as long as he could understand it.
To be honest, it was rare to see someone teach business like Wang An did; he was one step short of just handing the money to Qiao Xiaohu.
(End of Chapter)