Chapter 60 Opening Business
Chapter 60 Opening Business
After the lively Lantern Festival, the Chinese New Year is completely over.
Although the Chinese New Year has passed, the weather is still very cold, but the heavy snow is not falling one after another like before the New Year. It is obviously much less frequent.
The taking over of the salt shop was very smooth and did not take much effort. Because of the relationship with the General's Mansion, the formalities at the salt shop were completed expeditiously at the government's side. The salt shop also changed from the Liu family's property to Zhu Shenzhu's property, but the official owner was Kang Youfu.
Originally, the owner and clerks of the salt shop were all from the Liu family. After taking over the salt shop, Kang Youfu followed Zhu Shenzhu's instructions and only kept the accountant and two clerks, and fired all the others.
Then, Kang Youfu officially took over as the chief manager and began to prepare for the reopening.
Opening the business was a bit troublesome, because the salt shop was almost an empty shell when it was acquired. Shanxi merchants sold salt, and the salt shop was just a cover. The real big profit was not the daily sales of the salt shop, but the smuggling of private salt.
Because of this, the salt shop didn't have much stock in its warehouse, and the real salt was hidden in other places of the Liu family. Now that the Liu family had collapsed, these treasures had long been divided up, and the stock in the warehouse wouldn't last long.
"Sixth Master, this is the account book I have sorted out, please take a look." The backyard of the salt shop is similar to Kang's tofu shop. In addition to the shop facing the street, the salt shop also has a small courtyard. Most of the backyard is used as a warehouse, and a small part is the office of the manager. This layout is very common.
Zhu Shenzhui was sitting in the room drinking tea, and Kang Youfu was sitting opposite him. Kang Youfu took out an account book from his sleeve and handed it to him. This was the account book he had compiled after taking inventory of the salt shop's inventory and assets in the past few days. When Zhu Shenzhui came over today, Kang Youfu took it out directly.
Zhu Shenzhui took the account book and opened it to look at it carefully.
The accounting methods of the Ming Dynasty were already quite complete, especially since the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, the accounting system was changed, especially strict regulations on the use of counting units, avoiding many previous loopholes.
Moreover, starting from the early years of the Wanli period, Zhang Juzheng's reforms began and the Ming Dynasty further improved accounting methods. Coupled with actual needs, it began to shift from the initial single-entry bookkeeping method to the double-entry bookkeeping method.
Some people say that the bookkeeping method and accounting system in ancient China were very rough. This is a completely wrong concept. If it is a rough or unreasonable system, how could it exist all the time? Many problems lie with people, not with methods. Compared with the rest of the world, the bookkeeping method and accounting system of the Ming Dynasty were quite complete, and it is not an exaggeration to describe them as advanced.
Although the capital numbers in the account book are a bit difficult to read and not as easy to read as Arabic numerals, it is undeniable that this kind of accounting has many advantages.
Zhu Shenzhui did not wave his hand and say that he trusted Kang Youfu and let him handle it himself without looking at anything just because Kang Youfu took the initiative to give him the account book. As a qualified boss, if he had such an attitude, it would be strange if the company was not screwed over.
Trust and system are two completely different things. Only a fool would say such a thing. For subordinates, kindness and severity must be used together. Moreover, in many cases, what you hear is not as good as what you see. Zhu Shenzhui will not be a hands-off manager, letting his subordinates feel that there are loopholes for them to exploit.
He looked at the account book carefully and asked a few questions from time to time about some of the records in the account book. Kang Youfu explained and answered them one by one without hesitation.
After more than half an hour, I finished reading all the account books. This was because I had just taken over the store and there was not much reflected in the account books. When the business gradually develops in the future, it will not be so simple.
"Well done, you are thoughtful." With a smile on his face, Zhu Shenzhui handed the account book back to Kang Youfu and praised him.
"Sixth Master, this is what I should do." Kang Youfu replied respectfully.
Waving his hand, Zhu Shenzhui said: "You are the head shopkeeper now. You will be in charge of everything in this shop from now on. Your current status is different from before, so you need to remember some things."
"From now on, when you are with me, you don't have to call yourself a junior. If a big boss calls himself a junior, what will it say if it gets out?"
"Haha, Xiao... I understand. Thank you for your advice, Master Liu." Kang Youfu was indeed a smart man. He came to his senses as soon as Zhu Shenzhui said that and quickly changed his tone and laughed. To run a salt shop, the source of salt is naturally the key. Now the salt in the shop can't be sold for a long time, not to mention that the real profit of selling salt does not lie in official salt. Kang Youfu is very clear about this.
Kang Youfu told Zhu Shenzhu that he planned to go to Jiezhou one of these days. The Liu family imported salt from Jiezhou in the past. Kang Youfu, who often dealt with the Liu family, knew this matter very well.
But how to get the salt and how to deal with people, this is the first time for Kang Youfu, so he has been thinking about this matter these days and plans to go to Jiezhou as soon as possible to find out the situation and then determine the follow-up operations.
Listening to Kang Youfu's words, Zhu Shenzhui nodded slightly in his heart. It could be seen that Kang Youfu put his heart into it, and he also made plans and had some ideas about what to do after he went to Lizhou. Although some aspects were a bit taken for granted, after all, it was Kang Youfu's first time to be involved in this business. Don't forget that he had only been selling tofu before.
"There's no rush regarding Jiezhou." Zhu Shenzhui waved his hand. He had already made arrangements for this matter. He had connections in Jiezhou, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to smuggle salt for so long.
Now that he had the legitimate salt permit, and with the Liu family's demise, the Liu family's original plan to monopolize the surplus salt in Jiezhou had come to nothing. At this time, Jiezhou was probably more anxious than himself. Without the Liu family's purchase of salt, it would not be so easy to sell the surplus salt. Zhu Shenzhui had been thinking about this issue these days, thinking about taking advantage of this opportunity.
"But Sixth Master, there is not much salt in the store. If we don't go to Jiezhou immediately, we won't be able to last half a month with what we have." Seeing that Zhu Shenzhui didn't seem to be in a hurry at all, Kang Youfu thought that Zhu Shenzhui didn't understand the situation in the store, so he couldn't help but explain.
Seeing his anxious look, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but laugh: "It doesn't matter, just sell it like this for now, you will understand in a few days..."
"Sixth Master..."
Seeing that Kang Youfu still wanted to explain, Zhu Shenzhui waved his hand again, and Kang Youfu forced himself to swallow back the words that were about to come out of his mouth.
Until Zhu Shenzhu left, Kang Youfu was still wondering what Zhu Shenzhu's intention was. If he said that Zhu Shenzhu didn't know anything about doing business, Kang Youfu would never believe it.
Without mentioning the previous contacts, let's start with the time when he took over the salt shop and became the manager. He and Zhu Shencui had discussed several times about how to run the business in the future. Although Zhu Shencui was only the boss, sometimes Kang Youfu felt that Zhu Shencui was more familiar with the business than himself.
But now Zhu Shenzhui didn't care about the lack of inventory in the shop, which made Kang Youfu confused. Because the shop was about to open, if the store opened without preparing the supply of goods, how could the business be done?
But the problem was that Zhu Shenzhui was the boss, and he was just the shopkeeper. The boss had spoken, and he, as the shopkeeper, had to listen. Thinking of this, Kang Youfu couldn't help but laugh and cry and shook his head. He was at a loss, and didn't know whether it was right or wrong to agree to let Zhu Shenzhui be the shopkeeper.
Zhu Shenzhui did not try to guess what Kang Youfu was thinking. Besides, he would not care even if he knew what Kang Youfu was thinking.
Zhu Shenzhui had already made plans for the operation of this salt shop, and he was also fully aware of the current shortage of inventory in the store.
But what Kang Youfu saw as a problem was not a problem at all for Zhu Shenzhui. Because Kang Youfu didn't know that others didn't have salt, but he had a lot of it. Not to mention that most of the salt was now hidden in Yangtou, the salt in Wangjia Village alone was enough for this salt shop to sell for more than half a year.
Instead of rushing to Jiezhou to find a way to import salt, it would be better to transport some salt directly from Wangjia Village. Therefore, the inventory issue is not a problem at all, which is something Kang Youfu does not understand.
The next key is to use the previous channels and the salt permit privileges in hand to take advantage of the gap in the Liu family's downfall to get as much surplus salt as possible from Jiezhou. As long as this is done, the daily operation of this salt shop in Pingyang City is nothing. The real money is in the surplus salt, which is Zhu Shenzhu's real purpose.
Kang Youfu was still unaware of this matter, and Zhu Shencui actually did not want to hide it from him, after all, the operation of this deal would be handed over to him in the future. To Zhu Shencui, Kang Youfu was of great use.
However, this requires Zhu Shenzhui to go to Wangjia Village first, and then explain these to Kang Youfu after handling the follow-up arrangements. Anyway, this matter is not urgent, let Kang Youfu open the shop first, and let the normal business run first. The rest will not be too late after he returns from Wangjia Village.
(End of this chapter)