When Zhang Huaxiu returned home from work that day, she looked troubled. Chen Fei asked immediately, “What is going on with your shop? Why are you moving across the street all of a sudden?”
“Our landlady saw how good our business is and wanted to take the shop back so she can run it herself. Shu Yan is part-owner of the storefront across the street and the other boss feels that the storefront was too small for their purpose and planned to move it over to City Nan Mall so Shu Yan is going to use that for her new shop.”
“Well, that’s great then. It won’t make any difference to you at all. As though you have never moved.” Chen Fei felt that it was just across the street from their current location. Even if businesses was to dip a little after their initial move, that should recover quickly.
“It’s not that. Shu Yan talked to me today about something else and I want to talk to you about it.” Zhang Huaxiu had more or less made up her mind; she just wanted validation from someone else.
“What is it?” Chen Fei thought that perhaps Shu Yan had let Zhang Huaxiu go. “If are you not happy at work you can always quit. I don’t make that much money but I can at least support the two of you. Don’t worry. I will work even harder to give you a better life.”
“What are you talking about?” Zhang Huaxiu gave him a look. “Shu Yan said she had limited time and energy and that she needed to focus more on her company and wouldn’t have time for the shop. As such, she had provided me with two propositions. One is for her to hand over the inventory and the storefront across the street to me and I will run it myself. The other one is for her to pay for the remodeling of the shop across the street and she won’t charge me for the inventory. I’ll run the shop from this point forward and she will step back. We will split the profit 50/50.”
“What does that mean?” Chen Fei was baffled.
“Meaning she wouldn’t be responsible for merchandizing from this point forward. I will be taking that over. Aiya! Let me put it this way. I will still be doing everything that I am doing right now, plus merchandizing. But I will also own 50% of the shop. Meaning I will be a real boss for this shop. Shu Yan will only get her share of the profit. Get it? What do you think?” Zhang Huaxiu looked at Chen Fei intensely.
“In a long run, the first option is the better one. You have been the shop manager for a while now and know all the ins and outs other than merchandizing. You can totally handle running the shop on your own. You will have much more freedom as your own boss and all the profit goes to you. The benefit of the second option is that you won’t need to sink any money in it. It is like getting 50% ownership for free. It’s better starting out, but less profitable over time. Just think about it, your shop is bringing in roughing 2,000 yuan a day. Let’s just take half of that at 1,000 yuan a day. That’s 30,000 yuan a month. Subtracting rent and utilities, Shu Yan is netting 20,000 yuan at least. How much would it cost you to take over the inventory and the pay for the transfer fee of the storefront across the street? Do they add up to 10,000 yuan? Even at 10,000 yuan, you will make it all back in 5 months.” Chen Fei analyzed it in a very rational fashion.
“Our shop has membership and most of our long-term customers are our members. Once we have moved across the street, we will be able to bring them all over with some promotional activities. Business will be just fine. That land lady was being silly. Didn’t it occur to her why our shop is doing the best giving all the clothing shops in West City Nan Road? Is she better than all of those others?” Zhang Huaxiu shook her head and sighed.
It was easy for one to los perspective when one was too overly envious. All she was seeing was the profit and nothing else.
To put it bluntly, the profit had clouded her mind.
