Whether it was Li Mu's parents or Zhao Ziqiu's parents, they all felt that Li Mu receiving a GBE from the Queen of England was something to be proud of. However, in Li Mu's eyes, this was only part of the deal between him and the royal family. If he was not willing to use his special advantages to pave the way for Prince William's future, the Queen of England would not have taken out the highest medal.
In such a special deal, he used his own resources as currency, and the royal family used their privileges as value. What Li Mu really wanted was not a medal, but the help the royal family could bring him from the political level in the future.
When Zhao Xianliang heard that Li Mu wanted to help pave the way for Prince William, he immediately put forward a suggestion. "Li Mu, as the crown prince, Prince William will definitely have a lot of contact with Hua Xia in the future. It's only a matter of time before he officially appears on the political stage. In this case, it's better to let him take on the role of the country's spokesperson in advance. In this way, the royal family will be more grateful to you."
Li Mu asked curiously, "Uncle Zhao, which aspect are you referring to?"
Zhao Xianliang said, "My suggestion is that you invite William to Hua Xia for an inspection visit in your personal capacity. However, this' inspection visit 'has nothing to do with our Hua Xia government. It's entirely your personal behavior. You can invite him to Hua Xia as a guest and visit your own enterprises, such as your Makino Technology, Taobao, Alipay, and Taobao Logistics. As long as he comes, even if it's a private meeting, the media will definitely give him a lot of coverage. At that time, William's name in the country will be greatly improved. He can even show his diplomatic potential to the British Parliament. Maybe next time when there's a major national event, he can appear as a representative."
Li Mu's eyes suddenly lit up. Zhao Xianliang's suggestion was indeed a good idea. If it was done in this way, it would definitely have a great impact on William's popularity and support rate. Moreover, it would also deepen Europe's impression of Hua Xia and Hua Xia's enterprises. It could be said to be killing two birds with one stone.
Therefore, Li Mu hurriedly said, "Uncle Zhao, thank you for your reminder. I'll arrange this matter later."
After Li Mu reported his work to the four elders, he curiously asked his mother about the recent business progress.
Nanny Li introduced all the clothing brands that had obtained the agency rights one by one as if she was counting her family treasures. Then she said to Li Mu, "We currently have 45 direct-sale stores in the province."
Li Mu asked in surprise, "So many?"
"Yes." Li Ma said with a smile, "The speed of opening a store is very fast. First, we do a general market research. If it is worth doing, we will immediately choose a location. Then, we will build the store. The speed of building the store is very fast. From the construction to the acceptance inspection, it will only take more than two months. We can open in three months. Moreover, the investment is not big. The money you gave us last time, in addition to the renovation of the department store, we basically used the rest of the money to build the direct stores. Then, we put the store in the bank as a mortgage. The bank gave us a lot of preferential policies, which are basically ultra-low-interest loans."
Li Mu sighed and said, "You must have worked hard to build so many stores in such a short period of time."
Papa Lee said with a smile, "It's not hard at all. It's like a game. We drove there to have a look. If we think it's good, we arranged for someone to talk to the landlord. After signing the agreement, the cooperative decoration company directly sent the project manager and surveyor to the site. After a few days, the design came out. Then, they went to a few managers and found more local workers. Soon, it was done."
"But you can't manage so many stores …" Li Mu really didn't expect that his parents were becoming more and more obsessed with their career. In such a short period of time, they became the general agents of so many brands and opened so many direct stores. More than 40 stores, the scale was already a little scary.
Auntie Li smiled and said, "I basically don't care about the store's matters. All of the forty or so stores have been split out, and each store has a store manager who was personally trained by us. Then, your aunts and uncles, as well as your aunts and uncles, are basically each in charge of one to several stores. They are responsible for supervising the store managers, following up on the operation data, and ensuring that the stores are operating normally. As for the inventory and sales, they are all recorded through the computer system. Every day, how many items are sold, how much they earn, and how much inventory they have left are all clearly recorded in the system. We just need to send a few professional financial personnel to check on it regularly. Up until now, there have been no mistakes."
Li Mu couldn't help asking, "How is the profit?"
"Pretty good." Li Ma said, "I feel that the purchasing power of ordinary people has been increasing recently. Basically, the sales of all the stores are growing steadily. Most of the stores have a monthly net profit between 50,000 to 100,000 yuan. In larger cities, it's about 100,000 yuan. Basically, 80% of the profits are given to the company, and 20% to the people in charge of the stores, who are all relatives."
At this time, Xie Yun couldn't help reminding her, "Sister Yunfang, although it's common to use relatives in business, it's still rare to use relatives like you. The more family-style the business is, the more difficult it is to manage, and the more we need to guard against it. Otherwise, once the atmosphere is bad, it'll be too difficult to get it back."
Li Ma nodded in agreement and said, "His father and I have also considered this, so we'll put it bluntly first. If anyone acts like a rat, we'll take back a certain number of stores in his hands and directly cut off part of his income. If it's serious, we'll directly take back all the stores and stop the cooperation. Moreover, we have a professional inspection and audit team. With them, the financial situation of each store is clear at a glance. The supervision and punishment measures are strict, so they don't dare to think too much."
Xie Yun gave a thumbs up and sighed, "Sister Yunfang, you really have a way. You use both kindness and power, and make clear rewards and punishments. These are the two most important principles to maintain a family business."
Li Ma said with some embarrassment, "Sister, don't praise me. I'm just showing off my slight skill in front of an expert in front of you."
Xie Yun said with a smile, "Of course not. Although Mr. Zhao's business is big, he can't handle the relationship of relatives involved in the operation of the company well. In the past, several of his relatives worked with him, but they were basically kicked out later. The reason was that he trusted them too much from the beginning. In addition, he adopted the strategy of appeasement. In the end, they didn't know how to restrain themselves at all. Instead, they became worse. In the end, they shed all pretense of cordiality, and they couldn't even be relatives anymore."
Li Ma nodded and said, "We were also worried about this at the beginning, but later, his father and I also thought about it carefully. Our son is promising. Speaking of which, we can just retire and enjoy life, but we have to take care of our relatives after all. We can't ignore other families just because our family is doing well. But you say, we can't take care of them all. As the saying goes, it's better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish."
Zhao Xianliang said with a smile, "Sister-in-law is right. We can't ignore our relatives, but we can't just rely on money to support them. The best way is to take care of them and let them have a better development prospect."
Li Ma said, "That's what we thought, so we took some money from our son to run this business. It can be regarded as a buffer between our son and these relatives. Otherwise, if the relatives want to meddle in our son's business, our son will be in a difficult position. He is doing a big business, and we can't let our relatives interfere with him."
When Li Mu heard this, he was suddenly shocked.
He didn't expect that his mother was thinking about him with all her efforts in starting a business.
No wonder, no wonder until now, none of his relatives had directly come to him and asked him to solve some problems. It turned out that his mother had intercepted them.
She had planned a part of the business for all her immediate relatives. In this way, these relatives had a very stable and objective income, and they also had a decent career. It saved the possibility of seven aunts and all kinds of cousins wanting to gather in her company.
The way Xie Yun looked at Li Ma suddenly increased a little bit of sincere admiration. Although she didn't mean to look down on Li Ma, she had never imagined that Li Ma was a very smart woman. But today, she found that Li Ma was not only very smart, but also very wise.
In contrast, she had never thought of using this method to make a buffer for her husband. When her husband's relatives swarmed in, she thought the same as her husband. They both tried their best to arrange and let them benefit as much as possible. However, once they entered her company, no matter what position they were in, they would become a mouse barn. If she had the wisdom to invest a little money to build a "relatives firewall" for her husband, the relationship between her husband and his relatives would not be as stiff as it was now.
Moreover, she also admired Li Ma's management attitude toward her relatives.
Most people couldn't be objective in front of their relatives. They would always be fettered by family affection, which would affect their judgment of proper business. Basically, everyone could empathize with this.
If you were too hard on your relatives, you would be accused of being stone-hearted; if you were too soft on your relatives, you would often bring yourself huge losses and negative effects, and even affect the family itself.
Therefore, the more it was like this, the more you needed to use an effective method to arrange your relatives perfectly. It was neither soft nor hard, but effective.
Looking at the temperament of a strong woman unconsciously revealed by his mother, Li Mu was particularly gratified.
In his previous life, when his mother was at this age, she was overwhelmed by the economic pressure brought by her husband and her son's study. She aged quickly and became a bottom-level middle-aged woman who judged trivial matters every day. At that time, Li Mu's biggest impression was that every time she went home during the holidays, his mother looked older and more haggard than before. A person in her forties looked no different from a person in her fifties.
In this life, his mother exuded confidence and calmness that he had never seen before. Not only did she not look old at all, but her temperament was younger. More importantly, she found her favorite career and made great achievements. The contrast between the two lives was so great that it was like the difference between clouds and mud.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
