November 24th, Thursday …
He Desheng and Pei Qian were the only ones in the conference room at Dream Realization Ventures. However, there were more than ten small video windows on the projector screen.
He Desheng said, "Boss Pei, everyone's here. Shall we start the meeting now?"
Pei Qian sipped his tea. "Yes, let's begin."
Pei Qian had come to Dream Realization Ventures today under He Desheng's strong request to go through the motions.
Until now, Dream Realization Ventures had strictly followed the rules that Pei Qian had set back then and invested in about ten companies. The investment quota for each company ranged from one million to two million yuan.
He Desheng had decided on this investment quota based on the size of these companies and the approximate amount of funds needed to start the entire business model.
In layman's terms, if the company was a start-up and the business model did not require that much capital, He Desheng would approve to invest less money.
That was because the investment was strictly based on the order of arrival, the first batch of companies to invest were mainly start-ups. These companies needed money the most after all, and they were the first to seek investment.
If any of the first few companies made money, He Desheng would immediately sell the shares of these companies according to Boss Pei's instructions and continue to look for the next company to invest in according to the queue.
If all the companies did not make money … Boss Pei would open champagne to celebrate.
Dream Realization Ventures might have invested all the money, but they had also arranged for a special finance officer to supervise the daily expenses of these companies. They would also hold regular remote meetings to report on the financial situation.
These finance officers were all old employees of Tengda. They had been baptized by the Tengda spirit. They would receive generous subsidies after being sent abroad. At the same time, their financial statements would be monitored by Tengda's finance department.
It was not that there was no possibility of being bribed, but the possibility was very low.
The first video window was a female finance officer in her thirties with short hair and glasses. She was a core employee of Tengda. She was the most experienced and capable of all the finance officers sent abroad.
Her name was Jing Haibing, and she was in charge of the Cold-Faced Lady's financial work.
The reason why He Desheng sent her to the Cold-Faced Lady was mainly because this project had left a deep impression on He Desheng. It was a key project in the current batch of companies that they were investing in.
The report officially began.
Jing Haibing looked down at the report in her hand and then looked up. "Boss Pei, Boss He, everyone. Before reporting the financial situation of the Cold-Faced Lady, Boss He wants me to emphasize the common tricks in financial work. I'll take up a few minutes of your time. "
Not all of the finance officers that Tengda had sent out were knowledgeable.
That was because the finance department that was sent out had to be their own people. They had been baptized by the Tengda spirit and knew each other very well. Thus, they were basically old employees of Tengda.
However, many of them had entered Tengda to work not long after graduation. They had not seen so many tricks.
After all, Tengda strictly followed the laws and regulations. From procurement to reimbursement to taxes, it was completely clean and transparent. These people would not have the opportunity to see all kinds of tricks.
However, when it came to the outside company, it was inevitable that there would be all kinds of tricks. Some finance officers who had not seen the world might be tricked.
Therefore, He Desheng also wanted to make use of this meeting to let Jing Haibing emphasize the problems that might be encountered in the work to the other finance departments. He wanted to give them a heads-up in advance so that they wouldn't be able to discover any tricks in time.
Pei Qian wanted to listen as well.
After all, the financial statements were all piles of numbers. It sounded too boring, and these 'tricks' sounded more interesting.
Jing Haibing sorted out her thoughts and began to explain.
"The money we invest is all transferred to the company's corporate account. No one would be stupid enough to transfer the money directly to their private account. The so-called tricks are nothing more than the managers of these companies using some methods to burn the money in real businesses and then using some hidden methods to fill their own pockets. "
"Therefore, there are a few common parts that we have to check carefully. For example, when the company purchases office supplies, they have to purchase things that cost one yuan in the market, but they have to purchase them from places that sell them for two or three yuan. Or rather, there is no problem with the unit price of the supplies, but the unit price of the bulk purchase did not decrease significantly. There must be a problem behind this. "
"There's also the publicity materials, posters, banners, display boards, flyers, and so on. On the surface, there are 5,000 flyers, but in reality, there are only 4,000. Or perhaps these materials are mixed with real and fake ones. There's also a considerable profit margin in this."
"In addition, did the company rely on others for free pay? Did they collude with headhunters to privately rebate and create fake contracts? Was there anything fishy about the advertising channels found during the advertising process? How much of the application's registration was actually promoted, and how much was created by people using programs? Were there any scams, fake shipments, or fake marketing in the various physical goods, rebates, and coupons given in the marketing activities? "
"It would be very difficult to find out these problems if we were to audit the accounts or supervise them. However, we can think of ways to avoid these problems now that we are directly in charge of the finance of these companies."
"For example, we can purchase office supplies through Tengda's own trusted channels. That way, we can avoid spending the money we invest."
"Of course, everyone's ability and energy have their limits. It's difficult for us to guarantee that every penny will not go wrong. However, we have to work hard to make the company's accounts clean and not make any low-level mistakes …"
Jing Haibing explained the common 'techniques' in these startup companies to the other finance officers while teaching them where to be more vigilant and take precautions.
She also emphasized that they had to report any problems as soon as possible.
Pei Qian was also listening attentively. He looked calm on the surface, but it was an eye-opener.
These operations were really flashy!
Obviously, all kinds of geniuses had come up with all kinds of tricks to cheat investors' money.
Of course, these faults might not all be the entrepreneurs' fault. Some simple entrepreneurs might have been led astray by investors. The investors would lead the entrepreneurs to fake it and then throw it to the next person to take over, making a fortune silently.
Pei Qian's original idea was very simple. He just did not want these entrepreneurs to take the money he invested and live well. That was why he chose the more troublesome supervision method of appointing finance officers.
Now, it seemed that he had taken the right step.
Pei Qian did not think that this would affect his losses. After all, the probability of a startup failing was too high. Most startups could not escape the fate of bankruptcy even if they operated properly.
They would all go bankrupt and lose money. Some investors made a lot of money through various gray methods, while others could only get a dead salary or even have to bear debts. If Pei Qian had to choose, he would definitely choose the latter.
In any case, the money had already been invested in you. It was your good fortune to earn money based on your own abilities. Tengda would immediately withdraw its investment. If you lost money based on your own abilities, you would receive Boss Pei's gratitude.
However, you could not take Tengda's money and do nothing. In the end, you could earn a lot of money yourself. That was something that Boss Pei could not accept.
Soon, Jing Haibing finished talking about the common financial problems of startups. She began to report on her work with the 'Cold-Faced Lady'.
Pei Qian had a briefing on the various companies in front of him. He picked up the briefing on the 'Cold-Faced Lady' and flipped through it.
From the current situation, the development of the Cold-Faced Lady was going very smoothly. It was going according to Meng Chang's original plan.
The first flagship store of the Cold-Faced Lady had already opened in Beijing. Pei Qian glanced at the photo. The store was quite well-built.
The exterior of the store had huge floor-to-ceiling windows. It looked clean and tidy. The signboard on it had the iconic logo of the Cold-Faced Lady. It was fashionable with a hint of ancient charm.
The interior of the store should be targeted at some Western-style fast food. There were beautiful photos of the dishes above the checkout counter. The tables and chairs were also similar to Western-style fast food, but there were some Chinese elements added.
In the store, all young and beautiful ladies were serving as waiters. They did not have the signature polite smile or the standard six teeth. They might look cold, but their faint smiles were still a little seductive.
After that, there was a series of marketing activities carried out by the 'Cold-Faced Lady' and the warm response on the internet.
For example, Meng Chang rented a supercar and asked a beautiful lady to drive it to deliver the cold noodles personally. It became a hot topic.
The opening reward was that the first 100 customers who arrived at the store would be given a free serving of cold noodles.
If a girl came to the Cold-Faced Lady for a meal and posted on Weibo, she would be able to obtain a regular 1888 fashion gift bag.
They would launch the 'Biggest Order' event. The biggest order placed by the Cold-Faced Lady for a week would be completely free of charge. The second and third place would also be given gifts.
Apart from that, there were also some special holiday activities arranged. For example, the 7th of next month would be 'Big Snow'. On this day, the Cold-Faced Lady would launch a unique 'Snowflake Roasted Cold Noodles'. Customers who came to the store to spend money on this day and posted on Weibo would be able to get a free serving.
Behind these marketing activities was the rapid depletion of the Cold-Faced Lady's funds.
Meng Chang took two million yuan from Dream Realization Ventures and one million yuan each from the other two investors. That was a total of four million yuan.
However, he spent money very quickly.
The rent of the shop in the downtown area of Beijing, the renovation, the salary of a bunch of beautiful girls as waiters, various subsidies for burning money, buying Weibo trending searches, and so on.
Four million yuan might seem like a lot, but it was still very fast to spend, especially since Meng Chang planned to continue opening branches. Every additional branch would be a bottomless pit.
However, even so, Meng Chang did not do anything fishy about money. Jing Haibing was in charge of the Cold-Faced Lady's finances after all.
It was impossible for Jing Haibing to not notice if Meng Chang wanted to play tricks on office supplies, publicity materials, and manpower costs.
Of course, as a high-level player, Meng Chang had no intention of using such despicable methods to earn money.
Putting aside the question of feasibility, even if he did something to the accounts, the company behind him would be able to send Meng Chang in once they checked the accounts when they sold it to the buyer.
Therefore, tampering with materials and marketing expenses was too low-end. Meng Chang was disdainful of doing it.
Jing Haibing finished her report in no time.
The finance departments of the other companies also reported their own situation.
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