Chapter 54 Preparation
With the country announcing the resumption of the college entrance examination, a learning craze swept across the country since the end of 1978, which lasted until the late 1980s and has not subsided.
Because of their thirst for knowledge, the enthusiasm of young students of this era for learning is unimaginable to later generations. They spontaneously collected science books, test papers, and manuscripts they could find. They were even willing to stand in line at the door of educational bookstores with dry food and water bottles for a day and a night for a newly published textbook. Such scenes were even more exciting than the launch of Apple's new mobile phone more than 30 years later.
Today’s textbooks, tutoring materials and reference materials are far less diverse than in later generations. Bookstores are even short of normal textbooks, let alone other things.
In the traditional Chinese thinking, education is particularly important. When Song Guangzeng was alive, he often said to Song Yuanchao: Books contain golden houses and beautiful women.
As a senior intellectual, Song Guangzeng was very concerned about Song Yuanchao's education and had great expectations for his future. Unfortunately, due to the special circumstances of the times, Song Yuanchao was unable to complete his high school studies and enter university as Song Guangzeng had imagined, but went to the northwest to work in the mountains and countryside.
When the educational channel that had been suppressed for many years was opened, the desire of countless young people to change their destiny through learning erupted like a volcano, creating such a situation.
In later generations, education is also a huge industrial chain. Tutorial classes and training centers can be seen everywhere in the entire society. It is the beautiful wish of every parent to hope that their children will become successful. For the future of their children, parents have proved this with practical actions regardless of the investment.
Although the school-run factory of No. 2 Middle School is small in scale and its equipment and product structure are not very good, it is not without its advantages.
As a school-run factory of Shanghai No. 2 Middle School, a key middle school in Shanghai, its best advantage is the No. 2 Middle School behind it.
Compared with ordinary schools and high schools in other places, key middle schools like No. 2 Middle School are unmatched by other schools in terms of both teaching staff and channels within the education system.
Let alone other things, just like the reference materials for college entrance examination review, the archive room of No. 2 Middle School contains the college entrance examination papers and exercises from the establishment of No. 2 Middle School to the present, plus the internal exercise papers of each graduating class, etc. These things are usually not paid attention to by anyone, but in Song Yuanchao's view they are an absolute huge wealth.
Even if Song Yuanchao wanted to do this business before, he still couldn't do it without these things. But now it's different. Through the school-run factory, these materials are sorted out, and then printed and bound into books. Once they are put on the market, Song Yuanchao can imagine what the results will be.
According to the discussion (negotiation) between Song Yuanchao and Director Ma, the final one-time fee for data collection and renting a letterpress printing machine for one month was 500 yuan. In addition, the cost of calculated at 0.15 cents per sheet. Based on these cost calculations, Song Yuanchao had already thought that the basic cost of a 50-page exercise book would be around 0.75, plus the initial investment of about 800 yuan for the production of the letterpress. If calculated based on the printing of a minimum batch of 500 copies, the cost per book would be 3.35 yuan, which is still relatively high.
However, the cost cannot be calculated in this way, because the rental of a letterpress printing machine is charged on a monthly basis, and the costs of data collection and letterpress production are also one-time expenses, so from this point of view, the more you print, the lower the cost.
If there are 1,000 books, the cost per book can be reduced from 3.35 yuan to 2.05 yuan. If there are 2,000 books, the cost per book can be reduced to 1.4 yuan. If there are 5,000 books, the cost per book is 1.01 yuan...
With the current market demand, Song Yuanchao feels that even 10,000 copies may not be enough to meet the demand. No one knows how big this market is better than Song Yuanchao.
This is just Shanghai. If we add the provinces and cities surrounding Shanghai, the market potential will be unimaginable.
The education level in Shanghai is already one of the best in the country. The education in other provinces and cities cannot be compared with Shanghai at all. The internal examination papers of Shanghai's key middle schools are no less than treasures in the eyes of teachers and students in other schools. In some places, it is extremely difficult to get an internal examination paper from Shanghai.
The so-called friend Song Yuanchao was talking about was none other than Gu Jie.
After get off work, Song Yuanchao and Li Daqi asked Gu Jie out to discuss the matter in detail. Next, Gu Jie would need to come forward and formally finalize it with Director Ma. Song Yuanchao already had a plan for how to talk about it. Gu Jie nodded as he listened, taking careful notes in his mind.
"If this is done well, it's no worse than making clothes hangers, and I can do it for a long time." Song Yuanchao said with a dry mouth, picked up the teacup and took a big sip.
Li Daqi, who was standing next to him, tilted his head and looked at Song Yuanchao. He looked at him with a strange expression. Song Yuanchao asked him what was going on. Li Daqi asked back, "What's wrong with your brain? How can you come up with such an idea?"
Song Yuanchao didn't say much and just replied with a "hehe".
"Brother Song, how do you plan to do this business? You can't just set up a stall in the vegetable market like you did when you sold clothes hangers before, right?" Gu Jie thought for a while and asked.
"What do you think?" Song Yuanchao did not answer, but asked Gu Jie instead, and at the same time looked at Li Daqi: "Daqi, what do you think is the right way?"
After Song Yuanchao finished speaking, he leisurely drank his tea. Li Daqi and Gu Jie looked at each other and fell into thought for a moment.
Li Daqi is a man of drive and brains. People like him can succeed in this era as long as they are given opportunities. Facts in later generations have also proved this point. Li Daqi has the foundation of a successful businessman, but now Li Daqi is not what he has proven to be in later generations.
As for Gu Jie, Song Yuanchao didn't know him originally, but he had dealings with him because of Li Daqi. After getting to know him, he found that Gu Jie was a good person. Although his mind was not as flexible as Li Daqi's, his personality was very stable. As for his character, Gu Jie also passed Li Daqi's test. It can be said that since the last time he transferred the hanger business to him, Song Yuanchao has regarded Gu Jie as his own team.
Song Yuanchao has his own ideas and plans, but in his heart, both Li Daqi and Gu Jie will have to be independent in the future, so he does not intend to tell them directly what to do next, but instead gives them a question in this way.
From the beginning of the clothes hanger business, Song Yuanchao had already arranged everything in advance, whether it was the purchase of raw materials, the intermediate production or the subsequent sales, and everyone just carried out the work according to Song Yuanchao's ideas.
But now it’s different. This time, Song Yuanchao plans to let Li Daqi and Gu Jie think about the problem themselves, to ponder and figure out how to do this thing well.
Song Yuanchao's question stumped the two of them. At first, they seemed to think that the question was not difficult, but after thinking about it carefully, they found that there were too many things to think about. For a moment, they didn't know where to start.
For a moment, the room fell silent. The two men smoked and thought with slightly frowned brows. Song Yuanchao did not disturb them. He just drank tea and waited patiently.
After a while, Song Yuanchao smiled and said, "There's no rush for this. Go back and think about it carefully. Think about it from many aspects. If possible, write down your ideas one by one on paper, and we'll discuss it later."
"Okay, I'll tell you when I've figured it out." Li Daqi understood Song Yuanchao's intention and nodded immediately. Gu Jie naturally didn't object. Seeing that it was getting late, the two said goodbye and left. Song Yuanchao saw them out. After they left, Song Yuanchao noticed when he entered the house that there seemed to be a letter in the mailbox hanging on the door. He was immediately delighted and quickly took out the key to open the mailbox.
